Hunting down fine wine

Back in Australia, Neil and I own a small block in central Victoria where we grow grapes and make small amounts of wine. It’s a hobby, as is the drinking of our own and other people’s wine. When we travel we like to visit wine regions, so it is with delight that we read about a detour from EV6 that will take us to Hajós, a wine village. Immediately we both have visions of rolling into a village with wine cellars and restaurants and tastings and all the trappings of the wine tourist industry as we know it.

The EV6 guidebook tempts: “This excursion is an absolute must for anyone who enjoys fine wine. Just about everything about the unique village of Hajós is dedicated to making, selling and enjoying wine. Plan a short stay in Hajós Pincék, where there are certain to be several wine cellars waiting to serve you their best.”

We set out into the gathering heat with anticipation, putting up with a short ride along another bumpy dike track before joining a paved road that takes us to Kalocsa. The heat forces a few breaks along the way, where we meet up with yet another German cycling couple. Is the whole of Germany here in Hungary right now?

In Kalocsa we cool down by riding through a misting machine set up in the main street, eating what may well have been the world’s largest ice cream and take a break from the bikes by visiting the town’s Paprika Museum. Yep, you read that right – a museum devoted to the paprika. We are in paprika country! We view displays on the history, cultivation and processing of Hungary and I look forward to riding through the “fields of fire” on the way to Hajós. The museum runs a side-line of religious artifacts which seem a little out of place to me, but maybe there is a god of paprika?

We do see fields of paprika on the road to Hajós, but we’re a little early for the full-on fields of fire.

The skies are heavy and the air hot and oppressive. I hope for rain, perhaps a thunderstorm to blow away the heat and leave us with more mild weather. As we approach Hajós the rain does start and we cycle through teeming rain into an apparent ghost town.

The streets are lined with little white houses, all locked and shuttered and nobody in sight once we leave the main road. Many of the little houses are alongside tiny little vineyards; vines heavy with grapes. Wine obviously does happen here, but it is not happening today.

I’ve managed, with the help of Google translate, to get a booking at a guesthouse, which, fortunately, is open. With the help of our (Neil’s) rudimentary German we check in to Judit Panzió, lock our bikes and take a walk, still in hope of finding some trace of wine. A person at a likely looking winery yells at us as we enter the yard; we take that as, “Go away,” and do so. After a turn around the deserted town, we resort to a beer at our guesthouse and roll on into dinner, where I once again fill myself with fried cheese and we take solace in a bottle of local wine.

While trying to sleep later in the hot stuffy room, we hear sounds of voices and music carrying over the night air. So, not quite a dead town after all. Perhaps the weekenders have only just arrived.

Stats for today:

• Distance: 56.3km
• Climb: 59m
• Average speed:19.5km/h
• Average temperature: 33C
• Moving time: 2:53:07
• See our ride on Strava

The beer picture

At the end of a day’s ride, our tradition is to enjoy a beer, and to photograph it for posterity. Today’s beer picture was taken outside Judit Panzió in Hajós where we enjoy sör and bor (beer and wine).

Along the way today: