Exhibition on Carpathian Basin Wine-Making Traditions

An exhibition on the wine regions and wine-making traditions of the Carpathian Basin has opened this Wednesday at the Ópusztaszer National Historical Memorial Park in SE Hungary.

As the marketing manager of the institution, Csengele Kodácz, told MTI, the exhibition, the title of which is inspired by a motto – "In the end there are two, God and wine" – by 20^th century Hungarian author Béla Hamvas. It will promote the unique and world-class wine-making traditions and products of the Carpathian Basin. The presentation of wine-making traditions focuses on a narrow period, starting in 1875 – the year when the phylloxera virus, the root-knot nematode, was first discovered in the Pančova area (now nothernSerbia) – and continuing until 1920, the year of the signing of the Trianon Peace Treaty.

The viticultural and oenological conditions of the period, Hungary's historic wine regions, wine varieties, traditional viticulture and wine-making methods are presented in an accessible, visual way, with illustrations and text. The texts on the 23 large-format tables provide an accurate, concise and concise summary of the history of Hungarian viticulture.

The tables introduce visitors to the vine-growing areas of the hills and mountains as well as the lowlands, or gardens as they were then called. The historical wine regions are listed, from Rust-Sopron-Pozsony, which at that time was still largely producing white grapes, through the Szerém region – where the Romans first began to cultivate grapes in the whole of Pannonia – to the Tokaj wine region, which was helped to rise in the mid-16th century by the settlement there of some of the vine-growers fleeing the Ottoman invasion of the Szerém region.

The descriptions are complemented by archival documents – wine labels, old photographs, drawings – and the viticultural and oenological tools and artefacts of the period, all of which are the product of Hungarian viticulture. The short, readable technical descriptions on the tables and the exhibition script were created with the help of László Mód, researcher at the Department of Ethnography and Cultural Anthropology of the University of Szeged.

The temporary exhibition is a pioneer in the promotion of Hungarian wine culture, as no other historical and professional presentation of the wine regions and wine-making traditions of the Carpathian Basin has ever been created in Hungary.