Come With Me To Hungary - the Tokaj Wine Region

After landing in Hungary and traveling to Tokaj, I arrived at the hotel that my friends told me is the best place to stay in the region. The five star of Tokaj! This is my first time in Hungary and I have so many things planned to do and see. I can't wait to check in and get settled. Welcome. Thank you. This way please. This hotel was built in the 1800s. Though it's been modernized over the years, they have still kept all of the old world charm. Amongst the 40 rooms, there is an extensive wine bar and a gorgeous spa, which I will definitely check out later. Wow. This is beautiful. I definitely need to try one of these, but I'll save the rest of them for dessert because I'm heading off to lunch as soon as I get settled. This is delicious. And this is where I'm going to spend my entire week in Tokaj. We have a total of 80 kinds of wines from more than 40 kinds of wineries. This is the largest wine selection you can find in the Tokaj area in one place. The Ernst and Katteker lifestyle is the way we work and want to show people who arrive to the hotel. If you come to visit the Tokaj wine region, the best place to stay is Andrássy Residencia Wine and Spa. This restaurant is called My Mother Said. I'm sure there's a story behind that one. Here they fuse traditional Hungarian dishes with international cuisine for an elegant and authentic experience. This restaurant is owned by two brothers, and today they're going to show me how to make some of their most famous specialties. They also told me that they designed this entire place themselves, fusing traditional and modern elements, making this one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Now this town only has about 6,000 people living here, but still, somehow, if you want to come, you need to book almost two months in advance. People come from all over Hungary and all over the world to eat here. And they do have an English menu, don't worry, I checked. Now before we start cooking, they told me I need to try one of their famous wood oven pizzas, and I never say no to pizza. Hello! Pizza! Yeah, we start with the pizza. Pizza at a Hungarian restaurant. How is this? 20 years ago, the brothers moved to Italy to open a restaurant. After a few years, they moved back to their hometown in Hungary and brought their Italian cooking skills with them. They still cook amazing Hungarian dishes. It's very good. Mm-hmm. Saby showed me how to prepare one of their famous goose entrees. Legs in the oven, legs in the oven, okay. We fry the, pan fry the two pieces of liver and the breast. These are the potato dumplings. So potato dumplings filled with cabbage. Filled with cabbage. Amazing. Yeah. To prepare the dish, we put some apple puree on the plate beside the pierogies. It has come back! Yeah. This is fast. It's fast, very fast. Because the Greek oven is 350, 400 degrees Celsius. Wow, very hot. Okay, get crispy. Slap it here. Oh, delicious. The whole leg. Get a nice piece of liver. Are we going to slice this? Yeah. We just slice it? Sure. It would be my pleasure. Like this? Yeah. Piring? Of course. I came to Hungary. Maybe. Seems like a very nice place to work. So now we put this on the plate. Yeah, on the plate. The whole thing? Two is enough. Is this for me? Yeah. Okay, that's three. Okay. Where? Right here? Yeah. You make it look pretty. There we go. Our food is ready, but before we can eat, we need to make sure that we've got everything We're in here for a reason, though. What are we going to drink with our lunch? I think the best thing, this one. We can try it. This looks really good. I think this will go really well with what we prepared. While we were in there, we grabbed a sweet wine to go with our dessert. Let's go eat. Let's go. I'm hungry. This is our mad wine. The formant is one of the six grape varieties native to this region of Hungary. This dry, un-oaked version is the perfect pair for our goose lunch. There's a lot of things going on on this plate right now. It's like three meals. Three meals in one. Yeah. I love this. I didn't make this, so I didn't know what was in here, but this is fantastic. It is so delicious, and it goes so well with the goose. It's phenomenal. I think so. Your creation. I'm very excited to try this dessert. Your brother told me that this is called bird's milk. It's like a meringue. Yeah, it's like a meringue. And we're having wine with this as well. Yeah, we have the sweet batokai. Oh, I'm excited to try this. This small bottle might look really attractive, but truthfully, they're selling it this way because these late-harvest sweet wines are very expensive to produce. Oh, wow. That smells amazing. With delicious fruit and honey notes, this wine is like perfume in a bottle. Wow. That is delicious. Yeah. I can see why it's a little bottle, though, because it's definitely sweet. It's a sweeter wine, but great with dessert. Wow. Thank you so much for having me. You're welcome. I love your restaurant. I will be back, for sure, and bringing some family with me, some friends with me, because they need to try this. They're waiting for you. Okay. After a lunch like that, a workout was in order. Let's see who's up for a challenge. Remember the wine that we had for lunch? Well, Sabi told