Flying museologist writes Hungarian wine history
MúzeumCafé 7.
Flying winemakers are renown players in the international world of wine – they are the experts who are invited to wineries all over the world so that their brief but substantial advice would help companies create the finest wines.
Hungary’s network of wine museums operates in a somewhat similar way since Dr. Zsigmond Csoma of the Museum of Hungarian Agriculture has contributed to setting up nearly all the exhibitions. He participated in establishing the recently opened House of Royal Wines and Cellar Museum in Buda Castle and he was also involved with the exhibition founded a year ago at the Tornai Winery in Somló.
In Hungary’s permanent exhibitions about the history of wine and viniculture the spirit of museologist Zsigmond Csoma permeates among the funnels, ancient barrels and secateurs, as well as the dramatic panels dealing with the phylloxera epidemic, the plaque of Hungarian viniculture. He has created the installations of many Hungarian wine museums and if not personally then a large number of exhibited items are likely to be on loan from the Museum of Hungarian Agriculture, where he has been working for 33 years.
Zsigmond Csoma completed his doctorate on the history of the Somló Wine Region and his theses was so successful that his book The Wine of the Wedding Nights became a bestseller. Besides wine history, his main research field involves the past of Hungarian horticulture. He not only works at the museum but also teaches at the Károli Gáspár Calvinist University. The permanent exhibition Hungarian Grape Vines and Wine in Europe, which opened in autumn 2003 in the cellar of the Museum of Hungarian Agriculture, is one of his main creations. Following its establishment in 1896, the Museum of Hungarian Royal Agriculture informed farmers and visitors about the past and present of viti- and viniculture with a permanent exhibition. This tradition was continued following reconstruction and expansion of the former exhibition on the eve of Hungary’s accession to the European Union. The display stretches from the beginning of viti- and viniculture in the Carpathian Basin to the present day
“When talking about wine museums you must separate public museums and the professional collections set up by civil initiatives, which are privately owned,” says Zsigmond Csoma. “They also often have very valuable collections,” he adds. A third category involves wineries where vintage wines are sold and are called ‘wine museums’. Needless to say, a real museum is where researchers are employed, a library operates and collections including photographs, medals, working utensils and personal relics can also be found.
The Museum of Hungarian Agriculture has several affiliates. A part of the Georgikon Museum in Keszthely is one, with its exhibition of Grape Vine Cultivation and Viticulture in the Balaton Highlands. The wine history exhibition there was set up in 1972 to mark the 175th anniversary of the Keszthely Georgikon, Europe’s first agricultural college of higher education. Another affiliate is situated in Szőlőskislak, near Balatonboglár. The construction of the Vajdahunyad Castle in its permanent form was completed in 1907 and the Museum of Agriculture became housed there, creating at the same time the opportunity for wine tasting. This important service later petered out, but the museum managed to reintroduce it in the 1990s. Yet a new venue, the House of Royal Wines and Cellar Museum, has recently opened in the Buda Castle District. Here, in this wine-cultural institution established near the Alexander Palace, below the site of an old Jewish quarter, the air of wine history incorporates the characteristic scent of wine tasting. The Budavár public enterprise had the fascinating cellars renovated for two billion forints, creating a wine museum with a section for pálinka and champagne with a strictly double – historical and tasting – function.
The 22 Hungarian wine regions are making every effort to promote themselves and introduce their histories. Local museums or a large winery take on the noble task. Hungary’s wine regions are centred around one or several villages or towns, which is reflected in their names: Tokaj-hegyalja, Eger, Hajós-Baja, Mór, Balatonboglár, Balatonfüred-Csopak, Sopron, Szekszárd, Pécs and Villány. The Badacsony area can also be included here, since villages of the Badacsony Hills, such as Badacsonylábdihegy and Tördemic, are usually mentioned in connection with the wine region. This overview would not be complete without an online wine museum. There is one –vigbor.hu. Mr. Víg’s initiative has ‘grown out’ of the internet and he has opened a museum in Vác, which can be visited not only virtually. It focuses on Tokaj, but many other items of interest and prize-winning wines can be seen there. The collection including fake Tokaj Aszu wines is of special interest – these gems got into the collection from Ukraine and other wine-loving former Soviet states. Across the Danube in Szentendre there is the National Wine Museum and Restaurant. Thus is more than worthwhile to cross the river.