Hungarian Winegrowers Under Increasing Pressure to Produce Better Wine for Less
Hungarian winegrowers tend to consider themselves to be a cut above foreign competition, particularly from those upstarts in the new world. But as much as Hungarians would like to claim their wine is superior in every way, the recent deluge of highly drinkable wines from around the world has proved otherwise, particularly when it comes to price. Now the National Council of Wine Communities wants the government to take action to protect the industry, telling daily Népszabadság it will be "in serious trouble" unless new markets are found or tax discounts are introduced. The immediate danger is that grape growers may not get paid for this year's harvest. According to Secretary Csaba Horváth one solution could be the introduction of tax discounts, which have helped in other countries. For example, four years ago in Austria, the excise duty on champagne made in the country was reduced to zero percent in order to encourage consumption. Still, we contend the problem continues to lie in the large quantity of mediocre Hungarian wine hawked for more than Ft 2,000.
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Absolutely agree with the last sentence. The problem lies with the
producers and not with the tax system. Competitive pressure keeps
you on your toes to produce better for less and this should be true
for winegrowers as well, just like for the rest of the economy.
There's enough dirt cheap wine in the shops for those who want it. If demand for the more expensive stuff has tailed off, that's a normal result of an recession. Protective measures are not the answer and have no chance of coming into effect anyway.
I would love to sell Hungarian wine in the States but I don't think they make it that easy, you know with the whole import-export thing...
Yeah if one wants to drink Hungarian wine in the States, one really has to look hard and long to find it....if at all. Too bad.
Yea, in the States, Hungary isn't particularly known as a wine-growing region. A little marketing could probably go a long way.
In my experience, you have pay at least 3,000 ft to have a drinkable Hungarian wine. Anything that costs less is watered down (literally - look for the tiny white bubbles that float to the top of the wine after you pour it) and gives an instant headache.
However, in France, for example, you can find a comparable wine for 5 Euros. So, for the price people pay for a drinkable Hungarian wine, you can almost get a Grand Cru in France. I'd really like to contribute to the wine-growing economy here, but I've given up on it for now.
If Hungarian wine producers want to sell more wine, they've got to be more competitive. The prices they charge are simply not worth it.
A lot of Hungarian wines are indeed overpriced, but there are some great wines out there still at reasonable prices.
Anyway, it's worth relaying a tweet from 12:28 PM Aug 4th by one of the occasional contributors here (Carolyn Banfalvi): "Bortársaság is now shipping Hungarian wine within the EU. http://tinyurl.com/m9ajtk".
And this just in: Hungarian winegrowers are
expected to put less, but better, wine into their
cellars this year, Csaba Horvath, who heads wine
association HNT, told MTI on Monday.
Probably just marketing spin on a collapsing
market, but possibly good news.
Finally somebody started noticing that local wines are way overpriced. You can find perfectly drinkable wines in Italy for 3.5 to 5 euro: labour and land are way cheaper here but if you are looking for something just average quality below 6 euro, good luck. This is ludicrous. That's because producers have the same old get-rich-quick attitude that stops almost every single hungarian firm and individual from building a respectable and internationally competitive business. The policy is just grab as much money as you can, like there is no tomorrow. Competitive pricing? Quality control? Fuggedaboutit.
I agree that you have to look harder (and increasingly so) than
should be the norm to find decent quality everyday wine in
Hungary - that's not to say it's not out there. Reduce the Russian
Roulette risk by choosing from a dedicated wine shop - most of
them have bottles starting under 1000Ft which are perfectly the-
acceptable table wines made by respected wine makers. I tasted
Heimann Boromissza the other day and found it to be without any
major fault and quite quaffable (one-dimensional and short finish
though): that's €4. Konyári and Dúzsi never fail to amaze at the
lower end to with consistently well-made wines (I've written about
these ones on my site, click on my name PirosVilla to see). Last
thing you want to do is go to your local corner shop, invariably they
have off-loaded and rather dated/badly-stored stock... I do think
restaurant wine lists are a bit high here though (mind you, still
cheaper than most Viennese lists in my experience so far). PV
PirosVilla, Thanks for the info, I'll try those labels. What do you think os Szent Istvan Korona merlot and chardonnay?
Does anyone know a good place to buy wine from neighbouring countries, like Slovakia, Romania, Croatia, Serbia, etc? I really like bortarsasag but their selection of these wines is limited to one bottle of Romanian kadarka.