me that the Mad Winery has its own private tennis courts, so I headed over for a quick workout. Tennis isn't my best sport, but I still think I won. That was fun, but it's time to head back to the hotel for dinner. As soon as I arrived at the restaurant, I was greeted with a glass of sparkling wine and served my appetizer of smoked mangalica ham and artisan cheese. And, of course, more wine. And then my soup arrived, a pigeon consomme. I heard Hungarians eat lots of soup. So, the chef has selected for me today, and he told me this is the best thing on the menu. I'm very excited to try it. It is a rosé duck breast, and it is served with a house-made plum sauce and a duck noire potato. It looks amazing. And here we go. Let's give this a try. Wow. That is amazing. This plum sauce, I have never had anything like that in my life. It is delicious. I need to learn how to make it. And then dessert arrived. A tantalizing combination of homemade potato noodles with plum sauce and cinnamon cream. This looks delicious. This is definitely one of my favorite Hungarian desserts. If I had gotten this first, I would have finished the whole thing. There ends my first day in Hungary. Time to get some rest because I have a full day tomorrow. To fit in everything I had to do today, I got up nice and early and started my day off in a spa. A relaxing massage was very necessary after a long flight to Europe. And then I got to experience their signature wine bath treatment. The antioxidants in the wine purify and rejuvenate your skin. Looks like wine is going to be a constant theme on this trip. After my treatment, I took a refreshing dip in the gorgeous pool. A few minutes in the steam room and a rinse off in the rainforest shower, and I was ready to explore the caves. The Andrássy Residence has one of the coolest indoor cave pools I've ever seen. There are five different rooms that all offer different whirlpool treatments. After relaxing a little while in the whirlpool, I worked up the nerve to try the cold water plunge. Trust me, this wasn't my idea, but the spa owner told me how beneficial it is. Man, was it cold! Now this is the way to start the morning. After this cappuccino, I am off to explore Tokaj. I am at the Gates of Tokaj. It's a World Heritage Site, and this is the entrance to the Tokaj wine region. So this is where I'm going to start my tour, and I'll show you exactly where we're going to go on the map. This is where we are right now, and we're going to head all along and explore all the different villages that make up the Tokaj wine region. Now believe it or not, I'm a little afraid of heights, but I'm still going to head all the way up to the top of the gate just to get a really good view, because I heard it's amazing. Come on, let's go! It's 189 steps to the top of the tower, which is quite the workout, but definitely worth it for the view. From up here, I can see everything. This region is named after the city of Tokaj, but there are many other towns and villages with lots to do and see. But don't worry, I'll show you everything. After the tower, we headed off to a famous historical landmark. The castle of Sarospatak is over 500 years old, and much of the original structure is still standing today. Back in the 1200s, this was one of the only routes for merchants to get their goods from the south to the north. So because of this, Sarospatak was one of the first Hungarian kingdoms to become a city. My first stop was to the Szepsi family winery. This winery has been in their family for over 500 years. With history like that, I think this is the right guy to talk to. Tell me, what makes Tokaj different from the other wine regions of the world? It's a long story, 40 million a year, but I don't tell all the 14 million. He told me that the entire area was covered with water, and then a volcano erupted and covered the region in mineral-rich volcanic rock. This is the most typical material in the vineyards. He showed me all kinds of rocks, some with beautiful crystals, and some with amazing fossils created millions of years ago. He even showed me a fossilized bone. Whose bone is this? A deer bone, because at that time there were deers already, 10 million years ago, and it's very young. Over time, the rocks have broken down into gravel, making a very mineral-dense soil for the grape vines. That's what makes the wine from this region so unique that people travel from all over the world to try it. Then we went inside his house, and he showed me his collection of wine awards. Isfan, you showed me so many beautiful things at your winery, but I heard that you won an award that only two people in the entire world have won. So I cannot leave until I see this wine Oscar. Isfan was given this award last year in France for being the most famous winemaker in the Tokay region. This is the award? Can I see it? You see the fairies are dancing on the grapes. You're going to let me hold this? Are you ready? I don't know if this is a good idea. It's heavy. Wow, it's really heavy, but it's gorgeous. Okay, that's good. I don't want to break it. There you go. Do you ever use this? Serve people their dinner on it? Very special guest? Yes. And then we headed off to see his wine cellar. On the way, Isfan showed me his rose garden. For