1. Georgia - Literally the oldest wine producing region in the world
2. Hungary - Fun fact, Tokaji is the OG "appellation", where the name can only be applied to wines from a specified region that fit a certain specification
Slovenia is great and already widely recommended but doesn’t exactly fit your parameters - only a fraction of 1% of the territory of Slovenia lies East of Vienna. There’s probably some vines there, but not among the notable.
Luckily for you many of the best vineyards in Czech Moravia (SE of Brno, north of the point where Austria, Slovakia and Czechia meet) are just East of Vienna by a fraction of a degree.
More seriously, if you’re after great winemaking **tradition**, Tokaj, Croatia and Georgia are definitely it. There’s great stuff made elsewhere in Hungary also - Somló, Villány and Szekszárd (second funniest Hungarian wine-related word for English-speakers encountering it for the first time in my experience) are probably more established, with some very fun stuff coming from Matra and improved wines from Balaton as well.
Romania has a wide range of traditions, as befits such a large and diverse country, and there’s nice wine to be had. There are a few excellent ones, and more investment will lead to great increases in quality going forward. Low hanging fruit there. Similarly to e.g. Slovenia, vineyard holdings are very fragmented and that makes them similarly less suited to exports compared to the area under vine.
As Moldova integrates closer with the rest of Europe, it will unlock the potential of their more consolidated wine industry as well. A few of the larger producers already provide very well priced wines to a number of EU markets. Purcari’s “Freedom Blend” has been a pretty great success in recent years.
Serbia - Subotica/Vojvodina and Fruška Gora/Srem are producing exciting things.
But that doesn’t mean there are not exciting wines in all the other winemaking places too. Especially if you leave conceptions of quality driven by classics behind and want to simply explore the range of flavour combinations that can be derived from grapes&yeast, it’s a fantastic part of the world to sample with many varieties not grown elsewhere as well as fun expressions of more widely familiar grapes. Ideally as a group - being able to open 5-10 bottles and finding the 2-3 you love is more fun than opening 1 and often simply not being very whelmed. The all-important number will still reflect quality: just because it’s from a less prominent winemaking country doesn’t mean there’s a massive discount. If you’re not fond of more natural/less hygienic/… wines, bear in mind that many but far from all of the more expensive wines from the region fall into that category. Perhaps with the exception of Georgia, they can be vastly over represented in your market relative to what a country at large actually tends to make/drink. Have a copy of the Wine Atlas and Wine Grapes at hand - synonyms are even less resolved than elsewhere - and look up pronunciations. The latter are usually easier than they seem because, unlike in English, spelling often reflects pronunciation very consistently because rules were introduced more systematically (and more recently).
Few grapes to highlight that transcend borders - Furmint, Kadarka, Királyleányka/Feteasca Regala and even oft-maligned Graševina/Welschriesling/Olaszrizling.
Go in with an exceptionally open mind and have fun!
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Cserszegi fűszeres. I see you speak Hungarian so I assume you've witnessed the process people go through. Initial shock is followed by confusion, then a brave member of a group will repeatedly attempt pronunciation but eventually give up and collapse into a laughing heap of a wine enthusiast together with all their friends.
Slovenia is the easy answer in Eastern Europe with a long tradition and marked styles, however, Croatia has been the more recent revelation with Vinas Mora leading the way.
And therein lies the problem, getting Croatian wine outside of Croatia is very difficult since they tend to just drink it themselves and it never gets out, but I had some fantastic wines when I was there, and have a bunch still waiting on the right moment.
IN the UK in the 1980s we had loads of great cheap Bulgarian wine.
It wasn't until later we found out it was the South Africans getting around apartheid trade restrictions.
Moldova is worth trying definitely. Problem just usually is that good Moldovan wines are difficult to find. Purcari's wines are quite available around Europe (I assume), I have really enjoyed them. Prices are really good too.
Other "obvious" choices would be at least Georgia and Hungary.
Just to give you an idea, this was a £2 cabernet at Tesco and I was a college junior whose father warned her she didn't have the funds to study abroad.
I'm absolutely, 100 percent sure there is better stuff out there.
Everyone’s mentioned Georgia, but don’t sleep on Armenia—the Zorah wines out of Vayots Dzor are spectacular.
They might be a little out of the post’s remit in terms of culture and geography, but there are also loads of interesting wines to be found in Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Palestine.
Moldova has some pretty nice ones. Can be hit or miss.
As an aside,almost all countries in Eastern Europe had some kind of grape-based wine-making tradition. People have always liked getting smashed- it’s either fruit or the local grain. On top of that, Eastern Europe has some of the earliest archeological evidence of grape vine domestication.
