History of wines from the carpathian basin

Wine-culture’s
history in Carpathian basin
Dr. J. Csuták wineknight
LEONARDO MEETING
2014. ÁPR. 11-13

Wine-culture’s history in Carpathian Basin
The beginnings
3th century. b. C. – Celtics: they probably / surely produced wine
Roman Empire: advanced wine-culture;
Pannonian (Sirmium Region) wine specialities in Rome
temporary prohibition of vine cultivation in Pannonia (92 a. C.)
The Magyars in Old Country: (5th c.): two main drinks: milk, wine
Treaty with blood of Magyar-tribes: common drinking of
blood dropped into wine
Wine: ancient Hungarian world originated from the early land of
Vitis vinifera

Basis of the wine production
Bisantian Encyclopaedia of Suidas (IX. c.):
Advanced grape and wine culture in Balaton
highland
No epidemic diseases of grape occurred till the
19th c.
Frost periods proved to be getting over on the
sheltered hills
The Magyar’s Conquest:
Magyars received advanced grape- and wine-
culture in the Carpathian basin
Three pillars of the Hungarian wine culture:
Traditions from Inner Asia
Pannonian (Balaton-highland) traditions
Expertise of monks (Benedictines) arrived from
Burgundy, Anjou and Italy

 King St. Steven, Árpádian Dynasty:
 donation of large wine-territories
 formation of large feudalistic landed estates
 1006.: St. Steven’s charter: rights for selling of alcoholic
drinks
 Council in Strigonium: Ban pubs
 REGULATED WINE-ECONOMY, GENERAL OUTDOOR
WINE CONSUMPTION
 12th c.: settling of German inhabitants:
wine culture import
 13th c.: wine consumption is not only a lord’s
privilege, but villains also were allowed to drink, as well
 (ninth!)
King IV. Bela: made general French way of grape
cultivation and French barrel size
1271.
First
wine
commun
ities
12-13th century – The Árpád Dynasty

 Wine export from: Southland, St. Gheorge-mount, North-
Hungary
 Wine was one of the most important export goods
 Kings from Anjou Dynasty
growing technology developed
citizens of towns became owner of grape estates
wage labourers in grape cultures
 City of Sopron: centre of exports towards Western
Europe
Louis the Great: wine export towards North and
North-East started
Grape varieties: occidental or Hungarian (Pontic) ones
(furmint, bakator, balafánt, csomorika, gohér, etc.)
There were no traces of blue-grapes
14th century – The Anjou Dynasty

1.Szerémség
2. Balaton-v.
3. Szekszárd
4.Somló
5. Ruszt-Sopron
6. Buda
7. Arad
9. Pozsony
10. Mátra-v.
11. Érmellék
12.Küküllői
8. Baranyai
The Árpád- and Anjou Dinasties

1
1. Wines from Szerémség
Region (aszú!) exported to
Poland – wine-war
between North- and South
part of the Hungarian
Kingdom
2. 1482. King Matthias
prohibited wine
exportation from
Szerémség Region to
Poland
3. King Mathias exported
Hungarian wines to Russia
and
4. As barter, imported fur.
5. New wine-sortiments from
Burgund and Campany
6. War against Albany –
importation of blue wine
sortiment– red wine!
2
3
4
5
5 6
14th century – King Matthias – Golden period

Turk likes wine only
stealthily
Turk did not
prohibited wine
production, but put a
tax
Wars made many
wine-yards to waste,
and:
Turkish occupation
made market dubious
Came to the front
Pozsony
Sopron
Tokay-Region
In Transylvania:
during the reign of
Princes G. Bethlen and
Gh. Rákóczi
prosperous grape- and
wine production
Military consignments to
Netherland and Poland
1541
16th century – The Country broken into three
parts

 1565: Austrian customs – except: wines from Sopron,
Ruszt, Pozsony
 Remained export possibility toward Poland, only
 „Aszú-mode” – principal wine: Balaton-Highland,
Szerémség
 Leadership of Tokay from 1550’s
 Around 1650: in Oremus wine-yard of Zs. Lorántffy
special kinds of old Tokay and „szamorodni”
 The first Old Tokay registered by Szepsi Laczkó Máté
produced from blue-wine called Purcsin
 Nomination:
 In the beginnings: „Tállyai”,
 From the reign of Prince II. Rákóczi F. „Hegyaljai”
16-17th century – Characteristics for the era

