Etyek wine tour

On Thursday evening we headed out to Etyek, the closest of the 22 wine regions in Hungary, for a wine tasting tour. We were at full capacity bar 1 when I sat in the back row with a lovely newly married couple comprising a girl and her man mountain. There was some trepidation when Gabor, our guide, announced we just had to pick up one more passenger, because there appeared to be slightly less than one seat left. We stopped for the pick up and Barbara presented at the van door, a wisp of a thing who would have to run around in a shower to get wet. Thank you karma.

We travelled about 45 minutes to the west into lovely countryside past quaint villages. The region mostly focuses on fresh whites and pinot noir. We went to 3 quite different vineyards, with the first a more modern arrangement where the tasting was hosted by a lovely woman who was very engaging and quite funny. The rosé was good and Linda bought some.

There was some talk among our little party about the tight conditions in the backseat and I suggested nobody get too comfortable in their nice roomy single seats, that it's every man for himself from here. Kate clearly took this to heart and was at the ready to maintain her position on the bus come hell or high water, monitoring my every move and making sure she was always at least a couple of steps closer to the bus than I. Her vigilance was very impressive. But what Kate later came to realise was that after a bit of wine I care a lot less about such things and am quite happy to cuddle up with a bunch strangers, so I continued to get closer and closer to Barbara as the night went on.

The 2nd was a more traditional winery which was my favourite. Again, the host was very friendly, funny and engaging, and tended towards the wine tasting equivalent of a RSL pour.  We liked the riesling so I bought some of that and a rosé.

   

It was here that we also started to get to know some of the other travellers. Partly because we were seated all together at one table. Also, because of our host's approach we discovered 2 couples in particular, a young couple and his parents, who between them included an air traffic controller and a dive instructor/dive shop owner. This piqued Linda's interest because as you know her son Eddie is also an ATC, and of course mine because of the diving angle. It was starting to seem like one of those nights where the organisers carefully match all the guests so there's something of interest in it for everyone - besides the wine of course.

The 3rd vineyard was in beautiful surroundings and we also had dinner there. Not my favourite wines or host but still a very pleasant experience. We bonded with another couple who sat opposite Kate and me at this place, an American and a Brazilian, and they were good fun.

  

At the end of the night we all piled into the van and when it first started moving it seemed very slow. I looked out the back window and saw a line of people behind us pushing the van, trying to get a run up for a hill start. It didn't work. Some people piled off the bus to investigate, help or find a toilet. All of us were liquored up enough that we didn't care in the slightest (except maybe Tibor and Gabor, the driver and guide), and comforted in the knowledge that between us we had considerable provision for waiting out any solution with suitable lubrication.

But it didn't come to that. Eric the gentle giant helped the locals fix things with some fiddling up in the engine region and we were on our way.


Linda and I finished off with a night hat at the Boutiq Bar, a highly rated great little cocktail bar about 10 paces from our door. We also paid our good karma forward, when a young bloke came in, ordered a drink, produced a credit card and was promptly told they only take cash. He looked a bit stunned and started to head for the door when Linda stopped him and we told the bar tender to put his drink on our bill. Young bloke looked a bit frightened about what he might have to do to earn this, but we put him out of his misery, settled up and left. So he would have scored a seat as well! We left feeling like we had contributed to goodness in the world, but for some reason that did not translate to a better sleep. I maintain that had nothing to do with the espresso martini just before bedtime...