06/08/2026
Another stop in Somló let me find this today quite rare Hungarian variety, that once was planted all over the country...
Ezerjó is especially known in the Hungarian region of Mor, where it also has been used to producing sweet, bortrytis-affected dessert wines.
The grape
Ezerjó, meaning "a thousand good" or "a thousand blessings," is a true Hungaricum, historically at home in the small region of Mór between Budapest and Lake Balaton. Once widely planted in the era of mass production, it fell from fashion after 1990 and is now a rarity even within Hungary. Thick-skinned and naturally high in acidity, it is unusually versatile, turned into sparkling, dry still, oak-aged and, in the rare right vintage, sweet botrytized wine.
2. The find
This bottle came from another stop at the Somló wine shop, and it is an Ezerjó grown not in its native Mór but on the volcanic hill of Somló, by Péter Tóth of Kőfejtő Pince, a small organic grower whose name refers to an old quarry cut into the hill. That volcanic stone, too crumbly to ever build with, lets the vines root deep, and is often credited for the salty precision of Somló's wines.
3. The tasting
Bright in the glass and only 11.5 percent alcohol, yet fully ripe: yellow apple and pear over the saline, stony minerality that marks Somló. The palate is racy and mouthwatering, an acidity bomb even for such a warm region, framed by a creamy lees texture and a hint of malolactic roundness from old Hungarian oak. Fresh, mineral and long, it is one for lovers of high-acid whites and a natural match for oily fish.
