Hungarian Wine Challenge – Petrény cellar, Eger
Like lots of people, I love a challenge! In September 2024, I set myself the challenge, while visiting Hungary, of travelling to multiple wine regions, tastings, festivals and other wine events in order to find some of the best wines in the country. The challenge started on 1 September and finished towards the end of the month.
Along the journey there were a number of places I visited. Among them was the Petrény cellar in Eger.
About the winery
Less than 2 hours by train from Budapest lies Eger, a small Medieval town and wine making centre. The wines here are characterised by bold reds and minerally floral whites. There is a good selection of wineries nearby, a number of which I have reviewed on this website. However, just outside of Eger lies a unique wine experience in the form of a collection of caves built into the rocks which hold wineries. The Valley of the Beautiful Woman is home to around 30 – 40 wineries lined up around a central square.
The Valley is a great place to sample a broad range of Eger wines from entry level through to some of the top producers best ones. One of the wineries which is well worth a visit in the Valley is Petrény. The winery is one of the more quality producers in Eger and offers a variety of wines at different quality levels depending what you want to taste. Their menu has a number of standard tastings, or per glass / per 100ml prices.
The tastings offer the option to try a mix of white and red wines, which works well to get a great feel for the styles of wine which Eger is all about. The wines here are all well produced and are good representations of the local grape varieties, including some native Hungarian varieties.
The venue itself has both indoor and outdoor seating. Both are pleasant, but generally if the weather is nice being outside is pleasant. The staff are well versed in the wines and have some knowledge of the styles and techniques used to create them. Service is attentive, but not overbearing and the pricing seems about right for the tastings, considering other local pricing. One advantage of all your competitors being your neighbours is its pretty hard to be overcharging!
Two wine styles that are distinctive to the Eger region are the Egri Csillag (Eger star) – a white wine dominated by fresh, fruity, crisp, floral notes and some slight minerality and subtle use of oak; and the Egri Bikavér (Bulls blood) a bold, rich based on a Kékfankos-based blend characterised by notes of spice and fruit. Both are bold styles. The wines at Petrény include a number of examples of both.
While the history of winemaking in this region goes back centuries, the winery has largely been producing professional quality wines since the early 2000’s. The wines sit in three ranges – Silver, Gold and Superior, and these quality levels reflect increasing focus on the best grapes and winemaking techniques. Many of the wines have won awards in Hungary and beyond.
In addition to the tasting cellar in the Valley, the family also have their own wine villa which offers tastings and a bar in the main town where you can also sample their wines. The wine labels have a style which looks like old french wine bottles which makes the wine bottles very interesting. Bottle prices range from inexpensive to very expensive depending on the style and vintage, but you can pick up some decent wines for a good price.
This is one of the better wineries in the Valley to visit and I’d recommend adding it to the list if you manage to get to Eger. The atmosphere here is very pleasant, the wines are very well made and the service is attentive. Its also worth considering stopping off at the winebar in town if you don’t manage to make it out of Eger and to the Valley. I haven’t had a bad wine from their range.
If you want to book a visit to Petrény you can find the options on Hellowine – click here. I can recommend booking the tasting with the Grand Superior wines. If you call in, let me know what you think. And in the meantime, keep exploring this beautiful planet we live on, one glass at a time!