# Grapes and Wine

Viniculture has always had great importance in Hungarian life. Words originating from before the Conquest prove that the Magyars had already become acquainted with the cultivation of this plant in the Khazar Khaganate. Examples are szőlő, grape; bor, wine; szűr, strain; seprő, dregs; ászok, gauntry for barrels; homlit, provine; bujt, plant; lyuk, hole; pince, cellar, etc. The most recent research demonstrates that traces of tools and procedures brought from the east can best be found in the north-eastern part of the linguistic territory. Transdanubia also displays characteristics resembling one-time Roman traditions. The rich body of knowledge was influenced in many respects by the Walloons who settled in Hungary in the 12th–13th centuries and were well acquainted with viniculture, and again by the Serbs and other South Slav peoples who were fleeing from Turkish rule, and later by the Germans arriving from the west.

Fig. 90. Vine-stocks and methods of growing vine-shoots.
Region of Gyöngyös. 20th century.
a) Dressing the shoot to clear eyes. b) Dressing the shoot upwards like a rod c) Dressing the shoot to form a hoop d) Binding the shoot to a support e) Digging the end of the shoot underground

During the last century, 3 to 5 per cent of the cultivated land of the country was covered by grapes. However, this percentage was drastically changed by the phylloxera plight that brought destruction in the last quarter of the 19th century. Whereas in the 19th century grapes growing on sandy soil made up about 14 per cent of the entire grape-growing area, the percentage has been considerably increased in our century, because phylloxera cannot breed in sandy soil. So today 41 per cent of the entire grape region flourishes on clay soil, and 59 per cent on sand; that is to say, grapes were only partially re-established in the traditional wine regions following the phylloxera plight.

Accounts have been kept of outstanding wine-producing regions since the Middle Ages. Among those that look back in particular on a great and long tradition are Sopron, Eger, Villány and Szekszárd, where red wine is produced primarily. Among the white wine regions the most outstanding ones are Tokaj-Hegyalja, Balaton-felvidék, Gyöngyös, Mór, etc. It is worth mentioning the furmint among the numerous old species; it supposedly preserves the memory of the one-time Walloon settlement at Tokaj-Hegyalja.

Fig. 91. Pruning knives.
1. Tokaj, the region of Hegyalja. 2. Tihany. 3. Former Bács County. 4. Former Torontál County. 5. Székesfehérvár. Second half of 19th century

Cultivation of the grapes usually starts in March with opening and pruning. They believe that this procedure has to be done when the first {227.} fruit trees begin to bloom. Pruning is an extremely important operation, because the quantity and quality of the yield can be regulated by it. Formerly, in a considerable part of the country they pruned to a kopaszfej (bald top), that is, they left eyes only on the round-shaped vine stock. At the end of the last century a characteristic form of pruning to two or three eyes began to eclipse this even in Tokaj-Hegyalja. In Transylvania and at the foot of the Mátra Mountains, the ring-type cultivation (karikás művelés) was the fashion. The vine stalks, left long, were tied back on two sides all the way to the root, so that facing each other they formed a figure eight.

The tool for pruning is the characteristically shaped pruning knife (metszőkés), which can be traced back to ancient times. Numerous versions are known in the country, all preserving significant regional peculiarities. From this point of view special attention should be paid to those forms on which we find a narrower or broader head on the side opposite the blade, with which they can clean off the dried-up parts of the stalk and bark, at the time of pruning. Some of its versions occur in the southern part of Transdanubia and at Tokaj-Hegyalja. While it is very difficult to determine their origins, we can at any rate speculate on the possible mediation of the Celts, and perhaps in this case we can also suppose that Walloon settlers brought versions with them and that they spread to certain regions of the Great Plain. Using this tool with a quick, pushing motion, the pruner makes a round, horizontal cut on the stalk instead of a longish one. The advantage is that the sap can drain off on all sides at the place of the cut. Pruning scissors appeared during the middle of the last century and, by the beginning of the present century, had replaced the pruning knives completely.

In the past grape vines were hoed only twice, and the weeds were cut with a sickle if the vineyard became too weedy before harvesting. Wine became an article of merchandise early, especially in certain regions, and consequently they tried to improve its quality by better methods of cultivation. Thus they were already urging a third hoeing at Tokaj-Hegyalja during the 16th to 17th centuries, a practice which spread into other grape-growing regions only in the 19th century. Part of the grapes in Hungary were not grown in rows until the end of the last century. Hoeing these, consequently, consisted primarily of clearing out the weeds and loosening the soil. However, in the greater part of the country rows of grapes were hoed to a so-called saddle back (bakhát), that is, a ditch was formed around the stalk which assured it a larger quantity of water.

When the wine is in bloom, it is thought best not to go into the vineyard at all, because this would only cause damage. The keeper takes care of the entire vineyard. When the grapes began to ripen the saddle backs are raked so that every footprint will show on them. And the keeper continually walks the hill, trying to scare away the birds that cause damage with a clapper and with loud cracks of his whip.

