The Joy of Buying Locally (Especially Wine)

"Buy local" was a sentiment I heard often when I lived in North America, and while I inherently found the notion agreeable even before it got crammed into the cornucopia of trendy, hippie-dippie nonsense like the tiny house movement, I generally found it difficult to purchase locally while I lived in Canada and the United States. On one hand, the sheer dimensions of what could be considered local in North America where often mind-boggling - for example, an apple orchard eighty kilometers from your home could still qualify as local. On the other hand, local producers of anything were often difficult to locate in the suburban wastelands that make up so much of the North American landscape. The odd times I was able to find local producers - be it vegetables, fruit, honey, handicrafts, or anything else for that matter - I found, to my dismay, that these producers had adopted a Disneyesque business model that transformed something as simple as picking your own fruit into something resembling a theme park complete with entrance fees(!), overcrowding, jammed parking lots, idiotic mascots, rides, amusements, kitschy decor, and extremely high prices. Suffice it to say, my motivation to buy locally diminished significantly after a few of these kinds of experiences. 

Luckily, buying locally in the true sense of the phrase still exists in Hungary. That is not to say that amusement-park style fruit-picking adventure parks cannot be found here - they can, but luckily they are mostly found near Budapest. Here in western Hungary, buying locally remains traditional and low-key. The region in which I live is particulary blessed agriculturally, meaning I can purchase an amazing variety of produce within a ten-kilometer radius of my home. In fact, I can find a considerable number of great products in the small village in which I reside.

With a population of only 650, Fertőendréd has two beekeepers, a slew of vegetable and fruit producers, and a winery. Yes, a winery! I discovered that a local family named Ács owns a vineyard in the village and that two adult brothers from family recently decided to bottle and sell the wine made from the grapes they harvest. Though kékfrankos (blue Frankish) is the trademark wine of the region, I prefer the whites, with ottonel muscat being my favorite. Lucky for me, the Ács brothers make a splended ottonel muscat and sell it for a price well below what most retailers charge for the same wine.

​The truly special thing about this locally-made wine is its flavor - whenever I sample it, I feel as if I am drinking the very essence of the landscape I have come to know and love.