In a green bottle, please

Landing in the town of Mór in northwestern Hungary on a Saturday afternoon in early November, you’d be justified in thinking that the world had ended. Loud calls of ‘Hello – anyone home?’ brought no one running to the streets. The place was deserted. Mind you, according to the Net, the place rocks at other times of the year so it’s worth keeping (or putting) on your list of places to visit.

We’d come in search of some Ezerjó – in a green bottle, please. This Hungarian white wine grape is peculiar to the region and, by all accounts, could give Tokaj a run for its money in the desert wine stakes… in a good year! The direct translation – thousand good. It doesn’t sound nearly as inviting… But you have to love a town that weaves empty wine bottles into its holiday garlands.

Having done a quick spin of the main square (and a rather lovely square it is – even if was completely devoid of life), we managed to find a man to direct us towards the wine museum, where, summoned by the front-door bell, our host and guide ran us through the cellars. Turns out, he is none other than Mr Bozóky himself – a first-generation winemaker issued of banking parents. The harvest is late this year apparently, so there was lots of empty space waiting to be filled. And he had wine ranging in price from 900 forints  to 100 000 forints. Something for everyone.

We didn’t do much to endear ourselves to him. My Hungarian saved me from dissing cuvee as a glorified punch (something the ill-fated MI failed to leave unsaid), but he seemed to enjoy the rather idiotic questions and our insistence on having our Ezerjó out of a green bottle, please. It was a pleasant way to spend 45 minutes or so and despite some earlier misgivings, we parted friends. So much so, in fact, that he presented Ireland (via mise) with a bottle of his award-winning dessert wine. I was suitably humbled. Of course, hindsight being 20/20 vision (thanks to Google and its ilk) had I known then what I know now, I’d have traded one of my bottles of Ezerjó for one of his 2011 sauvignon blancs…

Subscribe to get notified when I publish something new.

9 Responses

    1. Usually cheaper but sometimes, as in the case of the bigger vineyards in Villanyi, there’s very little difference, if you watch the shop specials.

  1. 100,000 Ft/bottle? Sounds more like Christies’ than Mór! I’d be frightened to drink it! That’s a multiple of the price of Tokaj esszencia, when you can find it.

  2. Hello, I wondered if you could tell me anything more on Mor?! I plan to go there in November to trace some family there and would like to visit the wine museum. Is there anything else in the town that you did while there? Thanks very much!

    1. mmmm… not much going on in the town. There is a summer festival that I missed and that’s supposed to be good fun. If you have a car though, there’s plenty to see in the surrounding areas. Pannonhalma, Gyor, and other places. We were literally there for an afternoon – no more. It’s not that far from Budapest though, or from Vienna, so you could definitely keep yourself amused.

Talk to me...

More

%d bloggers like this:

By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. more information on cookies and GDPR

Cookies and GDPR Compliance

The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.

General Data Protection Regulation

If you have voluntarily submitted your email address so that you can receive notifications of new posts, please be assured that I don't use your address for anything other than to do just that - and that's done automatically. I might use your address, if I knew how to, but I don't.

This blog does not make money, it does not carry sponsored content, it has no ads for which I receive any form of payment. If I review a place or a restaurant or a book, I don't receive any compensation from anyone. I wish I did, but that would require marketing myself and life is too short. If something changes, I will be sure to let you know.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the unsubscribe or manage subscription links at the bottom of every email you receive. When you comment on a blog post, Google Analytics tracks where you're posting from. This is stored and I can check my stats to see how many clicks I had today, where people clicked from, and what they clicked on. That's it. Nothing more.

I reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, particularly to other commenters. If you want to have one of your comments deleted, the please get in touch with me at: mary@irjjol.com. I'm all for the right to be forgotten so will happily oblige.

So, in a nutshell, if you give me your email address voluntarily to subscribe to new posts or if you opt to subscribe to new comments, then you email is just used for this. Nothing else. Promise.

Close