Wines from Eastern Europe: A Beginner's Guide

Eastern European wines are more widely enjoyed than ever these days! But with this infusion of amazing indigenous grape varietals comes a certain amount of confusion. What the heck does furmint taste like? If I'm a Pinot Noir lover, which Armenian grape will I like best? Great questions! Consider this post your entry point into lesser-known wines from Eastern Europe.

Enjoy the journey!

HUNGARY

Winemaking has been a part of Hungary's history dating back to the Romans. The country boasts 22 different wine regions and is most famous for the Tokaj region's aszú—a sweet and golden-hued wine made from the furmint grape—which was hugely popular among European royalty for centuries. Seasons of war, plague, and Communist rule have sent Hungary's wine industry on a rollercoaster of changes, but today, many Hungarian winemakers are once again turning toward small, low-intervention, family-run operations that value quality over quantity.

Hungarian wines can seem a bit tricky to navigate because...

Stranger Wines For Halloween

Photo: Netflix

October is the perfect time to binge watch (again) season three of Netflix’s Stranger Things. I mean, what could be more Halloween-adjacent than a little weird and retro romp through Demagorgon-infested Hawkins, Indiana? Exactly.

Season three of Stranger Things brings the advent of The Mall, that glorious beacon of the 1980s. It’s new, it’s flashy, it’s...strange! Everyone in Hawkins loves it and the Starcourt Mall is really the center of some of the juiciest, most climactic moments in the season.

In the final scenes of the season, the Stranger Things gang splits up into smaller groups to more effectively kick the Mind Flayer's butt. Each group gets a code name to communicate with the others over walkie talkie: The Griswold Family, The Scoops Troop, and Bald Eagle (of course!). So, in the spirit of trying new and strange things, I’m recommending a super off-the-beaten-path wine to pair with each of the Stranger Things factions that face the Mind Flayer in this spooky and totally rad...