On the 4th of February 2022, VisitDebrecen and the professional journal Debreceni Borozó held the wine competition and judged for this year’s title with wine academics, winemakers, and sommeliers. Last year, the first round of wine testing was conducted by a panel of winemakers and wine experts from Debreceni Borozó, which judged 426 wines from 86 wineries in 15 wine regions.
Based on the results of the first round of judging, the wineries with the highest scores were invited to the next round of the competition, at which point the jury decided about the title of “Wines of Debrecen 2022”. The title of the “Wines of Debrecen 2022” will be awarded in 7 categories, including champagne, classic white wine, classic red wine, classic rosé, premium white wine, premium red wine, and sweet white wine. The winners are selected from 96 wines of 22 wineries in total.
In his opening speech, Deputy Mayor István Puskás said that Debrecen is not considered to be one of the great wine cities. Still, the relationship between Debrecen and wine goes back centuries. He noted that the Érmellék, a region of Partium, was once Debrecen’s vineyard, where Magda Szabó and her family survived the most difficult months of the Second World War. As he said, this also shows how close the relationship was between the families of Debrecen and the vineyards of Érmellék.
The city is also the gateway to the North Eastern wine regions of Egér and Tokaj, not only in terms of air travel, with the region’s only international airport, but also by road and rail.
Nóra Erdei, PR Manager of VisitDebrecen, said in her welcome speech that the Hungarian experience that a foreign tourist seeks can be found in Debrecen. She stressed that gastronomy and wine are an essential part of quality tourism, and the city has a number of gastronomic and wine events where the country’s wine producers are welcome.
Pál Kovács, the publisher of the Debrecen Borozó, Friend of Wine Makers award winner and member of the Hungarian Wine Academy, pointed out that the judging team had tasted nearly 500 wines from over the past year 80 wineries. They had selected the 20 that had shown the best results over the past year. He added that the wines in the competition must first impress the judges and then the people of Debrecen and its visitors.
The competition “Wines of Debrecen 2022” results will be announced by the organizers at a later date.