 Hungarian wine exports to Netherland and
Scandinavia
 Spanish war of succession push out of French and
Spanish wines from England
 Russia under I. Catherine and II. Peter
 Wine export intensified
 Parallel to barter, purchasing of wines for cash also
started
 I. Catherine: significant decrease of Tokay-wine customs
 Expenses of Wars of Independence directed by both
Thököly and then Prince Rákóczi mainly covered by
wine export toward North and East.
17th century – Under the Habsburgs

 Legal and trade regulations
 1655. XXXI Act. (confirmed by: 1723. CXVIII. Act.):
 „All those who replace top quality wines with wines from more
inferior wine-yards and districts … and sell those under the name of
the top quality should be punished with immediate loss of all their
wine”
 1665: Parliamentary Decree No. 79.: separate gathering of
overriped grapes („aszú”) obligatory
 Queen Mary-Theresa:
 Confirmed exemption from decima-paying in all region of
Hungarian Kingdom, while
 Customs of wine-exports to Bavaria became twelvefold of
Austrian ones
 From 1775 obligatory tie-up in Danubian wine transport: quantity
of Austrian wines must be reached that of the Hungarian ones
§
§
17-18th century – Characteristics for the era

 Legal and trade regulations
 1772: As Polish-Galicia became Austrian territory,
customs ring of Habsburg perpetual territories closed
for Hungarian wines
 Poland changed Hungarian wines to French ones
 Domestic overproduction crisis – disinterested
producers, quality deterioration, negative bidding
18th century – Characteristics for the era
§

S. Széchenyi: „Goodness of wine will be determined by its
lastingness as well as its transportability from one site to the
other one and the good taste of great and solvent customers…
Neither Rhine nor French Producers etc…. are looking for
customers, but their representatives do it. Such internal persons
between the Producer and Costumer are the most absent
persons for us...I suggest for all producers to make better our
wines and roads…do not we wait like a lazy and let’s take great
pains pretending the custom difficulties never should be
widened. In any way, acting this way we can help ourselves…”
Great Hungarians in the agronomy and winery:
Gh. Festetics, J. Nagtváthy, F. Pethe,
L. Mitterpacher, J.Fábián1816: the first Hungarian fruit-crushing and stalk
removing machine
1826: twin-screw wine-press
1836: Schamps Ferenc: the first Hungarian periodical
of winery
1836: Hungarian Economic Association (OMGE)
19th century

the 1848 Hungarian War of Independence:
Cease of inner customs system
Help to increase wine-market
20th. Sep. 1850.:
Open direction for introduction of tax for
wine consumption
1853: Entz Ferenc: Practical Educational
School for Gardeners – Winecelar’s
School
1857: Winery-booklets
however, interrupted between
1945-1990, it is still living today
Szemere Bertalan:
During his compelled stay in Paris
he created market for
Hungarian wines in England
19th century

Cellar societies :
 1842: Ruszt; 1846: Sopron; 1857: Szekszárd; 1866 és
utána: Bazin, Gellérthegy, Pozsony, Köveskál,
Szentbékálla, Balatonfüred, Gyöngyös, Esztergom,
Gödöllő…
Minor technical „revolution”:
 Soil cultivation using horse- or bullock-pulled equipment
became general
 In the wineries: berrier machines, crusher-berrier
equipment, crushers, iron-presses, pumps, filters,
domestic bottlers
19th century – self-organizations, slight
recovery

1867: Austro-Hungarian conciliation: however,
there were great possibilities in the wine
market, progress in winery remained on a
low level
o Different economic advantages were given
to producers and wine-dealers
o Tax-free installation of a new plant
o Loans to producers for new plantations
o Area of grape-yards has grown, but
o Technics and level of professional
knowledge did not went after it;
progressivity was to be improved
o OMGE (National Winery Section) managed
by F. Entz:
o Study on status of Hungarian viticulture
and winery
Entz
Ferenc
19th century – On the way of development

F. Entz’s experiences:
Instead of some progress:
 Grape areas were neglected or their cultivation seemed to be
unsatisfactory
 Results: grapes and wines with weak qualities
 In a significant part of producers equipment necessary for
grape processing and storage vessels were incomplete
 Abroad publicity of Hungarian wines was on a low level
 Distribution and demand of Hungarian wines were not
proportional to possibilities on the Word Market
RESULTS OF MEASURES: Hungarian wine-wonder
 Grape producing area of Hungary in 1875 amounted 425,3
thousand Hectares
 Wine production in 12 years average was 4 Million Hectolitre;
20% of it exported
19th century – taking stock of bequests

