Wine regions: The Great Plain

This vast, flat expanse (known as Alföld in Hungary) south of Budapest and between the Danube and Hungary’s second river, the Tisza, accounts for nearly half the country’s vineyards. The plain was heavily planted after the phylloxera invasion because of phylloxera’s intolerance of sandy soils, and because vines were better at stabilizing the soil than the fruit trees planted earlier.

mechanization is easy on this flat land, but the drought in summer and frost in both late spring and autumn are a perennial threat, and the combination of sandy soil and high summer temperatures means that soil temperatures can be very high indeed.