Szekszárd

Appears in
Oxford Companion to Wine

By Jancis Robinson

Published 2006

  • About

Szekszárd, wine region and pdo in southern hungary with a special loess soil as deep as 10 to 15 m (35–50 ft) in places. The landscape is very varied, which allows different mesoclimates to shape the wines. The Szekszárd Hill is 100–120 m/330–395 ft high on average. The steep slopes are dissected by erosional valleys and ravines with the eastern and southern slopes generally providing the best wines. The kadarka grape, once the chief component of bikavér, made Szekszárd’s viticulture famous in the 18th and 19th centuries and its attractively scented, relatively soft wine can once again be found fairly easily, either as a varietal Kadarka, Kékfrankos, Bikavér (a blend now based on Kékfrankos), or a bordeaux blend.