From one harvest to another

On my last day of work, I made a white wine blend then said goodbye to everyone at the winery. Edouard drove me to Budapest where I stayed in Alain's apartment. Alain came to Budapest the next day and we went out to dinner and agreed to keep in contact. He wanted to see Hungarian grape varieties in the US, and I later learned that one of them is being tested at UC Davis right now so that it can be planted in the US when it is approved. He also suggested that I work in the Cote du Rhone in France next year because he knows someone there.

Friday morning, Edouard drove me to Fuleky Winery in Tokaj. It is actually in a village called Bodrogkerestur, but it is easier to say Tokaj to refer to the region. When we showed up we toured the very small winery (500 case production) and tasted wines in barrel, tank, and bottle. It was a good lunch. Tokaj is much prettier than Villany because there are more hills and color in the trees vineyards, and two rivers converge next to the village. Edouard explained that Tokaj has been famous for hundreds of years, but under communism the quality of the wine decreased, so since then there has been outside investment and high quality wine is being made again.

Most people at the winery speak some English, a few speak French, one also speaks Spanish, and of course there's German and Hugnarian. Sometimes I hear four languages in a minute of conversation. A very useful tool to help us understand each other is Google Translate. It will even speak the other language!

I met two winemakers from a larger winery called Dereszla which works with Fuleky sometimes. Both winemakers speak very good English and one even worked in Santa Rosa at Copain custom crush for a harvest. They said I may be working at Dereszla sometime later because it is not very busy at Fuleky.

For dinner one night, we went to Buffalo Bills which was exactly as it sounds. An American-themed restaurant. The best name for a meal was the "Chuck Norris Favorite". We were with the vineyard manager from Dereszla who had also worked in Sonoma County. When he said Healdsburg, I said Bear Republic, and he smiled because it is world-famous.

On Monday I picked aszu berries (the botrytised one) from among the healthy berries in the clusters. There were not very many. It took the two French guys and me three hours to pick enough for one bottle. When we finished, no one arrived to take us back to the winery, so we walked for an hour. There has not been great communication so far, and not because of language issues. That night I ended up with a cold, then spent the next day picking normal grapes on Tokaj Hill.

I went to the doctor for some good drugs and spent a couple days off work to rest. Yuri kept trying to get me to drink wine or schnapps, but I know better. He made sausage and potatoes for dinner and called it healthy.