I found a 45 year old Hungarian red wine made during Communist rule. Is it still good or was it ever any good?
Hungarian Wine under Communism
Wine from Eastern Europe in general during the Communist Era (roughly 1945-1989) was/is not considered to be particularly good. However, several regions in Eastern Europe have a long history of making quality wine before this period, and Eastern European wines as a whole have been getting better and more distributed in the West over the past 35 years after this period.
Hungary in particular has a long history of making high quality wine, especially its highly coveted Tokaji, which is a sweet wine mentioned as early as the 17th century and the first wine to have an appellation control. It was particularly popular among European royalty. In addition, Hungary is famous for their Egri Bikaver red wine (Bull’s Blood Wine), which developed in the late 19th century.
After WWII, control of Hungary moved from the Nazis to the Soviet Union, who looked to install leadership they could control. They brutally cracked down on dissent, such as the 1956 revolution attempt.
During Communist rule, private wineries went into state control and although farmers could still own a bit of land, it became part of a cooperative. Hungarian wine was controlled by a few large cooperatives, who made homogeneous bulk wine to be exported across the Eastern bloc. For 30 years, all exports were controlled by one company called Monimpex. During this time, the Olaszrizling and Kékfrankos (Blaufränkisch or Lemberger) grape varieties replaced Furmint and Kadarka as the most planted grapes. This was because of their higher yield and ease of growing.
As a result, Hungarian wine during this era is generally considered mediocre or bad because it was made generic and for mass consumption. Indeed, this was a problem for many living under Soviet control–they had little choice in the products they could get, and producers had little choice in the products they could make. Perhaps nobody starved (although both Stalin and Mao’s mismanagement initially created massive famines that killed millions) or lacked wine, but were they living and drinking well?
Playing Devil’s Advocate to Today’s Industry
To be fair, wine geeks today often scoff at commercial, supermarket wines, which have a lot of different fancy labels but still taste like rather generic, chemical, sugarfied plonk. Capitalism has no problem about making things cheap, unhealthy and poor quality for mass production too but to make more profit with marketing and price gouging. A lot of what is considered “luxury” or “freedom of choice” is mostly marketing over actual quality or qualitative differences in products, and that includes the wine industry at many levels. However, average consumers have grown to like commercial wines, so did average Eastern Europeans grow to like Communist wine too?
At the political level, Western powers have installed their own puppet dictators, colonized nations, waged murderous wars for resources and squashed democratic resistance movements too when it suits their economic and imperial interests.
My current home Chile is a prime example with the US helping to kill a democratically elected leader and install a brutal capitalist dictator Pinochet, which hurt Chile’s economy overall. However, the wine industry did actually improve during his period of rule as markets opened up and foreign investors put more money into making quality wine here. The same happened in Hungary after the Cold War ended in 1989. On the other hand, Chile was/is able to make such quality wine for low prices at the expense of the low pay of its workers and a handful of families having all the wealth in the country to invest in and expand their markets. Average Chileans can’t afford to buy Chile’s top wines although independent wine movements have arisen to help elevate the prices local farmers can get for their grapes.
Looking at current events, I can’t think the current and past imperialist bombings of Lebanon are helping their wine industry nor the genocide and colonial occupation in Israel/Palestine’s for its wine industry. A lot of this has to do with Western oil interests. Colonialism, racism, oil interests, massacres and its local backlash also contributed to Algeria only being the 43rd largest wine producing country today when it used to be the 4th. Hungary itself under Orban, the US and a lot of European countries have flirted with fascism and far right populism rather than deal with inequalities under Capitalism and Neoliberalism. I still haven’t seen the new Somm 4: Cup of Salvation documentary about making wine in Armenia amidst conflict and ethnic cleansing by bordering Azerbaijan, but the trailer reminds us that vines have to struggle to make great wine, but do the people need to suffer so much?
