Treehugger Dan's and Discover Budapest created the Bitch Moan and Wine Society last month, with an introductory tasting of the wines of the Badacsony Region. The second of our monthly Bitch Moan and Wine tastings was another resounding success, and featured the wines of the Villany Region. The featured wines included:<!-- pagebreak -->

Tamas and Zsolt Gere - Pinot Noir 2004/2005 (Bitch Moan and Wine product code 220)
Tamas Gere - Chardonnay barrique 2007 (product code 211)
Zoltan Polgar - Kadarka Siller 2007 (product code 247)
Malatinssky - Kekfrankos 2005 (product code 234)
Gyorgy-villa - Merlot 2003 (product code 228)
Tiffán - Immortal Cuvée 2006 (product code 262)

At every wine tasting we also feature a local food producer. In September this was Istvan "The Cheese Guy" from the Hunyadi ter market, and in October David Wilkinson presented his homemade English-style sausages. The Wilkinson family has been producing prize-winning sausages in Yorkshire for over 50 years. In 2005, David started to produce British sausages in Budapest - with a meat content of over 80%, Grade-A pork, and produced in state-of-the-art facilities. David brought samples of the following sausages to taste:

Cumberland: traditionally a little spicier than other British sausages, consisting of a mixture of fresh pork, herbs and spices.
Lincolnshire: a herby sausage with sage.
Plain Pork: a traditional pork sausage with a dash of pepper.
Tomato Chipolata: the children's favourite.
Email David at sausage@chello.hu, tel: 30-855-7165

Talking with others, it seems my taste in wines quite differ from the majority. However, on the night I preferred the Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and especially the Kekfrankos. I found the Merlot, Siller and Immortal Cuvee disappointing. Polgar's Siller is quite exceptional, but it was not cold enough before we served it, and people mistook it for a Rose. On the whole, people were the most taken with the Kekfrankos, Merlot, and Immortal Cuvee.

The following morning, Bottle Hugger Ben and I went with Csaba Szeremley to help harvest and press his grapes. Csaba's wines were featured during our first wine tasting in September (2006 Badacsonyi Olasz Rizling - Bitch Moan and Wine product code 40, 2007 Badacsonyi Olasz Rizling - product code 41, and Irsai Cuvee). His vineyard is located in the hills between Monsotorapati and Szentbekala, a simply gorgeous area. Someone recommended years ago that I buy property there, and now that I have seen the place, I deeply regret not having listened. I have helped friends harvest grapes both in Eger and Sarospatak, but I have never before been party to the entire process. Csaba has just bought a newfangled press in Slovenia that runs on water power. Water is pumped into a big deflated rubber ball that presses the grapes into the side of the press and squeezes the juice out. This greatly sped up the process compared to last year. Fueled on froccs and Csaba's paprikas csirke, we worked until almost midnight. In the morning we cleaned everything up, transferred the grape juice into other vats, and bottled ourselves some must (the sweet juice from the pressed grapes from which the sugar is fermented into alcohol to make wine) to take home. If we had not been exhausted enough, we dug potatoes and carrots from the back garden, picked walnuts and almonds, and spent some lovely hours out in the perfect autumn weather. Actually, I love digging potatoes, digging through the warm soil and coming up with nests of them in all shapes and sizes.

The next wine tasting is November 13. To become a member or get news about the wine tastings, send an email to wine@bitchmoanwine.com