me? Yes, please. Oh, thank you. Hungarian men are very romantic. This is the wine cellar. Oh my gosh, so cool. This is the first wine cellar I've ever been in and I was lucky enough to get a personal tour from the winemaker himself. This cellar was hand-dug over 400 years ago. Thank goodness they've added electricity since then or else I might not be venturing down here. The cellar goes over 100 feet underground and that's just to get to the first level. Oh, cool. Spiders. Even though it was summer outside, being over 100 feet underground made it quite chilly in the cellar. As we traveled further down, the entire walls were covered with mold. Please touch it. Touch it? Touch it. Ah! It's like a sponge. Yeah. Ah! It's very nice. You can sleep on it. It's like a... Like a pillow? Yeah, it's... Oh, it is. It's like spongy. This is again the new generation of the mold. But this mold is not going to hurt you, right? It's not unhealthy. It's healthy. It's absolutely healthy. So... I'm good. You can breathe. This mold is not harmful to your health. In fact, it naturally regulates the cellar by absorbing moisture or releasing it depending on what's necessary for that time of year. It is nature's humidifier. This just keeps going. This thing is huge. Do you get lost in here? No, it's not so big. It's getting smaller. You have a wine that got a hundred points. Yes. The best in the world. Yes, it was sent by that... The best... Is there some down here? Are you hiding it? Yeah. All the sweet wines are aged here in barrels. Can you show me? Yes, of course. All of the sweet wines in the cellar are aged in Hungarian oak barrels for a minimum of four years. I'm lucky enough to get to try the wine that won a hundred points. Teamwork. As it is such a special wine, there's only a very limited quantity in bottles. The rest he keeps down here for special occasions. Wow. Thank you so much, Isvan, for showing me your cellar and your winery. It's beautiful. And I feel very honored to have met the best winemaker in the world. Oh, thank you very much. This wine cellar tour turned out to be a great one. I met a very talented winemaker and got to try a hundred point wine. Not bad for my first experience. I'm in the village of Mad and I stopped for a quick lunch at the First Mad Winehouse. Now, a full lunch here is only a thousand forints, which sounds like a lot, but it's actually only about five dollars. So while I'm here, I am looking at this magazine that I found in the back pocket of the seat on the plane over here. It said Hungary. So, of course, I pulled it out and I was just flipping through it and right here on one of the first pages is a whole article about Tokay. So I'm going to check this out. I'm going to look at all the awesome places I have to go visit while I eat my lunch. Not only is it an excellent restaurant, but the First Mad Winehouse is an actual working winery. So I'm going to get something to eat before I head off. They brought me this very cool soda water dispenser and soda water was actually invented in Hungary by a Hungarian. So I'm going to see if I can manage to operate this contraption. It's very, very powerful. There we go. I get dessert as well? Oh my goodness, I didn't even know that. Oh wow, this looks amazing. Hungry is very famous After my delicious lunch, I grabbed a bike and headed off to meet the head winemaker of the First Mad Winehouse. Inside the winery, they had a huge map painted on the wall that showed all the different vineyards of the wine region. After showing me the winery, he invited me for some coffee and of course, some more wine. While we were drinking our wine, he told me that he's actually the son of the winemaker I met yesterday. I guess talent runs in the family. He showed me all kinds of different wines and told me about the different grape varieties that are unique to this region. This guy knows his stuff. My tour at the First Mad Winehouse would not be complete without actually seeing the vineyards. He took me out to the highest point in their land and as far as the eye could see, it was only grapes. The view was incredible but I had to get closer to see them firsthand. Now I can really understand why this region is so unique. There are 196 of these cellars. They were built way back in the 1700s. Now back then, if you bought a house, you got a wine cellar with it but if you sold your house, you sold your wine cellar. Some of these cellars are over a mile deep, way underground. So that way they stay the same temperature in the winter and the summer which makes it perfect for storing wine. The next day I got up with the sunrise to witness the fog that covers the region each morning. This fog creates a microclimate that allows the grapes to grow well into the fall. Today I'm invited to tour the wine estate that was voted the most beautiful winery in 2013. My host for the day is the winemaker himself, Peter, who told me we should start our tour in the cellar. This winery is 300 years old but to keep up with the times they built a brand new cellar just 10 years ago and already the mold is starting to form. The first room of the cellar has been converted into a museum where they have on display the equipment that was traditionally used to make wine. Some of these pieces were used