Magyar Hírek, 1984 (37. évfolyam, 2-26. szám)

1984-10-13 / 21. szám

WINE TASTING

I am not much a wine-drinker, I will go to the length of drinking, at dinner, at the most, about half a glass of wine, but will add to it as much mineral water, which my wife, a true Frenchwoman, still considers a crime. Yet last week I made an exception— I drank twelve different wines at one sitting; more precisely, I tasted them. I was one of a party of forty, half of them from abroad who had been invited to a winetasting in a cellar on the shores of Lake Balaton.

We were the guests of the Boglár State Vineyards, in the environs of Szőlőskiskert, in a house which used to be owned by a famous actress. The rooms have been converted into a school for young oenologists and orchardists a museum of viticulture is housed on the ground floor, while the wine is stored, and drunk, in the cellar. Traditionally, wines are sampled right next to the barrels. A long glass pipette with a large bulge near the top is used for drawing off wine. That afternoon we were treated to a less traditional but more practical sort of wine tasting: the 12 different kinds of wine were offered to us in labelled bottles. The advantage of this method is that we sampled the wines while seated at a trestle table, which was just as well, for quite a few of the party took their sampling seriously and would drain their cups, which had been filled to the brim. I was cautious: I took as many as two gulps of the first wine because 1 liked it very much. As it turned out later, this was the best of the lot being the driest and most aromatic. After that I would swallow just as little as I could, and would pour the rest into a large bowl that had been placed at the centre of the table. My foreign friends around me followed my example after their third or fourth glass: by then they saw that I had been right when I warned them that Hungarian w ines are heavier than those grown in the Rhineland or in France or Italy.

The name of the first wine was “Olaszrizling” or Italian Riesling of Boglár, a dry white wine with 12 per cent alcoholic content and a bouquet that is unlike that of any other. Our host, Lajos Hegedűs, chief agronomist of the Boglár wineyards told us their annual output was one and a half million bottles, the bulk of the lot being exported. The second wine, too, was a Riesling, with the fantasy name of Duna. Its characteristic feature is a slight tang, as if it had some aerated water in it. This is originally a Rhine- Riesling and lately they have been exporting many thousand bottles of it to the United States. The third wine also was called Duna, but it was a “Zöldszilváni”. Essentially, that too was a dry wine, but it left a slight sweetish aftertaste. The fourth wine had the nicest name: Boglár Leányka or Little Maiden. This is pronouncedly an export wine, officially described as semisweet. From now on, I would never swallow the wines I sampled, but would only put the tip of my tongue in it. And yet Boglár Muscatel or Boglár Tramini are by no means bad wines: both are related to Tokay Aszu, in as much as they are pressed from grapes that are left to wither or shrivel on the vine.

Then followed the reds among them Boglár Merlot, which is a rich, full-bodied wine. They export quite a lot of this wine, too, but it is too sweet for my taste. I won’t enumerate all twelve, but should add that at the end they offered us the latest product of the Boglár vineyards — champagne. It is a pretty well-turnedout product which can hold its own against, if not the French, at any rate the Soviet and Italian brands.

When we had got thus far the majority of the company, Hungarians and foreigners, were singing loudly in high-spirited convivial coexistence: Hungarian songs and German wine songs mingled in many voices. I felt that the beauty of the place and the spirit of wines called for a song that was more becoming of the occasion. I persuaded the musician to play, after a halfminute interval, a genuine old, pentatonic Hungarian folksong. After the first bars everybody pricked up their ears. My foreign friends enquired what it was. I told them, adding that the words too were worth listening to. I translated them offhand-it ran like this: “I tied my horse’s tether to a tree of red apples / I tied my heart to a tender flower. / I'll untether my horse when the moon rises, / but only death will separate me from you, my flower.” Ten minutes later Hungarians and foreigners were humming the tune together.

IVÁN BOLDIZSÁR

Recipes

Hare soup with sour cream. Ingredients: front half of a hare (or a whole small hare), 250-300 grammes of mixed vegetables, 2-3 bay-leaves, salt, a few peppercorns 1,5-2 litres of water, 1 tablespoonful of lard or oil, 1 tablespoonful of flour, 1 cup of sour cream, 1-2 spoonfulls of lemon juice, and a small piece of lemon peel.