Independent department of winery in the
Ministry of Agriculture
Haigh level of organization and structure
1875.: National Institute for Wine Qualifying
quality control/protection
1879.: Winery Section of OMGE:
winery registers for protection of producers with
more than 100 HL
 From 1884 y. National Winery Registers: data of
1,5 Million HL of wine
1879.: Strict financial checking of wine stock
(valid till 1971. when Socialist Government put it
invalid)
End of 19th century – establishment system

 1880: Introduction of advanced public special
education
 1890: five public schools for wine-cellar
education
 Five districts for roaming teachers in the
centres of wine areas
End of 19th century – education

 Inspite of all these, introduced epidemics:
 864: Powdery mildew
 1875: Phylloxera
 1881: downy mildew
 Wine adulterations regulation to interrupt
 1893: XXIII. Act.: against both adulterators and middlemen
 1895: Wine-community Act: origin protection on the new
basis
 1896: Central Station of Experimental Viticulture and
Ampeology
 1897: Wine-Control Station in every districts and
municipalities (446) for liquidation false wine
manufacturing
 Customs officer system: Σ 5000 officers
End of 19th c. – From cloudless sky…
epidemies, regulations

Battle against
Phylloxera:
J. Miklósvári Miklós
Utilisation of sulphur
mined in Transylvania
•OMGE Istvántelek Estate:
Experimental Station of
Protection against
Phylloxera – low-prised
stocks
•Replantation of extented
areas
J. Mathiász
Mád-
Kecskemét-
Tokaj-hegyalja
Tragedy of about 10000 people, at the same, time professional renovation of viticulture
19th century – Phylloxera - map

after the turn of 19-20th century

 Trianon:
 1/3 of grape-yards and 2/3 of home market lost
 1920: Our traditional markets (Germany, Austria, Poland, Czech)
became closed for Hungarian wines; custom barriers
 1922. Monumental Wine exhibition and Market in Budapest
 Custom discount: weak improvement
 1929-: Economic world crisis
 our earlier wine export 500.000 HL
 1933:reduced to 200.000 HL (=10% of the previous export level)
 II. World War:
 Buildings, equipment, infrastructure totally were destroyed
 Carrying off of experts and valuable equipment to abroad were the most
important cause of the paralyse of production
20th century – wars, politics

1930: From the total wine production
 red – 10,5 %; shiller and rose 27%; white-wine: 62,5 %
Quality structure:
 Top Tokay – 0,02 %;
 Premiun quality with mark of origin– 9,6 %;
 Quality wine - 48,48 %
 Table wine - 41,9 %
Wine-structure:
 <1 ha farmers : 95,4 % - field proportion: 63 %
 1-5 ha: 3,9 % - 22 %
 >5 ha: 0,7 % - 15 %
 Storage capacity: 7 Million HL. – in 85 % in the farmer’s
ownership
20th century – some statistics

 1938-48: notwithstanding the war, dynamic development continued
1949. Soviet occupation
 Everything cut, got ruined
 The nationalization of wine-yards (80.000 ha)
 Expropriations
 Deportation
 Aggressive collectivization
 Personal and sectoral tragedies – 60.000 ha excellent wine-yard became
extinct
 1949-1959:
 Suppress of private ownership
 Viticulture and winery separated
 Ban National Association of Grape-farmers and Wine-yard Communities
 1952-65: Constant lack of wine; previously well operated wine-law
has broken
 State buying up of wine: for 38 % and 40% of 1948 prices (in 1958 and
1960 years, respectively)
20th century – the last 50 years (1)

 1961-70: 35.000 Ha planted grape of 60.000 Ha was settled on
unfit fields; before 10 years of their age about 30.000 Ha died
out
 1949-70: About 40.000 Ha of historical grape fields died out;
aspects of regions changed almost irrevocably
 1966-69: plenty of grape; farmer’s dissatisfaction against
monopolized state buying up of the yield
 1969-85: Previously ban development of winery activity became
possible for state organizations
 Well educated experts, BUT!
 2/3 of newly established wineries were unsuitable from point of
view of international expectations and competition
 Regional disproportionateness formed in the Country level
 Only the bulk-wine production dominated
 Export: 60 % toward Soviet Union and its satellites;
15% toward the Western market with a high standard

Increasing of state intervention
 Order No. 36/1970: centuries old quality and origin
protection were cancelled
 1980-89:
 50.000 Ha planted
 150.000 cut down
… and we started from
here!

History of wines from the carpathian basin

Recommandé

Recommandé

Contenu connexe

Similaire à History of wines from the carpathian basin

Similaire à History of wines from the carpathian basin (20)

Plus de Krzysztof Grudnik

Plus de Krzysztof Grudnik (8)

Dernier

Dernier (20)

History of wines from the carpathian basin