Medium-bodied, spicy and food-friendly, a blend by law
Ageing
4–12 years
Serving
16–17 °C
"Bull's Blood" — Egri Bikavér — is Hungary's most famous red, a blend made in the cellar-riddled volcanic hills of Eger and wrapped in a siege legend from the Turkish wars, when defenders were said to have drunk it for courage. Always a blend, it is led today by Kékfrankos (Blaufränkisch) with a cast of local and international grapes.
For decades the name was traded on for thin bulk wine; a new generation of growers has restored it to a medium-bodied, spicy, genuinely characterful red. Its revival is one of the quiet good-news stories of central European wine.