Egri Bikaver

Yesterday afternoon I went shopping with my parents at the local Trader Joe's. It was up to me to pick out the red wine, since it is still hot outside, I seem to be the only one in my house drinking it. I decided to look for some Hungarian wine, on the off chance that a store in Albuquerque, New Mexico would have some. Sure enough, on the bottom shelf, tucked in a corner, I came across Bull's Blood wine from Eger. I jumped around elatedly (in my mind at least) at having found a Hungarian wine that I had even heard of! I had read a little blurb about its rich history in my Eyewitness travel book.

The story goes like this: In the 16th century when the Magyars were holding off the Turks (like everyone else at the time) they drank copious amounts of this wine, and rumor spread amongst the Turks that they had added Bull's blood to the wine to keep them fierce and strong.

Great story. Tonight, being Sunday and unofficial wine night, I opened up our first bottle of Hungarian wine, and it is so delicious. I kept the cork to make a necklace out of. My family all tried it as well, and hot weather or not, the Bull's Blood rests sleepily in all of our bellies tonight.