113. Preparations for vintage
Sióagárd, Tolna County

In the past the beginning of the vintage was determined precisely by the authorities, and, before the freeing of the serfs, by the landlord. Vintage began in the southern regions in September, in many cases in connection with the day of St. Michael (September 29), while at Tokaj-Hegyalja, {228.} the farthest northern location, they waited to start the harvest until the day of Simon–Jude (October 28). Thus vintage could last into November, and it has happened that clusters of grapes have been picked in snow or from under the snow.

Fig. 92. Various forms of butts.
1. Buda. 2. Zala County. 3. Gyöngyös. 4. Tokaj, the region of Hegyalja. First half of 20th century

114. Winepress from 1750
Hills north of Balaton

Vintage is a time both of work and celebration. From early morning, mostly women and girls pick the clusters of grapes into pails (cseber), and buckets, and the men carry them in a puttony (butt) on their backs to the gathering place (See Plate V). At noon a dinner, cooked outside, and wine await the workers, while towards evening a gipsy usually turns up and, in many places, they finish the day’s work with dancing. The {229.} helpers can take home as many grapes as fit into their picking vessels, and naturally they can count on help in return during their own vintage.

The celebratory nature of the vintage is also demonstrated by the fact that in the 17th to 19th centuries courts of law ceased in the villages and towns at such times, and the students were given a vacation. When the grape harvest was completed on all the fields, a big parade was organized on the streets, people riding in carts and on horseback. Among the permanent characters was a joke master, a gipsy, and some of the horsemen dressed as Turks, supposedly as a relic of the Turkish occupation. A bell-shaped garland was made out of grapes, and handed to the first citizen of the town. A ball was usually held at the completion of the vintage.

Fig. 93. A winepress functioning through the weight of a large beam.
Cserfő, Zala County. 1940s

Processing grapes into wine required a great deal of work. First they compressed the grapes in tubs, then crushed them with their bare feet. Pressing followed after that. The oldest presses in the Carpathian Basin are the so-called bálványos sajtók (presses with a large beam). Their huge {230.} beam pressed the grapes surrounded by a willow basket or by a box of plank with holes in it. In its simplest form a stone pulled down the beam, while on the more complicated ones the desired pressure could be set by a huge wooden screw. The largest versions, in many cases 8 to 10 m long and 3 m high, were used mostly on bigger estates. Large quantities of grapes could be pressed with such winepresses and they did a very thorough job.

Fig. 94. A winepress functioning through a wooden screw in its centre.
Second half of 19th century

The middle spindle press (középorsós sajtó) was used mostly on smaller holdings. The upper beam was placed on a wooden spindle, or later on an iron one, and by turning it the grapes placed in a wooden box were pressed out. Most recent research, also supported by the statistics of the last century, has shown that presses were used much more extensively in the regions of Transdanubia than in the north-eastern half of the linguistic territory. The reason for this can be found in the fact that quality mattered more in the latter area, and wine made with a press is always poorer. Differentiation was made between pure wine and pressed wine, and naturally the price of the former was much higher than that of the latter.

In certain areas, primarily at Tokaj-Hegyalja, different kinds of wines were made from the same grapes in the 16th and 17th centuries. That is to say, in this region, if the autumn was favourable, the dessication of grapes began. The world famous Tokaj aszú is made of such grapes. They either pick off the dried grapes separately from the stalk and put them into small vessels, or they pour all the grapes from the butts onto a huge selecting table and the women pick out the aszú (dried) grapes. {231.} They let these stand first in a perforated tub and then the essence drips out by itself. Its sugar content is so high that it has difficulty in fermenting. Afterwards they pour as many butts of aszú grapes into the basic unit–which from the 18th century on has been the 140 l gönci hordó (barrel of Gönc)–as are needed to make aszú wine of a certain degree of strength and sweetness. Generally 3 to 6 butts of aszú are used. This mixture also ferments slowly. It is kept in barrels for 3 to 4 years until it settles completely, and only then does it go into bottles that have been the same in shape for almost two centuries.

115. Bottom of barrel with the relief of St. Urban
Hungary

The most important condition for ripening and preserving wine is keeping it in the cellar. There is again a great difference between Transdanubia and the eastern areas in regard to the cellar. In the former region we find large-size wine houses in the vineyards, built of logs and stones, where there is room for the press and all kinds of tools necessary for processing the grapes. From here an entrance leads to the cave-like cellar, cut into stone or a loess wall (cf. Plate IV). In the east, on the other {232.} hand, for example at Tokaj-Hegyalja, the cellars can always be found within the settlement, or perhaps on the edge of it, in a cluster. They are generally very deep, so that the wine is kept summer and winter at 10 to 12° C. Only in the rarest instances, and only recently, a wine house has been built over the cellar, because generally the work of processing is done outside. At the most an entrance shed is built in front of the cellar, where they put the press, which has come into use during the last hundred years and can be found today at every holding.

Thus, in the cultivation of the grape, we find the same duality that has been pointed out several times already: the western part of the Carpathian Basin has connections in the western, south-western directions, while the eastern part maintains connections in many characteristics, toward the east, south-east.