Again, we headed out a bit early to get a head start. Taking this trip in the springtime has it advantages, one being that there isn't a lot of traffic. From Tihany to Füred, we only passed a handful of cars on the road. Only die-hard fishermen dotted the lake waiting for a catch, swans and duck swimming close to shore, and the morning sun danced on the lake's reflection...(how awesome is that). Originally we planned to first stop at Figula winery as soon as we got to Füred, but unfortunately we counldn't reach them in time. Jásdi Pince was also close, so we decided to go with the flow and go to whatever winery we stumble into and is open. Well, we didn't find too many, and that's unfortunate.
At one point in the beginning of the 90s, a few Croatians came together and figured: let’s plant some Malvazia grapes, revive our winemaking industry, make some olive oil too while we’re at it, put a strong marketing campaign behind the whole thing and tie all this together with tourism and great programs. Their plan seems to be working. Today, the Malvazia grape is as much a part of Istria as its beautiful beaches. It is a white grape variety originally from Cyprus or Crete. Before the philoxera crisis, supposedly 30,000 hectares of this grape were planted here. Over the past ten years, more and more of this grape has been planted, encouraged by grants and other forms of support. Apart from this, olive production has also received momentum and the glistening leaves of the olive trees can be seen throughout Istria. It’s obvious Croatians are on the right track and I give it only a few years, maybe a decade, before Istria will become synonymous with this wonderful grape variety. ...
Century-long traditions, excellent wine, and steep inclines...
We started the day with a dip in the jacuzzi and after a little pampering, had a filling breakfast and headed out. With a little pain in our rear end, we headed uphill and then finally coasted a bit downhill to our first stop of the day in Keszthely–Kertváros. Here, next to Cserszegtomaj, at one of the region's largest wineries, we were scheduled to meet Csaba Bezerics at nine o'clock, owner and winemaker of the Németh Borház. We spent a lovely afternoon with him. First he showed us around the winery afterwhich he held a private winetasting. In a short period of time we learned a remarkable amount of information about the Zala wine region, its history, and its wine. Csaba is a very charismatic person, with a true passion for his professsion, and really likes to pass on that knowledge to his guests. He hold us about the history of the area going back thousands of years. As he said, a true winemaker is also a historian and of course, while listening to him, we tasted great wine. ...
In Pécs, everyone knows, if you want a good fish soup, go across the border to Csúza, Croatia. There at Kovács Csárda, they make the best fish soup anywhere. It is approximately fifty kilometers from Pécs, south of Mohács, not far from the banks of the river Danube. You can tell from its name that Csúza was once a part of Hungary. Their frish soup is always made to order
—you say for how many and you pick the type of fish. They also make their noodels fresh; their recipe starts like this: 4 kilograms of flour, 50 eggs, salt. In these parts, they serve noddles with the fish soup, not just with bread like elsewhere. So we had mildly hot fish soup with homemade noodles and a good Olaszrizling (Welschriesling) spritzer to go with it. It was on one of the these gastro tours that we discovered they make pretty good wine here in Croatia too! ...
The Balaton wine route is one of our most colorful and beautiful wine regions. There are lots of programs, opportunities for relaxation, and many wineries that await us close to its shores with numerous lodging options. There is a bike path that goes all around: around 60% is an actual bike path and the remaining 40% is low-traffic roads or sidewalks. The route around the lake is 200km if we don't take any detours. We made it in 220 kilometers and traveled this distance in three days. (Last year we made it around the lake in two days, but it was a bit strenuous and there wasn't much time for wine tasting.) We departed from Balatonlelle (by the way, most of the wineries are in south Balaton, thanks to the co-operative BB breaking-up and selling off its bits and pieces). It'd be worth spending a few days here. ...
Wine Tours 
