Csongrád wines are rarely tasted by anyone from outside the region. Unfortunately, few producers bottle their wines, even today. Vines dominate the landscape, while the sunshine and sandy soils that are quick to warm provide the ideal terroir for black varieties that need warmth to open. The region needs to be exploited and accepted by both producers and consumers.
GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION
The Csongrád wine district lies along the lower reaches of the River Tisza, on its right bank. Administratively, it is part of Csongrád County. The wine district is divided into four subdistricts. The total production of the wine district is 14,311 hectares, however, the area under vine is only 909 hectares.
SOIL
The wine district's prevailing bedrock is Holocene alluvial calcareous sand with more cohesive alluvial mud around Csongrád and Kőrös and, less frequently, Pleistocene loess or aeolian drifting sand.
Soils include decalcified alluvial soils of Tisza origin, acid sand and black soil of Tisza origin, as well as patches of calcareous sand, partly of Danube origin and partly wind-blown, in places mixed with loess. Sandy soils are generally poor in humus and nutrients. Ground water can be found at depths of 3-6 metres, so it is easy for the vines' roots to reach. The terrain is mostly flat, with gently undulating hillocks 2-3 metres in height.
CLIMATE
It has an extremely continental climate with low rainfall. It boasts a high level of heat and solar radiation, with 2,050-2,100 sunlight hours per year. The plentiful sunshine and high number of heat units facilitate ripening and sugar formation. It is one of the warmest wine districts in the country.
GRAPE VARIETIES AND TYPICAL WINE STYLES
Just over half of the vines in the Csongrád wine district are white wine varieties. The main varieties are Cserszegi Fűszeres, Kövidinka, Olaszrizling, Riesling (Rajnai Rizling) and Kunleány. The predominant black varieties are Kékfrankos and Zweigelt.
Csongrád wines usually have medium to high levels of alcohol, are made from extremely ripe grapes and tend to have low acidity. Although, there are not exactly huge quantities of top-class, fine wines here, this region boasted its own famous wines in the last century. These included Pusztamérges Olaszrizling, Csongrád Kadarka, Csongrád Cabernet and Csongrád Kékfrankos. These fruity wines are clearly different from those produced in other parts of the Great Plain. If they were more widely available, their warmer style would definitely be popular with a large group of consumers.
It was mainly the red and siller wines that were famed with urban citizens and merchants. This mantle of sand that covers most of the Csongrád area also extends into the territory of modern-day Serbia. Although you have to cross the border, it's also worth exploring this extension of the Great Plain. The concentration of these wines grown on sand mixed with loess exceeds the national average, thus refuting all the preconceptions of wines produced in warm areas with sandy soils.