Wine in General Has Gotten Better
We should also consider that a lot of even Western wines from the 70’s, when this communist Hungarian wine was made, were also lacking in quality compared to wine today. Winemaking techniques have improved significantly overall with better equipment and techniques to lower yields to grow higher quality grapes and make cleaner wines in the cellar.
It took the 1976 Paris Tasting (where Californian wines beat top French wines) and Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate ratings in the 80’s, which helped consumers cut through the BS of marketing and prestige to find good wines, to push even top wine regions like Bordeaux to improve their quality which was waning. Parker also helped dilapidated, bulk wine regions gain or regain their status as top, high quality wine regions, such as in Priorat, which had its renaissance because of a cooperative.
Ironically, they got so good at manipulation in the cellar and vineyards, more and more people prefer natural wines with as little manipulation as possible today. Some of the top cult wines today are wines that are more traditional and rustic, moving the pendulum back towards where the wine industry was in the past but keeping some of the modern improvements. The best wines today have a balance of both modern techniques and lower intervention. Now, so many places are making great wines with terroir character, including Eastern Europe.
When people say Communist wines were bad, then it begs the question: compared to what and according to who? Since the fall of the Soviet Union, there have been at least 3 different international stylistic trends of wines defining what is/was considered “good,” and that’s according to the wine industry/critics/geeks, not necessarily average consumers.
Endless growth and profit vs. Environmental disaster, waste and accessibility
Another factor is global warming. Wines are better today, because there are less problems gaining ripeness with warmer weather. However, this could ruin some regions if they don’t adapt or help others which were historically too cold for winemaking. Meanwhile, “natural” disasters continue to increase in frequency and strength due to global warming, which is caused by capitalist impulses for endless growth and profit.
Finally, there’s the issue of waste and accessibility. Because the market for wine is in decline and warmer weather leads to higher yields in some regions, countries have resorted to dumping wine and pulling out vines. In California, big producers import cheaper bulk wine destroying smaller producers. With Capitalism, billions of tons of food and drink are wasted to keep prices high when there are still malnourished people all over the world. Of course, wine is more of a luxury depending on your culture, and for wine geeks, reducing production often means improving quality overall. At the same time, many still can’t afford to make ends meet let alone afford many of the best wines in the world. For example, Burgundy prices are outrageous although countries like Chile can provide more affordable options. The most important thing about good wine is that it needs to be shared and enjoyed with others, and aspects of the industry seem set on making it more exclusive.
Hope this Wine is Still Alive
None of this critique of the wine industry under Capitalism is to say Communist era wine is/was any good either or better than the highly commercial wines of today. Basically everyone in the wine industry says it was not good while local producers in the former Soviet bloc say they had no choice to make crap table wine back then. Plus, Eastern Europe in general are/were not wine first cultures like in France or Italy. Vodka and types of brandy are the most popular alcohols. Palinka (a fruit brandy) is the top alcoholic drink in Hungary for example. Hence, I was skeptical about buying this wine, but I have a few reasons to hope it’s ok and at least not dead.
First of all, wine in the 70’s and 80’s had less influence from global warming and no Parker’s influence to make modern but less acidic wines like in the 90’s and 2000’s. In addition, most producers today are making wines for early consumption with soft tannins, but a lot more traditional, rustic, tannic wines were being made in the 70’s and 80’s. Therefore, this wine might have enough structure to age well based on the wine trends of the era.
At the same time, I didn’t grow up (or was even old enough to drink) in Communist Eastern Europe, so who knows if they had similar tastes at the time on the other side of the Iron Curtain. The impression I get from reading about these wines from people who did experience communist wines is that these wines were not as refined or clean, but more rustic, which could be better for aging though. However, I imagine that some are just not that concentrated since they had such high yields.
