From one side of a computer screen, Carolyn and Gábor Bánfalvi speak to oenophiles twice a week in America, Europe and beyond, presenting Hungarian wines to the world via online tasting sessions. The husband-and-wife team behind Taste Hungary have managed to do the impossible: keeping their tourism-based business afloat despite crushing lockdown restrictions, with bright-eyed optimism for what the future holds. Between the online tastings, a steady import business to the US and their recently opened "friendly neighbourhood wine shop", the duo speak about the pandemic hardships and reopening goals in the world of wine.
Carolyn and Gábor met while working
on a cruise ship sailing between Florida and the Bahamas. “I went on a cruise and
ended up in Hungary,” Carolyn says with an affectionate smile towards her
husband. The US native has since written a book on Hungarian cuisine – Food Wine
Budapest – after taking various writing gigs in Hungary as a freelance
journalist.
“I found I always wanted to write about food and wine,” she
explains in relation to the assignments. “After the book was published, we kept
getting emails from people asking for tips, so we said, we should bring them
here.”
This was the start of Taste Hungary, founded in 2008 just as
food tourism was becoming a hot topic. Twice a day they ran specialised wine
tastings, bringing in winemakers every two weeks to present their regions
and grape varieties.
As the business grew, the Bánfalvis were eager to expand,
purchasing an upstairs room to host bigger parties, and beginning their import business in Washington, DC. A storefront across the street
was kept in reserve for future plans of opening a wine shop, and Carolyn was
taking classes with the British Wine & Spirit Education Trust, working
towards a degree.
“And then, suddenly, everything vanished,” says Carolyn. “We had five or six people working here, and now we have only two left – and even then we don’t make enough money to afford them, but we don’t want to lay them off.” Where once there was booming business, suddenly the virus shuttered the doors.
With little else to turn to, the Bánfalvis began selling the wines in their reserve, and turning to their US import business to keep from falling into the same fate of bankruptcy as many other small businesses have experienced. “We directly import our Hungarian wines in the US, and are licensed to sell them online, directly to customers,” explains Gábor. “And we’re the only Hungarian wine club in the US.”
This sparked the couple’s surprisingly successful virtual wine-tasting enterprise, wherein participants receive 18 bottles, and open their laptops to tune in to the online experience. The tastings take place in the evening – US time, meaning Gábor is often hosting the tastings at 3am from Budapest.
“Sometimes it’s a group of friends doing the tasting together,” says Carolyn, “other times we have people tuning in from five to ten different locations at a time!” In fact, the tastings have been so popular that it earned the team the Drinks Business Award for Best Contribution to Wine and Spirits Tourism for 2020.
In addition to the virtual tastings, the duo also host Facebook Live events every other Wednesday at 7pm, discussing all things Hungarian wine and interviewing winemakers.
Back in the physical world, we step across the road to their
hole-in-the-wall shop, which was opened recently. “We want this place to be
your friendly neighbourhood wine shop,” says Carolyn, and the welcoming smiles
from all involved succeed in fulfilling this goal.
Right now a little table
serves as the terrace, so that they can hopefully start selling wine by the
glass, and once more residents receive immunity cards, they aim to reopen
indoor tastings.
“We’re also focusing on selling great local cheeses,” says Carolyn, and she shows me where they will be putting the expensive new cheese fridge they’ve recently ordered. It's no secret that cheese and wine are best bosom friends, and getting artisanal cheeses in Hungary can be a difficult task. Carolyn hopes to make these delights more easily accessible.
Inside the shop, one of their employees, Sebastian, also an expat, helps a customer pick out a bottle. Along with wine, there is also pálinka and other spirits available. The shop may be small, but the gregarious attitude of the shopkeepers makes it feel large and inviting.
As we exit the shop, we see a sign, handwritten, proclaiming, “Life is what happens between coffee and wine”. Right now, it can feel as though every challenge in life is too difficult to surmount, but with a glass of wine in hand, maybe it isn’t so arduous after all.
For more information on the wines available, as well as Facebook Live events and participating in the virtual tastings, check out Taste Hungary's website and Facebook page.