Once we learned how much wine tasting in Moldova cost, we promised to ourselves that, in Hungary, we would do a wine tasting, no matter the cost. We were so happy that we waited until Hungary.

The small village of Villany is southeast of Pecs, just an hour or so by train. Armed with our trusty Lonely Planet, we set off. Our first stop of the morning was the Tourist Information Center, ie Wine Tourism Office. We picked up a map of the village, along with some informational phamplets and business cards. The village is basically just one road, and every single house seemed to offer wine tasting. With the map, we knew which had the best rating (three grape bunches v. just one grape bunch).

Our first stop was Bock Winery, the best known winery by name, but not the biggest. Looking back on the day, we should have visited him in the middle of our excursion, not the beginning. He set the bar way too high for all the other wineries, and we werent able to enjoy the others nearly as much.

We had the whole wine tasting room to ourselves for a while, and the guy working there had pretty good English, and was able to explain about each of the wines, where the grapes are grown, etc. We kept track of all the wines we had during the day in the Lonely Planet, and here are some notes we made about Bock.

1. Bock Harslevelu, white, 2009, hints of nectar and citrus, light with a long finish, but tannic.

2. Bock Portugieser Rose, sparkling, 2011. We arent big fans of Rose, of any type, but this was decent.

3. Bock Chardonnay, 2010, tastes like fruit and butter. Very smooth finish.

4. Saint Marton Bora Portugieser, 2011, red, smooth with long legs, tastes like cherry. We enjoyed this one.

5. Bock and Roll, 2009, a blend of Pinot Noir, Francos Portugieser, Cabernet Franc, and Syrah. Light tasting with a strong smell.

6. Cabernet Franc, 2008, aged 4 years in oak barrels, and typically used for Goulash soups.

7. Bock Royal, blend of Pinot Noir and Merlot in barrique barrels for 24 months, it was rich with lovely tannis. This is what we drank while eating our goulash, and it was AMAZING, the best wine of the day.

After our tasting, our waiter took us on a private tour of the wine cellar and fermentation rooms, where we saw rows upon rows of wine barrels, tasted some grapes before and after the fermentation, and saw the packaging and labeling facility. We were impressed by all this, and since business has been good for them, theyre in the middle of expanding even more!

We visited about 6 more wineries, including Gere Tamas and Gunzer, where we sampled about 10 more types of wine, including Kekrankas, Siller, Merlot, Cab Sav, and Kadarka. But the real highlight of the day was the Bock Royal. We spent so much time in Villany that we had to run about a mile, no exaggeration, to catch the last train at 730, and that is NOT easy after the long day we had! It was a great time, and we were so glad we never did wine tasting in Moldova!