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THE CULTURE OF GRAPE CULTIVATION AND WINE PRODUCTION Csoma Zsigmond A BORKULTÚRA KÖZPONT KIADVÁNYAI THE CULTURE OF GRAPE CULTIVATION AND WINE PRODUCTION Csoma Zsigmond Fordította: Magyar Krisztina Eger, 2012 Lektorálta: St. Andrea Szőlőbirtok és Pincészet A projekt az Európai Unió támogatásával, az Európai Szociális Alap társfinanszírozásával valósult meg. Felelős kiadó: dr. Czeglédi László Készült: az Eszterházy Károly Főiskola nyomdájában, Egerben Vezető: Kérészy László Műszaki szerkesztő: Nagy Sándorné „Borkultusz” – borászathoz kapcsolódó képzésfejlesztési programok megvalósítása az Eszterházy Károly Főiskolán TÁMOP-4.1.2.A/2-10/1-2010-0009 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Preface ........................................................................................................................... 3 2. What grape varieties did our ancestors grow? ........................................................ 13 3. Traditional grape cultivating technology. The production of propagating material in the vineyards of Hungary .......................................................................................... 17 4. Land preparation in the vineyards of Hungary ...................................................... 34 5. Support systems .......................................................................................................... 41 6. Pruning and training systems ................................................................................... 45 7. Land cultivation ......................................................................................................... 54 8. Plant care on vine plantations in Hungary .............................................................. 61 9. Harvest ........................................................................................................................ 75 Introduction Dear Students, In this coursebook we deal with grape cultivation and wine production in Hungary. We study the growing body of specialised knowledge passed down from generation to generation, the history of the technology of grape cultivation and wine production and, accordingly, the history of the equipment used, local and regional innovations and the development of winemaking expertise. This book makes you familiar with the historical roots and the differences that exist regionally, between both the use of equipment and the technology. All this is considered important because we hold that without a proper knowledge of the past, there is no future. The history of wine production in Hungary is the history of a European wine region of great reputation. This history is constituted by the respective histories of the various regions and the people who inhabit these regions. The differences and similarities have been visible in the equipment used, and the technologies applied. Grape cultivation and wine production are inseparable from the culture of production in which they are embedded: they are indicative of the degree of development both of the production and of the society concerned. This is because they generated great value and required expertise. Renewal in the field has been made possible, apart from the hard work of the people involved, by expertise, resourcefulness and perpetual innovation. Therefore, the technological history of grape cultivation and wine production in Hungary is not only the history of a branch of agriculture (although, without a doubt, it is one of the most important branches) but is also the story of a people. Therefore we believe that the study of traditional grape cultivation and wine production in Hungary, the history of the instruments used, the innovations and the development of winemaking technology involves much more than the study of their historical aspects. Whoever devotes him- or herself to the study of viti- and viniculture in Hungary and in other parts of Europe, and the relationship between these traditions, deserves great praise! The objective of the course is to make students familiar with traditional methods of grape cultivation and wine production in Hungary, the equipment used, major innovations, the formation and influence of specialised knowledge, and the interrelationship of Hungarian and European wine production, the identification of major tendencies, with an emphasis on their lasting influence. Course requirements include knowledge of major tendencies, familiarity with the historical and regional differences in the use of equipment and technology and the reasons for such differences. The examination consists of an oral and a written part. The tasks in the written exam include giving definions and explaining key concepts, answering open and closed questions and completing a multiple-choice test. The book ends with a glossary of terms and a bibliography. 1. PREFACE Bartók and Kodály, when researching Hungarian folk music, discovered that it was based on the pentatonic scale, which they considered our musical “native idiom”. Following their example, I would also like to delve into the past and, by tracing the long history of Hungarian grape cultivation and wine production, make you familiar with its professional idiom, which is constituted by a vast array of methods considered typically and traditionally Hungarian. Naturally, when we speak about Hungarian grape cultivation and wine production, we also speak about European wine culture, since Hungarian wine culture is an integral part of European viti- and viniculture. However, this book aims to be more than just an exploration of the history of Hungarian grape cultivation and winemaking. It also has for aim to raise the curiosity of people interested in wine culture in the broad sense of the term. I would like to discuss the peculiarities of Hungarian grape cultivation and wine production methods, those tricks of the trade which have made Hungarian wines famous the world over. At the same time, I would like to discuss the mistakes Hungarian wine producers have made. For, in some instances, wine not treated in the right way kept wine merchants away from faulty Hungarian wines. I feel that those interested in the native idiom of Hungarian viniculture will find the information provided useful. In my book, I discuss the following questions: how did people in Hungary cultivate grapes centuries ago? How did they try to attain the best quality by making use of the ecological conditions? What exactly did it mean that they produced the best quality must in Europe and what was the secret of their success? How can the experience of generations past be used today? Can you use this knowledge today at all and to what extent? What is it that can no longer be done today and what are the aims and procedures that should and must be pursued, not just to maintain professional prestige but also in the relentless struggle to comply with quality standards? The best winemakers of Tokaj-Hegyalja, who produced exceptionally high quality, began using methods several hundred years old in curbing grape yield, or when applying new technology. The production experience of previous centuries consisted in a growing body of knowledge passed down from generation to generation. The history of traditional Hungarian viti- and viniculture is constituted by this knowledge, accumulated for centuries. The process involved development and stagnation, and sometimes, recession. The development of the wine trade in Hungary has been characterised by booms and regressions: now it produced excellent quality, now it lost markets by prioritising quantity at the expense of quality, depending on the interests of the royal-imperial court. From the Middle Ages through the 17th century to the present day, this tendency has characterised the grape and wine trade in Hungary. Each period, however, has been characterised by the vinegrower’s devotion to his grapes and wine. Vinegrowers perfected their own knowledge by taking over methods, more conducive to successful farming than their own, from farmers in other European wine-producing regions. Thus, when we speak about the idiom of Hungarian viniculture, we mean the totality of the methods and procedures that characterised it and that differentiated it from viniculture in other countries. Naturally, this idiom was formed by the influence of neighbouring peoples. In areas cohabited by distinct ethnic or religious groups, it absorbed some of the knowledge of other ethnicities. However, in this mixed idiom, the traditionally Hungarian elements prevailed, but not at the expense of foreign elements. Thus Hungarian viniculture preserved this ancient Hungarian idiom but allowed it to alter and expand. That is why one ought to be familiar with the characteristic features of traditional grape cultivation and wine production in Hungary, and their various interrelationships. Traditional viniculture is part of the Hungarian agricultural tradition, and unfamiliarity with this tradition would mean the giving up of European heritage and a lack of respect for what is uniquely Hungarian, and for the past of Hungary. Ignoring this past would help to delete, from the multifaceted European agricultural palette – just at a time of fierce competition in the EU market– one of Europe’s most significant vinicultural traditions. To a Hungarian vinegrower, grape cultivation and winemaking guaranteed emotional stability, represented eternal hope and nurtured the will to live. That is why natural disasters or sudden grape diseases were great traumas for vinegrowing communities. Vinegrowers in Hungary lived and breathed together with