Some articles I’ve read about what non-wine professional locals think of communist wine compared to today seem to show how their perspective is influenced by their personal history. Although most hated life under Communism, subsequent events such as civil wars in Yugoslavia and becoming disillusioned by the austerity, individualism and inequality of Capitalism have caused some to have nostalgia for the wines under Communism and others to prefer the wines of today, especially if they’ve succeeded since Communism. Wine and your recollection of the past can be a Rorschach test of your current situation in life.
Which brings me to my second point, I’m just curious to drink this wine from a historian and wine nerd point of view, no matter what it tastes like. Opening any 45 year old wine from a particular time and place helps us to reflect on how life has changed since then for better or worse. I certainly have fond memories of my time in Hungary and Transylvania with Hungarian friends during my travels there 20 years ago. Remembering the past, whether it was good, bad or most likely some of both, is important.
Lastly, from a technical standpoint, the wine was kept in a cold cellar most of its life (so good provenance) and the fill level was good. For those of you not familiar with buying old wines, provenance and fill level are big factors when considering making a risky, old wine buy. The fill level shows how much air got into the bottle which could have affected the aging of this wine although all old wines will have lower fills due to some evaporation. Here’s a chart on how to understand fill levels and what they mean in terms of an old wine’s possible drinkability status.
Now, let’s open this bottle and see. I have some Hungarian goulash to taste it with and a back-up wine in case it’s crap or turned into vinegar.
Tasting Notes
1979 Monimpex Magyar Voros Hungary
As mentioned above, Monimpex was the only exporting company for Hungary for 30 years. This article on old Hungarian wine labels helped me identify the wine and research the history of Monimpex. There are some Monimpex wines occasionally available on the market, but they are almost always old Tokaji, which can age a long time. Of course, Monimpex no longer exists today.
It is likely made of Kékfrankos or mostly Kékfrankos. It’s a grape variety that can vary in style, but it usually has medium-high to high acid with medium tannins, so hopefully that bodes well for long term aging. Today it’s not uncommon for this grape to undergo oak aging, but I have no idea if oak was used during Communist rule. My guess is they used large, old wooden vats, which were probably the cheapest thing to do at the time.
The label says 12% alcohol, and that it was imported by International Wine Vintage Company in Hartford, Connecticut. So apparently this was exported to the West and not just parts of the Soviet bloc. Voros means “red” in Hungarian, so the wine is simply named Hungarian Red. There’s no indication of a specific region or variety.
The capsule was made of plastic, but it kept the top of the cork completely clean with no mold at all. I used an ah-so opener to extract the cork which was almost completely soaked through with a quarter inch left of the cork still dry.
The color shows aging but is still somewhat shiny. I’ve seen far worse bricking and duller colors from younger wines. It’s fairly transparent and light in color.
The nose is typical of very old wines, with a musty, tobacco, leather and mushroom with dried dark fruit in the background. Medium intensity nose. The palate starts off quite tart and plummy, but dried plums. Not overly complex. Reminds me of an everyday ruby Port without the body or alcohol. It’s medium-light bodied. With a little time and food, the palate is more ripe and fresh fruit driven rather than sour, dried fruit driven. It’s not particularly long. However, this wine is still alive with fruit and freshness mixed in with tertiary notes but no particular oak notes. It’s far from great, but it’s not bad. If you like aged wines or Port, then this is something that can actually be enjoyed with food. Put on a 1979 hits playlist and enjoy it with some goulash. It’s not something I would age any longer, but if you can find an example aged in good conditions, it might be worth a try if the price is low enough. 87
On the second day, the nose is diminished and the acidity is softer, but there’s still fruit and more of a savory aspect on the finish. Still remains balanced. Nothing bitter. Low alcohol. No oak. Just fruity and simple mixed with tertiary notes.
Conclusion
Overall, I’m pleased by this wine, and it’s better than expected despite its questionable origins. In all my travels to some of the poorest, war torn or repressive places on Earth, I could always find some beauty and hope. In these troubling times too, sometimes good wine and company are my only solace while reflecting on what once was and what we are now–the good, the bad, the ugly and the beautiful.