as recently as just 50 years ago. Nobody's doing it by feet Of course not because as I said the 21st century is completely different but again the nature is completely the same we do completely the same things but stainless steel presses. Just past the next door I was greeted by barrels upon barrels of wine. Look at all this wine this is all wine? Yeah exactly so here we age our sweet wines I'm going to show you the last vintage Assou wine from 2013 because of course it's under aging in barrel We're going to try this wine right now? Sure sure sure Using this glass tube called a wine thief we're able to try wine straight from the barrel long before it will ever be bottled and sold to the public. How much is in here? It's 400 liters you can taste apricot, peach, quince, fig, different kinds of fruits This is not even ready yet Of course not this is a very young one in the kindergarten I would drink this now It's going to be even better After being down in the cellar it was nice to get out into the sunshine Peter showed me some of the different wineries in Hungary for hundreds of years but during the communist regime they were forced to leave the country 25 years ago when Hungary became free again he came back and bought back the land that was rightfully his He started the winery back up again and ever since then comes on a regular basis because in his wine shop my daughter likes it too and I want to make a wine that I like too What wine do I have in my glass right now? Oh that's the wine it's a late harvest which is called Katinka Oh this is your wine This is my wine I get to try it Cheers I hope you like it because it only has my name but it's a fantastic wine Tell me we have more of this somewhere right? We have a lot of it and we're producing every year more and more because it's really the sweet wine world of Tokaj which is just selling like little bread Though I've only been in Hungary for 3 days it's already starting to feel like home I've met some local people and they've invited me for dinner at the fanciest restaurant in the Tokaj wine region I've just arrived and I am amazed at the ambiance that they have set for the night I'm going to head off and find them and see what's on the menu Let's begin with soup For the entrees the chef specially selected a few dishes for us to try an oven roasted goat pork belly served with rice local freshwater fish with fried potato and free range chicken served with local goat cheese and oyster mushrooms We finished our meal off with delicious desserts and some Szent-Tomasz sweet wine I was so happy but I'm lucky enough that during that time they're celebrating their annual harvest festival The entire town is involved whether they're in the parade setting up shops along the side of the street or just eating and drinking and having a great time They shut down the entire street for the parade There was all kinds of different entertainment everything from I was very excited to run into my old friend Isvan He invited me for a bonfire dinner at his cottage tomorrow night That sounds like a fun time They invited me to dance with them in the parade and of course I wasn't going to pass up the chance to learn a few new steps The parade was so big my feet were getting a little tired of walking so I hitched a ride for my way back I was happy to run into some other friends I've met along my travels The people from the Mad Winery were here as well as the owners from my mother's said restaurant And of course once Zabi saw me he put me right to work Great Natural We topped the pizza dough I made with fresh cut prosciutto mozzarella cheese and arugula A little olive oil and salt and pepper and I was ready to eat Who's hungry? Hungry? How do you say who's hungry Ehash? Let's hope this is good This is the perfect drink to go with this meal Wash it all down Great food Nice wine Live music Who wouldn't be having a good time Hungary has so much amazing culture I'm so glad I got a chance to experience it My last day in Hungary started with a beautiful rainbow in the sky And then I headed off to the cottage to meet Isvan With the bonfire nice and hot it was time to prepare our bacon for roasting This Hungarian bacon is unique because though it consists of no meat and only fat it actually contains zero cholesterol This bacon comes from a special breed of pig called Mangalica which is only found in Hungary It has fresh garden tomatoes red onion and hard boiled eggs Little by little the melted bacon fat is dripped on a piece of bread until it is completely coated And we give a few drops to the hard boiled egg and boiled potato And of course if you go for a bonfire at a winemaker's house the drink of choice is going to be wine or wine spritzers in this case And now we cut down from the fork We get to eat this part? Ok, let's do it Is there a technique involved in this? You have to slice the skin first It melts in your mouth Yeah That's very good Probably should not eat the whole thing Just a little bit, right? Just a little bit It's very good You can eat the whole thing Thank you Thank you so much for having me and for cooking for me You have to come at the Asu harvest time It's much more colder but nature shows a different face than today I will be back Thank you for having me Thank you