Tarcal and the wine of Kings - A Travel Essay
In its September 2017 issue, "Hungarian Review" published my essay on the Tokaj wine region under the title "TARCAL AND THE WINE OF KINGS - TRAVELLING IN THE TOKAJ REGION". Here it is. At the hilltop, above the terraces of vines, the Terézia Chapel's bright white walls and new copper roof shine like a bright beacon against the deep blue of the autumn sky. The leaves on the vines are turning golden with the season. With the sun on our backs the October afternoon is pleasantly warm. The Terézia vineyard, one of the best and most historic in the Tokaj region, is named after the chapel; and the chapel in turn is named for St Theresa, namesake of the Empress Maria-Theresa. Maria-Theresa, the only ever female Habsburg ruler, lived from 1717 to 1780 and reigned from 1740 to 1780. Among her many titles she was Queen of Hungary, crowned in Bratislava (Pozsony, Pressburg) on 25 June 1741. In the precarious early years of her reign, when the questioning of her