Travels through old wine country

In June 2009, Graham Howe took an epic journey through old wine country, travelling two thousand kilometres up the Danube by river boat through the heart of Eastern Europe.
 
The road passes through ancient vineyards planted on a large island which lies at the mouth of the Danube on the Black Sea. Villagers taking a siesta on a balmy summer's afternoon quaff wine straight from the bottle - and wave from vine-covered peasant smallholdings and rustic taverns along the roadside. I'll be ready for Pinot noir from the old vineyards of Murfatlar by the time we reach the Romanian port of Tulcea.

We board our good ship the MV Mozart moored in the heart of the Danube delta, a Unesco world heritage site, and fertile land for bird-watchers, fishermen and farmers. Over the next fortnight, we will pass through ten countries divided by the Danube, the second longest river in Europe (after the Volga) - and the strategic boundary between West and East for millennia. From my river boat I look out at the jigsaw pieces of Bulgaria on the west bank and Romania, Moldavia and Ukraine on the east bank.

Looking at a wine map, I'm struck by the extensive vineyards along the Danube from Kishinev in Moldavia to Murfatlar and Segarcea in Romania (one of the ten biggest wine producers in Europe). Many are planted to familiar cultivars such as Chardonnay, Cabernet, Merlot, Pinot and Riesling - some to Muscat first planted by the ancient Greeks; and many to indigenous grapes like Babeasca. I enjoy a taste of Cotnari Grasa, a dry natural dessert wine from Romania once as renowned as Tokay.

To the north of Bucharest, the capital of Romania, lie the vineyards of Dealul Mare - a day's trip into the south-eastern foothills of the Carpathians. Travelling by river boat on the Danube, these inland vineyards with an interesting South African connection are out of reach. I recall the tales of Razvan Macici, the cellar master at Nederburg, who grew up among a family of viticulturalists and winemakers in the vineyards of Dealul Mare - one of the most important red wine export regions in Romania.

Reading strange wine labels turns out to be quite a challenge - especially when trying to detect grape varieties in a script which remind me of alphabet soup. Identifying a red or white wine in a village grocery or bar where no-one speaks English or French is easy enough - hold the bottle up to the light - but even red wines can be sweet (dolce) or even demi-dulce (like my Pinot noir surprise). I enjoy hearty goulash and dumplings with fine Hungarian wine from Chapel Hill from the global cellar on my river boat - as well as good local Riesling. I proudly recommend Cape wines to other passengers - Welmoed Sauvignon Blanc and Kaapzicht red - at R250 on the wine list.

Watching rural life and landscapes pass by along the broad Danube, we make our way through the land of the big five B's - Bucharest (Romania), Bulgaria, Belgrade (Serbia), Budapest (Hungary) and Bratislava (Slovakia). Travelling by river is the way to go - avoiding the hustle and bustle of airports, highways, coach stations, rail stations, undergrounds, motels and hotels. The river came before the road - and many of Europe's great castles, civic buildings and opera halls face the waterfront to impress the visitor - especially in great cities such as Budapest, Belgrade and Vienna.

The vineyards of Bulgaria, where wine is a big export and hard currency earner like Romania, pass by on the west bank of the Danube. I keep my eyes peeled for robust local varieties like Gamza, Pamid and Mavrud - as well as Riesling and Traminer. The locals reckon some red wines are so dense you can carry them in your handkerchief!

In an era of global brands dominated by classic varieties, indigenous wines which reflect a distinct national character (like Pinotage) are a refreshing change from monoculture. But today Eastern Europe exports more top-class Cabernet, Chardonnay, Merlot, Pinot noir and Gris. To confuse matters, some local varieties are known by different names - Gamza in Bulgaria is like Kardaka in Hungary; Riesling in Slovenia is not Rhine but Olasz "Rizling"; Furmint in Hungary is Sipon in Slovenia...but wine quality and origin are based on the French controls of wine appellations.

A passage through the iron gates of the Danube - the dramatic gorge made navigable by giant locks between Romania and Serbia - is the highlight of the river cruise. Tito's statue still guards the old iron curtain - and the massive image of King Decebalos, carved into the rock face like the US presidents at Mount Rushmore. We were half-way upstream at the 1000km marker on the river bank. Unlike most rivers the Danube is measured from mouth to source - and the only river in Europe to flow West to East.

Time passes slowly on the river at fifteen knots - with forays ashore to daytrip through grand cities like Belgrade, a crucible of conflict in the Balkans for centuries. A river cruise has only been possible since the end of the civil war in former Yugoslavia in the 1990s - when all the rubble from bombed bridges was cleared. Tourism is new in these parts. When I visit the famous gallery of orthodox icons in the national museum of Serbia, the curator said, "Zatvereno" (Closed). "Open Tuesdays?" I ask. "Closed every day! Closed for seven years for renovations!"

The MV Mozart glides right between Buda and Pest, two settlements located on the west and east bank of the waterway respectively. Moored beneath the famous green steel Independence Bridge - one of nine bridges across the Danube in Budapest - I enjoy shopping for Hungary's fabled wine, paprika and salamis in the old market. Tokay - known as Aszu - the renowned noble dessert wine from the north-east of Hungary, was once enjoyed by tsars. For around R300, I buy top-quality ten year-old Tokay - though I fail in my mission to find a bottle of Aszu Eszencia 1957, a legendary vintage made in my birth year - and save myself a king's or tsar's ransom.

I enjoy an affordable vintage of the red wine known as Bull's Blood Bikaver, matured in casks in the deep limestone caverns of the Eger vineyards near Budapest. This dense, full-bodied red variety is the perfect match for lashings of hearty goulash and as robust as the wild gypsy music in a local restaurant - with double bass, accordion, fiddle and a melancholic finish. A taste of Hungary's Harslevelu (meaning lime-leaf), an intriguing white wine with earthy, tangy flavours takes me down memory lane to Tulbagh where I first tasted the variety two decades ago at Lemberg. I wonder whether the Cape's sole Harslevelu vines are still there, so far from native Hungary?

Moving nearer to journey's end at Vienna - marker 1929km from the river mouth - the Danube was brown not blue as the banks flooded from heavy summer rains. Vienna is surrounded by vineyards and wine villages. We end up in a heurigen - a rustic wine tavern run by vintners who make and serve young wines of the new vintage by the jug at modest prices with traditional Austrian schnitzel and wurst. These fresh, scintillating and slightly petillant wines made from "gemischter satz" (mixed grapes) inspired thoughts of the need for jolly, unpretentious heurigen in the Cape's Winelands which could serve the first wines of the new harvest close to source.

Wine can take you to magical places, deep into the heart of old wine country - all the way up the Danube from river mouth to source. We headed for journey's end at Donaueschingen, the source of the Danube in a spring in the gardens of the Furstenberg Palace - at 2,715km. I look forward to doing the Orange River next.