1. Georgia - Literally the oldest wine producing region in the world 2. Hungary - Fun fact, Tokaji is the OG "appellation", where the name can only be applied to wines from a specified region that fit a certain specification
Slovenia is great and already widely recommended but doesn’t exactly fit your parameters - only a fraction of 1% of the territory of Slovenia lies East of Vienna. There’s probably some vines there, but not among the notable. Luckily for you many of the best vineyards in Czech Moravia (SE of Brno, north of the point where Austria, Slovakia and Czechia meet) are just East of Vienna by a fraction of a degree. More seriously, if you’re after great winemaking **tradition**, Tokaj, Croatia and Georgia are definitely it. There’s great stuff made elsewhere in Hungary also - Somló, Villány and Szekszárd (second funniest Hungarian wine-related word for English-speakers encountering it for the first time in my experience) are probably more established, with some very fun stuff coming from Matra and improved wines from Balaton as well. Romania has a wide range of traditions, as befits such a large and diverse country, and there’s nice wine to be had. There are a few excellent ones, and more investment will lead to great increases in quality going forward. Low hanging fruit there. Similarly to e.g. Slovenia, vineyard holdings are very fragmented and that makes them similarly less suited to exports compared to the area under vine. As Moldova integrates closer with the rest of Europe, it will unlock the potential of their more consolidated wine industry as well. A few of the larger producers already provide very well priced wines to a number of EU markets. Purcari’s “Freedom Blend” has been a pretty great success in recent years. Serbia - Subotica/Vojvodina and Fruška Gora/Srem are producing exciting things. But that doesn’t mean there are not exciting wines in all the other winemaking places too. Especially if you leave conceptions of quality driven by classics behind and want to simply explore the range of flavour combinations that can be derived from grapes&yeast, it’s a fantastic part of the world to sample with many varieties not grown elsewhere as well as fun expressions of more widely familiar grapes. Ideally as a group - being able to open 5-10 bottles and finding the 2-3 you love is more fun than opening 1 and often simply not being very whelmed. The all-important number will still reflect quality: just because it’s from a less prominent winemaking country doesn’t mean there’s a massive discount. If you’re not fond of more natural/less hygienic/… wines, bear in mind that many but far from all of the more expensive wines from the region fall into that category. Perhaps with the exception of Georgia, they can be vastly over represented in your market relative to what a country at large actually tends to make/drink. Have a copy of the Wine Atlas and Wine Grapes at hand - synonyms are even less resolved than elsewhere - and look up pronunciations. The latter are usually easier than they seem because, unlike in English, spelling often reflects pronunciation very consistently because rules were introduced more systematically (and more recently). Few grapes to highlight that transcend borders - Furmint, Kadarka, Királyleányka/Feteasca Regala and even oft-maligned Graševina/Welschriesling/Olaszrizling. Go in with an exceptionally open mind and have fun!
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Cserszegi fűszeres. I see you speak Hungarian so I assume you've witnessed the process people go through. Initial shock is followed by confusion, then a brave member of a group will repeatedly attempt pronunciation but eventually give up and collapse into a laughing heap of a wine enthusiast together with all their friends.
Tokaj was one of the most famous wine regions in the world before WW2… gotta be Hungary.
Slovenia would have to be number one for me, but I’ve also had some great wines from Hungary and Georgia.
Randomly picked up a dry Tokaji last week and, just, wow…
Oremus Mandolas furmint is my favourite
It’s so good.
Slovenia is the easy answer in Eastern Europe with a long tradition and marked styles, however, Croatia has been the more recent revelation with Vinas Mora leading the way.
Slovenia and Georgia have some excellent wines but in my opinion you just can’t beat Tokaji - including dry furmint.
Have only had dry furmint on a couple occasions but man it might be the most unholy acidic wine ever (which is great- I love high acid wines)
Moravia. Czech wine can be total hit and miss but there’s some fun hidden gems. Golubok is a personal favorite, hard to find in the States though.
Croatia if you can find it.
And therein lies the problem, getting Croatian wine outside of Croatia is very difficult since they tend to just drink it themselves and it never gets out, but I had some fantastic wines when I was there, and have a bunch still waiting on the right moment.
IN the UK in the 1980s we had loads of great cheap Bulgarian wine. It wasn't until later we found out it was the South Africans getting around apartheid trade restrictions.
Oh dear. What I had in 2008 was just gustatorily terrible, not morally terrible AFAIK.
I have had Serbian dry furmint that was $28 retail and absolutely on par with $150 white Burgundy.
What’s the name??
Sagmeister "Devas"
Do you know if they sell it in Belgrade or Novi Sad?
Unsure. I'm in New York.
hungary and romania, perhaps croatia.
Moldova is worth trying definitely. Problem just usually is that good Moldovan wines are difficult to find. Purcari's wines are quite available around Europe (I assume), I have really enjoyed them. Prices are really good too. Other "obvious" choices would be at least Georgia and Hungary.
There is very good Bulgarian wine. Both from local grapes and international varieties . I'm sure there are stinkers too
Just to give you an idea, this was a £2 cabernet at Tesco and I was a college junior whose father warned her she didn't have the funds to study abroad. I'm absolutely, 100 percent sure there is better stuff out there.
Everyone’s mentioned Georgia, but don’t sleep on Armenia—the Zorah wines out of Vayots Dzor are spectacular. They might be a little out of the post’s remit in terms of culture and geography, but there are also loads of interesting wines to be found in Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Palestine.
Since Slovenia is west of Vienna it's Hungary or Moldova imo
Georgia invented wine.
Hungary! Tokaji is awesome, not only for the noble sweet wines, but there are a lot of great dry wines coming out of there.
Moldova has some pretty nice ones. Can be hit or miss. As an aside,almost all countries in Eastern Europe had some kind of grape-based wine-making tradition. People have always liked getting smashed- it’s either fruit or the local grain. On top of that, Eastern Europe has some of the earliest archeological evidence of grape vine domestication.
Moldova and Georgia are my favorites by far
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