📍 Szekszárd

Szekszárd is a wine district in southern Hungary, in Tolna county, among the loess hills of the Szekszárd uplands not far from the Danube. It is part of the Pannonia wine region and is known above all for red wine. The soils here are mostly loess.

The historic grape of Szekszárd is considered to be Kadarka. According to records of 1873, before the phylloxera invasion the district's red wines were made mainly from noble Kadarka and its varieties. Kadarka is a red grape that is regarded as one of the symbols of Szekszárd.

The district's best-known wine is "Szekszárdi Bikavér" ("Bull's Blood"), a red blend of several grapes. It uses Kadarka, Kékfrankos (Blaufränkisch), Cabernet Franc, Merlot and others.

Szekszárd lies in Tolna county, in the eastern part of the Szekszárd hills, where they meet the Sárköz plain. In the survey of 1873 drawn up by Károly Keleti before the phylloxera invasion, other grapes such as Csókaszőlő, Sárfekete and Fehér Bajor appear only sporadically. "Bikavér" means "Bull's Blood" in Hungarian; red blends in Eger are called that too, but Szekszárd has its own set of grapes.