The essence of Hungary

More than 230 wines from 45 wineries will be on offer at the annual generic Hungarian tasting next month. The off-trade is the most important sector for Hungary, selling 614,000 nine-litre cases in 2006. Although this figure was down 2.7% in volume on the previous 12 months, the two biggest UK importers of Hungarian wine - Bottle Green and Myliko - have both reported encouraging performances. Louise Hartley of Bottle Green said: Sales of total Hilltop wines are showing a strong increase on last year by almost 10% in volume.' The average bottle price is up slightly from 3.36 to 3.47 (AC Nielsen MAT to Dec 2006).