Etyek

Etyek lies in low hills close enough to Budapest to be a half-hour drive, and its limestone soils and cool nights produce high-acid white wine that has long been used as the base for Hungarian sparkling wine, with chardonnay, sauvignon blanc and the local irsai oliver planted across the slopes. What visitors come for is the Oreghegy, a hillside of small whitewashed press houses and cellars dug into the soft rock, many of them now open at weekends as tasting rooms and restaurants, giving the place the feel of a village that turned its working cellars into a wine street. Korda Studios, one of the larger film studios in Europe, sits just outside, and food festivals fill the calendar.

Highlights

• The Oreghegy cellar rows - whitewashed press houses cut into the hill.
• Sparkling base wine - the high-acid whites the region supplies.
• Weekend tasting rooms - working cellars opened to visitors.
• Korda Studios nearby - the film production complex outside the village.

When to go

May to October, and specifically weekends, when the cellars open. A day. Many cellars are closed midweek. Harvest and the spring wine walks are the busiest dates.

What to expect

Midweek most of it is shut and there is little to do. Public transport is poor and drink-driving rules in Hungary are absolute zero tolerance, so plan a driver. Weekend festivals get very crowded.

Nearby

Zsambek is north; Budapest lies east.