 to Exotic Wine Travel. I am your host, Matthew Horkey. So we're doing a little hybrid video today. This is gonna be on one of our regular YouTube episodes. Plus it's an update, a Kickstarter update for Discover Hungaring Wine. If you haven't backed it yet, back it today. We still have a big mountain to climb, but you know what, we're just gonna keep, we're trying to build some momentum, trying to create a snowball effect to get this project off the ground. We wanna make it the definitive guide in English to Hungarian wines. But in this episode, we're gonna break down the region of sex hide. I just recently got back from visiting the region for a day. I wanna thank Vita Peter of Vita Winery for setting up a wonderful afternoon, a wonderful day of visiting vineyards, even though it was wet, rainy, we couldn't see a lot, and then meeting with some of the smaller producers in the region. For those of you who don't know, this is one of Hungary's premier red wine regions. You know, when you think of red wine in Hungary, there's four that come to mind. One of the most prestigious is Vilan, which is a little bit south. Sexhard, Chopron, which borders Burgunlin, and Eger, where they also make Bikavar, that's further north, actually next to Tokai. So just a little word on Sexhard, there's about 2,400 hectares of vineyards there. It's a region that I love. It's one of my favorite regions in Hungary. Sexhard is a cool region because there's a lot of micro-climates. If you're going down the highway from Budapest to south, you'll also even see these strips of hills. These are a strip of low-lying mountain hills that go north to south. And from the highway, you couldn't even tell it's a wine region, but once you get into those hills, you're gonna see cool little valleys which create tons of micro-climates. There's not a lot of big humongous plots of vineyards. Most vineyard plots are small and they're hidden within some of these valleys. That's why they're trying to develop a cruise system to identify some of these great terroirs. Most of the soil there you're gonna see is loss. Sexhard-y wines are the kind of wines that I drink every single day, especially Bikavar. So I'm gonna show you what you're gonna find. So in Sexhard, you're typically gonna find red wines. There are some white wines being made, but most of the production is red. You're gonna find varietal wines, exciting wines, like these wines from Heteini, Kadarka is made there, new varietal wine. Keckfrankosch. This Tabernac keckfrankosch is also fantastic. You're also gonna see varietal wines from Cabernet Saint-Yon, Merlot, Cabernet Franck, Syrah in some aspects. That's mostly what you're gonna see. I find the keckfrankosch and the kadarka wines to be very exciting and very underpriced, especially if you're in Hungary. They're spicy or they're medium-body reds. They're very, very food-friendly. Cabernet Franck as a varietal is also something that does really, really well. It has some of the leafy black olive notes that you like. Maybe down in Vélon, they're a little bit bigger, a little more brooding, but in Sexhard, they kind of resemble a Cabernet Franck, kind of like a Riper-Chino morgue in style. On top of that, you're gonna see Bikavar. That's right, Sexhard is one of the regions besides agar that can make Bikavar or bull's blood. Now, what you're gonna see, these wines are made up of about 40, at least 40 to 45% of keckfrankosch. It's gotta be about 5% of kadarka, and then you can play. Syrah, merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franck. I've seen Sacrantino, Carmenier in these blends. I think these wines are outstanding. They're something that you should try when you're hungry. I've tasted ones that have been everything from maybe a village Burgundy in style, all the way up to a really nice Chianti classical with some grippy tannins. I love Sexhard and Bikavar. It's something that I wanna drink every single day. It's a reason why I love hungarian wines in general. You're also gonna see some single vineyard Bikavars. As Sexhard's starting to try to roll out some crews. Shibaschen is a winery that I like very much. I write about so much. I really like their single vineyard Bikavars. It's something that really turned me into the end of the region in the first place. Another thing, Bikavar, Cacfrancos, Cadarco, kind of the local Sexhard thing. They can be bottled in these Sexhard bottles. Now I'll put this up there. These Sexhard bottles are kind of, they're kind of cool. I compare it like almost the, it's almost got the pound round bottom of like a Burgundy bottle, but then the slimness of a Bordeaux bottle. You smush those two together and that's kind of what you get with the Sexhard bottle. They say Sexhard right there. They have to go through a blind tasting of local producers too for the wines to be able to be bottled in this manner. You're also gonna see some producers make premium single vineyard, like I said, of the variety of wines. Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot. You're gonna see those up top. You also see some Bordeaux blends which can be premium wines as well. And at the very top, there's a brand called the Sexhard Grande which can only be declared in good vintages. Must be 50% cake Francoise. Blau Frankis and the rest of a bunch of other varieties that goes through strict yield control and a blind tasting and these wines are expensive. We're talking 40, 50, 90 euros. Some can be really darn delicious. So if you make it to Hungary, check out some of these wines. They have a great, great name, the region Sexhard. And you'll be finding out a lot about those in our book, Discover Hungarian Wines. So if you haven't backed it already, please back it. Let's bring Hungarian wines to the world. It's gonna take all of us. And guys, if you like this video, please subscribe to our YouTube channel, Exact Minesharval. I will see you at the next episode.