An abandoned vineyard or the new way of grape cultivation? It’s the latter – this is intentional. Some brave producers in the Mátra experiments with “no treat” grape growing, and this literally means nothing sprayed, and hardly any soil work, if anything at all. I was told it works somehow – no disease affected the grapes. No need to thin the crop anymore, yields go down drastically, bunches and berries become small. I have not tasted the wines made from this plot, all I can tell is that it’s a pleasure to walk into these rows. While other vineyards nearby have a typical chemical smell, here the air is filled with the smell of summer flowers.

This is the extreme for sure, only one or two producers are brave enough to do this. But others try out organic practices too, this big vineyard is in good hands (that is, most of it is owned by young, pioneer winemakers looking in the future, not in the past, as the majority of the wine region).