Before the first day of harvest, I spent my time organizing and cleaning things as well as taking samples from vineyards. One day Alain took me to his house for lunch and I tried a Hungarian cold fruit soup that his wife Aniko made. It was very good on a hot summer day. Then he showed me his pride and joy in the garage: a 1967 tractor. Not a John Deere though. Alain also said he met Paul Hobbs in Villany once and Paul seemed dismissive towards him. Could it be ego?
On the first day of harvest, we crushed a Hungarian variety called Irsai. I sat back and let two of the cellar hands do the heavy lifting and cleaning while Alain showed me how to do paperwork and spreadsheets; it felt weird. The hostess at the pension where I was staying made dinner for me of meatballs with cabbage and bread which went well with a Bordeaux/Hungarian blend that Alain gave me.
We started one morning by tasting three different tanks of rose so we could make a blend. Tough work. Later while we were taking samples from vineyards, one viticulturalist invited me to his wedding in two days. Alain got me a bike for the short commute during harvest and moved me to a different pension where I would stay until November. Before I left the first pension, the hostess gave me delicious spaghetti to take with me. She may not speak English, but I like her. The new place was quiet and comfortable. There are screens on the windows (which is rare for some reason) because of the mosquitoes outside. This one is a granny unit behind a family's home. There's no free food, but there is free wi-fi, even though I actually get a better connection from the winery's network next door.
For the first day of harvest, we arrived at 5am to put the picking bins onto a truck, but the grapes didn't arrive until after 1pm! There were of course issues with the must pump and press because they were being used for the first time in a year. While "the guys" worked in the cellar, I learned paperwork and did the math for a blend. They even put a computer in the bottling room for me.
On Saturday, we went to Pecs for food, work stuff, and wedding clothes. Alain was generous enough to have the company pay for everything. The wedding was very nice with excellent food, good wine, and dancing. I found one family who spoke English, so they could translate for me. I tried two more Hungarian specialties: Palinka and Unicum. Palinka is a type of schnapps, which was quite good and went down easily. The Unicum is an aniseed drink like Uzo or Pastisse and the flavor is very strong. The next day I didn't leave the house.
This past week has been a long one. I worked the longest day of my life: 18 hours. It didn't feel so bad though because I wasn't doing much heavy lifitng. The next day was just as long, but we ended by having a tasting for some representatives from a large supermarket chain who were looking to buy rose. They weren't very friendly, but once they left, Alain, Lutz (winery manager), and their business partner Villy (supplies the money) continued to drink with me. We were at the rich guys house with 15 open bottles of wine on the table when Villy opened a bottle of Palinka. He didn't speak any English but he was a fun guy. Another local drink is dry rose with CO2 added to make it bubbly. The other intern arrived while we waited there and we had a "welcome" shot of Palinka. He is from Japan, studying at Montpelier University in France, and just worked a harvest in Tunisia. His name is Tashk and he is fluent in both English and French, which helps everyone. After 30 minutes back at the winery, we went to dinner at Maul restaurant. After dinner, we went down into the musty cellar with a glass of Merlot port that was very concentrated, tannic, and cigar-y.
Alain is not the most well-organized person I've met, so we spent some time catching up on the winemaking and I think everything is in order now. I came down with something that looks like strep throat, I put together the washine machine, and tried to go to the grocery store, but they close at 1pm on Saturdays and don't open on Sundays, so I had to go to the small convenience store. I don't like the lack of options here.
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