By their own admission, none have any knowledge of Hungarian viniculture or its products, but several declare they are keen to learn when Sam, their sommelier for the next hour or so, asks them to say a few words about their experience of the local market.
With the first two whites poured, all is set when, to the surprise of some, Sam turns out to be from Spain.
“I apologize in advance if I butcher the name of a Hungarian grape or two because it can get quite complicated!” he warned his audience by way of introduction before launching into a summary of Hungarian viticulture and viniculture history, along with more specific descriptions of the wines presented in the session: two dry whites, two dry reds and a Tokaj sweet szamorodni
It’s all part of a daily program at the Tasting Table in Budapest’s District VIII, enabling tourists restricted to the capital to grasp some basic insights into the world of Hungarian wines, and it’s very popular.
“Last year, we had more than 5,000 people on the 3 p.m. tasting and about 2,200 on the [more extensive] 6 p.m. tasting,” Gábor Bánfalvi, who established the Tasting Table with Carolyn, his American-born wife, in 2014, tells the Budapest Business Journal in an interview.
This year, after a more sluggish start than usual in the early months, demand surged in the spring.
“I think people, especially Americans, were holding off on travel; that’s my personal theory, but then it was one of the busiest Mays we’ve ever had, with more than 1,000 guests here [….] that month, up by 13% [on 2024],” says Bánfalvi.
Visitors from America (especially for the wine-tour arm of their business), Britain, Canada and Australia form the largest segment of the clientele base.
“Scandinavia is also very important for us. Danish, Swedish and Norwegian clients are really great, very knowledgeable about wine and even when they get drunk, they are»civilized,” he says, bursting into laughter. Dutch, German, French and some Spanish tourists make up the bulk of the remaining clientele.
Naturally, with the current conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, Russian and Israeli visitors have dropped off, except for some living in Hungary, while mainland Chinese have failed to return after the COVID crisis, something of an unexplained mystery to Bánfalvi.
“We do get people from Malaysia, Hong Kong. We even had some from Togo the other day,” he says, admitting with a chuckle he is unsure where the country is located.
Since 2014, the husband-and-wife team has put much thought into producing a package of tastings that suits market needs. So, along with the regular 6 p.m. “master class,” which comprises eight wines, they introduced a more exclusive “deluxe” tasting last year to meet the demands of the most discerning imbibers.
Priced at USD 99 (twice the 3 p.m. tasting fee), it offers eight top-shelf wines, coupled with an enhanced plate of cheese and charcuterie, and takes place in the Tasting Table’s more intimate back room, its walls festooned with a collection of wine labels illustrating Hungary’s viniculture history.
“There is no entry-level, aromatic stuff (which is fine and representative of Hungarian wine culture, or some of it), but here, it’s only the top stuff. It’s definitely for people who are into wine, they are more well-to-do, and they don’t want to take a chance of tasting anything mediocre by joining one of the larger tastings,” says Bánfalvi.
Initially unsure of its viability, the deluxe tasting proved an instant hit for this far smaller wine cognoscenti market.
“We sold around 150 tickets last year, and this year, it’s continuing to grow towards double that. The tasting is always limited to a handful of people, and in some ways, we wanted to go back to how we started when we just had a couple of clients at each tasting. It was very sort of intimate,” he says, hinting at wistful memories of less hectic, if less lucrative, operational times.
The deluxe tasting clientele, though relatively small and comprising predominantly Americans, Britons and Scandinavians, make up for this with their purchasing power.
“They are big buyers. They walk out with a good amount of wine. They don’t care if they have to check in extra luggage or buy a wine suitcase to fill up,” says Bánfalvi, who believes that after a decade of trial and error, the current offerings form “the perfect setup” for the tasting market.
In practice, how did our 3 p.m. tasting turn out? According to overheard conversations and a rapid, non-scientific survey of four participants, satisfaction levels were high. Feedback on the two reds was absent, and Sebastian Pede, from Munich, Germany, thought the “lecture” could have been more interactive.
He would have preferred longer breaks between wines and “didn’t really pay attention” to the history behind Hungarian wines. Nonetheless, he “enjoyed the atmosphere” and felt it “good to know” that Tokaji aszú is “such a unique wine.”
(In contrast, Clarissa Rienäcker, Pede’s tasting partner, put the “connection between the wine regions and the history of the country” first in her assessment of the tasting.)
Emily Robinson, from near Dudley, in the English West Midlands, named the Pannonhalma sauvignon blanc, the only international grape variety among the five wines on the menu, as her favorite in the session.
Asked for her thoughts about having a Spanish sommelier at a Hungarian wine tasting, she replied: “Honestly, it didn’t strike us as odd. We were just excited to try the wines and learn a bit more about Hungary and its wine culture. The presentation felt warm and engaging, and that was what really mattered to us.”
The tasting left Jenna Zabroski, a master’s student from Boston, Massachusetts, enthused about the whole experience. Like Rienäcker, Zabroski thought highly of the second white in the tasting, the Egri Csillag Superior cuvée, from Péter Gál.
“I had never tried Hungarian wine [before], but I’d say that – I don’t know how to pronounce it – the second was definitely my favorite,” she told the BBJ.
“Initially, when Sam said he was from Spain and […] he only came to Budapest two years again, I was quite surprised,” she said. “However, it turned out to be a very fascinating thing as he is extremely knowledgeable about not only wines but Hungarian wines specifically! Overall, I think this is a positive yet intriguing thing!”
This article was first published in the Budapest Business Journal print issue of June 27, 2025.
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