The World’s Best Vineyards award has been bestowed for the third time this year, and Hungary has managed to grab a place on the list for the first time.
“World’s Best Vineyards are proud to annually reveal the Top 50 most amazing vineyard experiences – the best places to taste terrific wines and learn about winemaking and grape-growing. Many also offer superb views, restaurants, and places to stay,” they say on their website. Their aim is to make wine tourism popular and to draw attention to special wineries each year.
It is the World’s Best Vineyards Academy that is behind the World’s Best Vineyards list. It consists of almost 600 people from all over the world. When considering their nominees, each Academy chair member hires 36 experts, and each region recommends seven vineyards. They narrow the competitors down from there.
“Each vote is a nomination for a vineyard experience that they deem to be the best in the world. The experience will take into account all the things connected with the visit – tour, tasting, ambience, wine, food, staff, view, value for money, reputation, accessibility,” they say.
Hungarian wine from Villány becomes world’s best
For the first time this year, on 20 September, they extended the list to be the top 100 wineries. Thanks to this, new countries, such as Lebanon and Russia, have managed to make it onto the list.
Speaking of the former, the Karam Wines winery from Lebanon jumped to 14th place on its first feature, making it one of the most successful novice wineries to have ever been nominated, Vince reports.
Unfortunately, Hungary has not made it to the top 50 this year either, but thanks to the change, there is at least one winery from Hungary that was included within the top 100 of the world’s best.
Just a few places behind the top 50, the Hungarian Szepsy Winery from Mád, located in the famous Hungarian wine region, Tokaj, managed to grab the 62nd place.
According to the winery’s website, the Szepsy family has been producing wine in the Tokaj region for over 500 years, right when the typical Hungarian aszú-making started.
The Szepsy Winery currently has 52 hectares of cultivated area in 22 vineyards located in six different towns. They produce around 38,000 bottles of dry wine, 7,000 bottles of aszú, and 12,000 bottles of szamorodni wine in the winery.
The first place was awarded to the Zuccardi Valle de Uco Winery from Argentina three years in a row and, interestingly, the majority of the top ten wineries are from South America, while some of the most famous wine-producing countries, such as France and Italy, only managed to grab one place each in the top ten.
Sources: Vince.hu, Hvg.hu, Szepsy.hu, Worldsbestvineyards.com