A Brief History of Wine

Series Summary

When dining in Budapest, Grundel's traditional Hungarian cuisine is not to be missed. And after you sample some of the dishes which draw discriminating pallets from around the world, you'll certainly want to try their famous palacsinta dessert, a pancake with a filling made from rum, raisins and walnuts, and covered with chocolate sauce. What better to accompany this unique delectable than a glass of Tokaji Aszú, the Hungarian dessert wine which is actually named in the Hungarian national anthem.

In this free online video guide to dessert wines, Gundel's sommelier Mihály Fabók offers tips and advice on how to pick the right wine to accompany dessert. He describes the characteristics of port, Sauternes, and of course, Tokaji Aszú dessert wines. He shows you how to open and test the wine, and suggests when you should serve dessert wine during a meal. Anyone can order the right wine for a steak. Only a true wine aficionado can follow it up by matching the perfect dessert with the perfect dessert wine.

Video Transcript

"We are talking now about dessert wines, and generally about wines, so it's very important. Wine has been with us since the civilization begin. The first wine was produced about seven, eight thousand years ago in Asia, the Middle East somewhere, and it became a very famous beverage. The wine is of course is made from grapes, and the wine has; after fermentation, alcohol. So it's very important the quantity. If you drink two glasses of wine a day it's excellent for your health so it's very important the quantity, and also the quality. If you have a quality wine it helpe for you for the digestion, and it's also a great company with the French foods, and if you have for example the food the same time you have to taste the wine, and then you can feel the harmony between the food and the wine. The wine, Sancerre was mentioned in the bible for many times. It was a very important beverage. You can find grapes almost all over the world like famous wine producing country in Europe, France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Hungary. We have a great history to make wine more than a thousand years old, the history in Europe, and also you can find wine in the United States. Your red wine is very famous, or Argentina, Chile, Australia, South Africa. They are also very famous wine producing country. They became a very famous wine producing country. There have been so many difference type of wine. Force wines, one red wine can be a sweet dessert wine. Also, fortified wines or champagne, which is also, you can say,"the king of the wine". So there are so many different type of wine, and it's very good because, for example, in the restaurant if you have a nice dinner; different courses, you can have so many different type of wine which is much better with your different food."