Clean the meat, soak it well in cold water, changing it several times. Cut the meat into smaller pieces. In the meantime boil some water with a little vinegar, and scold the meat with it. Cook the meat until tender together with the cleaned vegetables and seasoning. Lightly brown the flour in the shortening, add some cold water, and pour it — stirring quickly — onto the meat. Mix the sour cream thoroughly with the lemon juice (add the lemon peel separately), and pour it into the soup. Let it boil up again. Garnish the soup with croutons fried lightly in shortening.

Hare cutlets with mushrooms. Ingredients: one saddle of hare (or 8 hare cutlets), 100 grammes of smoked bacon, 150 grammes of mushrooms, 1 bouquet of parsley, 1 small spoonful of tomato puree (or 1-2 fresh tomatoes), 1 cup beef stock (could be made of cubes), 1-2 cups dry white wine, a little ground pepper, red paprika, salt, 50 grammes of lard or oil.

Clean the cutlets, soak them in cold water changing it several times. Then beat them lightly, lard them with bacon, salt them and quickly fry them red-brown on both sides in hot shortening. Put the meat aside then. Braise the cleaned, chopped mushroom in shortening, add the finely chopped parsley, the tomato puree, and place the meat on these. Pour the beef-stock over it, with the wine, add seasoning, also salt if necessary, and stew under a lid until the meat is tender. If necessary a little extra wine can be added, but no more than needed for a little gravy. Serve with potato purée or steamed rice.

M. K.

Grape picking in a Balaton vineyard

Sports

Football: victory against Switzerland., defeat by Mexico. The Hungarian national eleven played two friendly games to open the autumn season. It was hoped that the two games would prove that Hungarian football had overcome the through of recent times, and would fight its way back into the international vanguard but the results were not up to expectations. Although Hungary succeeded in beating Switzerland 3-0, lukewarm play characterized the first 70 minutes of the game and the spectators repeatedly vented their dissatisfaction. After the first half (0-0), the manager effected several substitutions and these produced results at last. In the last twenty minutes Esterházy scored twice, then Bodonyi did so again from a pass by Esterházy. The Hungarian team was not convincing not even in victory — and the next game, three days later, against Mexico, confirmed this impression.

The Hungarians attacked more in the first period of the match against Mexico, but the Central Americans gradually kept pressing forward, until Negrete kicked their first goal in the 31st minute. Play was dominated by the Mexicans in the second half: they defended cleverly, lead dangerous counter-attacks, and their best player. Boy slipped past the Hungarian defenders in the 60th minute, ran right up to the Hungarian goal, and scored (2-0).

Coach-driving World Championship at Szilvásvárad. The Coach-driving World Championship held in the Bükk Hills on Northern Hungary, at Szilvásvárad, took place in beautiful surroundings and with the participation of top people. The Marathon drive with the participation of 46 competitors had many dramatic moments and daring feats of coachmanship. It was won by the Hungarians Bárdos and Juhász in a deadheat,*with 50 penalty points each, third was the British Flynn (59) fourth the American Long (62). The obstacle driving was won by Duen (FRG), while Bozsik (Hungary) was second, Fauth (FRG) third, and Juhász (Hungary) fourth. The individual champion was László Juhász (Hungary), with Bárdos (Hungary) as( runner up. The team competition was also won by the Hungarians, in front of the Swedes and the United States. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, president of the International Federation, was one of the competitors. He spoke very highly of the games in Hungary at the concluding press conference.

Aerobatics World Championship at Békéscsaba. The 12th Aerobatics World Championships were held at the Békéscsaba Aerodrome, attracting great interest. Free figure flying, the concluding part of the World Championship was won, by Kermit Weeks (United States) in front of Strossenreuther (FRG) and Jirmus (Czechoslovakia). Of the Hungarians Besenyei finished 7th, Molnár 13th. Khalide Makagonova (Soviet Union) won the ladies’ World Champion title, ahead of Jinita (Roumania), and Nemkova (Soviet Union). Jirmus (Czechoslovakia) won the combined competition, Strossenreuther (FRG) was second, and Weeks (United States) third. In this competition the Hungarian Péter Bessenyei was tweltfh, and László Tóth thirteenth. Khalide Makagonova won the ladies combined World Championship, Lyubova Nemkova (Soviet Union) was second, and Debby Rihn (United States) third.

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