The Foreign Office’s selection for 2015 presents exquisite wines to represent Hungary

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has chosen the wines that will be offered at diplomatic events. The excellent quality wines and wineries were presented at Carton Hungaricum, an event launched to popularize Hungary.

„The Foreign Office has always paid attention that Hungary’s foreign representation and cultural institutions should only offer wines that had been chosen after a procedure of careful selection.”, said Balazs Kohut, the undersecretary of the ministry’s public administration. Carton Hungaricum was first held in 2013, but at the beginning, its aim was popularizing smaller wineries, fostering foreign trade and the expansion of diplomatic relations. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has connected this programme with its own selection procedure, and this year it was Carton Hungaricum’s tender that chose the line of wines representing Hungarian culture to international delegations.

The selection was a part of an open tender, adds Ildiko Kali, co-chairman of Carton Hungaricum’s jury. This year, the professional jury has picked the finest wines in three categories: grand superior wines, which will represent the country at the highest levels of diplomatic events, superiors, that will be served at cultural and professional events, and those classified as classic wines, will be offered to guests of the ministry’s events. The tender targeted bigger wineries this year, as the competing companies have to be able to prepare large amounts of wines for the diplomatic events.

Two members of the jury represented the international wine industry’s front line, Markus del Monego was awarded with the ’Master of Wine’ title and Aigars Lukstins Latvian sommelier champion were invited to take part in the selection process. The 23 selected wines were picked to represent the Carpathian Basin’s characteristic wine types, and it was also an important criterium for the winners to harmonize with traitional Hungarian cuisine.