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Somló – Tradition

Few wine hills in Hungary have spawned so many tales and legends as the Somló hill, with its lavish lyrical-poetic topography. A 435-meter high solitary volcanic butte, Somló (alongside the accompanying cones of the Ság and the Small Somló) is ‘withdrawn’ to the southern fringes of the Kisalföld (Small Plain). As you approach it, the landscape seems to level out like a magical table-cloth of the fairy tales, and you behold the nearly 5 million-year old basalt hill ruling over the terrain. A stunning sight, the immense hill-island looms in the white, almost blinding light of a blissful Sun. There is light all around, an air space of mythological radiance, while the dense and mysterious vines embrace the hill.

Volcanic memories of the Somló’s geological history linger on in the terrain, in its rocks, water, plants, birds, and incandescent air: in the entirety of its life. Volcanic memory traces similarly permeate the activities of the inhabitants, the labour of the people who had built retaining walls on the malleable volcanic rock and its sand and clay sediments, and who put their backs to planting vine, heroically cultivating the steep slopes, in anticipation of an exceptional reward for their toils: the gift of the basalt hill, the nectar of gods. They even built a fortress on top of the basalt hill during the reign of the old Anjou kings; thus, soldiers, military leaders, and literati, who stayed there and drank its wine, spread word about it. Poets and writers called it the land of fables, creating works of art inspired by its bustling life and a longing for perfect harmonies. You will indeed feel as if being touched by splendid and tranquil cosmic harmonies, sitting under an old walnut tree in one of the vineyards under the captivating “basalt organ pipes” – let’s say in the vicinity of the old tread-wheel water pump – as you view the genuine afternoon landscape facing South. This is not so much the “classical” landscape of the ancient times, since we are in Pannonia. With a subtle stylization, however, around the basalt organs where lannerets nestle and ravens fly, you may sense “a serene awareness of the presence of gods”, as Béla Hamvas, one of the writer discoverers of Somló, worded it.

Owing to its unique microclimate, the Somló hill yields fiery wines, simply because they are produced on hot volcano. According to old lore, the “kidney” of Nagysomló (Big Somló) yields the strong ancient “somlai” wines of unmistakable bouquet: the Furmint, the Hárslevelű (Linden Leaf), the Sárfehér (Mud White), the Italian Riesling, and their blends. One might consider these as “eternal things”, akin to splendid works of art: full-bodied, fiery wines with harmonious acids and a glimmer tending to green, which come from vines that still retain, as writer Sándor Márai sensed it, “the traces of ancient Italian vines and their traditions”. Additional local wisdoms, however, can also be found in this land; wisdom spawning, for instance, from the poetic world of Dániel Berzsenyi, a son of this land (born in the vicinity of the Small Somló) who wrote a body of poems evoking the agency of volcanic forces. His surging poetic imagery with its lava-like flow, the creative depths and philosophical perspectives of his artistic world, all reveal wisdom of the highest degree. Similarly to the best wines of Somló, they let you know that blissful wisdom is the greatest gift one may receive from life.

Ambrus Lajos, író