Hungarian wine to bring back to the states

I have a friend headed to visit family in Hungary shortly and has offered to bring back wine. I don’t want to hassle him for wines that can be readily obtained here already, so my question is what wines are: 1. delicious, 2. easy to find in Hungary, 2. hard to find at reasonable prices in the US ?

Leaning towards dry whites, but I’m an omnivore and open to any recommendations.

Something from the Szepsy family.

I know you said you prefer whites but the following Bordeaux blends would open eyes and be great ringers in a blind tasting.
Attila Cuvee from Gere Attila
Bock Capella Cuvee

Send them to the Bock Bisztro in Budapest and they can have a great meal and buy wine for you.
The Other thing not to forget is goose foie gras.

Listen to Todd, for he is wise man.

This.

Sparklers

Tokaj did not focus on making still wines until very recently. In the early days after communism, Szepsy and others resisted the idea because they thought it would be undermining the sweet wines that made them unique, while putting them into the dry white commodity market. They’ve reconsidered over the last thirty years and are making very good sweet wines.

Not sure where your friends are going, but my suggestion would be to look for some Tokaji-Aszu from smaller producers like Judit Bott, Alana Tokaj, and Atilla Homonna. Someone will inevitably suggest finding some Essencia, but those are usually people who don’t know anything else.

If you want something dry, then look for dry whites from the same producers. Alana makes some reds that are not imported and that are pretty good.

From Eger, you can look for Bikaver or Blaufrankisch from Grof Buttler, Bulkoyi, Simon or others.

Konyari makes a number of good reds in the Lake Balaton area.

Here’s a thread from a few years ago with some suggestions.

Thanks for the suggestions. Greg, I did find and bookmark that old thread earlier, thanks. What wasn’t clear to me was which wines could only reasonably be obtained in Hungary. Kiralyudvar for instance is readily available here.

Another vote for Istvan Szepsy. I had the pleasure of visiting his winery and tasting with him back in 2005. Some info and notes on his wines:
https://www.cellartracker.com/event.asp?iEvent=730

I would also recommend finding Tokaji from Uri Borok. Excellent wines and not a drop is sent to the US.

VM

I love Kiralyudvar’s Furmint Sec, but like you said, available here, and at a good price.

Then you might want to look for some reds from Bukolyi, or their original winery that is still buying grapes from them - Gróf Buttler, or St. Andrea, all in Eger and making good Kékfrankos and various blends. The other “birthplace” of Bikaver is Szekszárd and there are a few wineries there that are pretty good - Heimann, or Szent Gaal.

Or as mentioned, the Jufark from Somló although I believe you can get one from Aptasagi in the US. Weinninger makes wine on the Austrian and Hungarian sides of the border and none of their Hungarian wines are brought in as far as I know.

Back in the last century, I imported some Tokaji Eszencia, IIRC 1947. I have no idea if very old, barely fermented Tokaji Eszencia is still available, but if it is, there is nothing like it.

Dan Kravitz