Here’s Where Budapest’s Natural Wine Scene Is Blossoming

On most evenings, diners at Cabrio — typically a swell of taste-making creatives — spill outside. The large glass windows reveal the buzz swirling through the restaurant in Budapest’s District V, an energy that leaves passersby yearning for a table of their own. One of the city’s hottest 2024 openings, Cabrio hits all the right notes in terms of atmosphere — music at an alluring decibel, flattering, warm lighting — with a solid roster of natural wines and imaginative shared plates to match. Like a party pulsating through an urban loft, the Middle Eastern restaurant simply seduces night after night.

For many travelers to Budapest, sampling Hungarian wines is an attractive way of delving into a national culture that continues to celebrate and innovate with one of its most revered traditions. Visits to such longstanding wine bars as Kadarka, Doblo, and Palack are just as essential as those to tourist sites, including the Castle District and St. Stephen’s Basilica, while restaurants continuously pour Hungary’s own Kreinbacher bubbly and lush Tokaji Aszú as a companion to desserts.

But in recent years, thanks to a rising interest in natural wines from pioneers like the daytime-only café Portobello Coffee & Wine and Marlou, the rustic wine bar and shop steps from the Hungarian State Opera house, the model for discovering wines in Hungary has evolved. In addition to the classic destinations, now the spotlight is shared with more brazen ones — ones where the ambiance is decidedly more animated, where food shares center stage with drink, and where Hungarian varieties of wine are intentionally placed in direct conversation with international ones. Overall, it’s an enticing environment for anyone eager to ramp up their wine knowledge.

Cabrio is the vision of Bence Szilágyi, Benjámin Tenner, and Jónás Togay, who all previously ran Bar Bizarre in District VIII (a new location is in the works), but Cabrio has its own soulful personality. There are plenty of offbeat bottles on hand, like the Partida Creus – CX rosé from Spain’s Catalunya region or the Barnag Diszkó, a Riesling-Furmint blend from Szilágyi’s own label produced in Hungary’s Balaton Uplands. Ingredients for the ever-changing dishes — maybe salmon trout tartare over green gazpacho brightened with lemon curd or a mushroom parfait sprinkled with hazelnuts accompanied by brioche croutons — are spawned from ingredients sourced within a 100-kilometer radius by chef Tamás Albrecht.

“Naturally, we bounce around ideas together, but the kitchen is entirely Tomi’s domain,” he points out. “We wanted a European bistro that’s free of frills and unnecessary gestures.”

That laidback spirit is also on display at Bar Lola in raucous District VII. Coffee fans will recognize the address as Dorado, the beloved cafe turning out lattes and espressos since 2018. Along the way, owners Emese Görföl and Mario Jimenez developed a penchant for natural wine, throwing events around it every month, “but we wanted to do it more regularly because we had a calling and we loved our crowd,” says Görföl.

That turned into the 2024 launch of Bar Lola, where vibrant bites, from a chicken taco enlivened with jalapeno-coriander relish to white asparagus blanketed by a sous-vide egg, are just as clamored for as the wines. Jean-Christopher Garnier’s made in Anjou, France, for example, as well as Glow Glow from Weingut Baumberger in Germany’s Nahe region, are imported through Görföl and Jimenez’s Disco Wines.

“We wanted to separate Bar Lola from the daytime face of Dorado because we could feel it had a different vibe,” adds Görföl, “a bit more intimate with small plates, candles, wines, and cocktails.”

Day also morphs effortlessly into night at The Garden, a breezy brunch spot that, come evening, gives way to Pebbles. Spearheading both concepts is Turkish expat Merve Ilgım Deprem, who says they are “united by the same soul, yet offering two distinct vibes. The Garden welcomes you with the comforting scents of fresh herbs and coffee. In contrast, Pebbles evokes the feeling of a beachside dinner under moonlight, pairing natural wines with the often-overlooked vegetarian side of Turkish cuisine.”

Menemen, scrambled eggs doused in homemade tomato sauce, are an afternoon staple. But carrot and zucchini kofte and deconstructed baklava are easily elevated at night alongside a crisp white from northern Hungary’s Domaine Bükk or the Bergkloster cuvée from Germany, a blend of the local grape varietals Bacchus, Huxelrebe, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, and Sauvignon Blanc. Inside the airy Pebbles, brick melds with whitewashed walls to conjure Türkiye’s Aegean Coast, and the space is filled with upcycled furniture and tableware by Turkish ceramic artist Özlem Demirel of Artegalata Studio to complete the transporting mood.

És Margarita also opened in Budapest’s burgeoning District IX in 2024. At the petite bistro with a Parisian aura, chef and co-owner Levente Szabados plays with a range of global ingredients that find their way into dishes introduced every few weeks, including gnocchi layered with green miso and Parmesan and béchamel pancakes. It’s ambitious for the neighborhood, but as co-owner Marcell Orbán puts it, “We desired such a place, with a small number of high-quality dishes and natural wines, within arm’s reach.”

The locals are responding well, snagging one of the tables topped with vintage Italian tiles from the 1970s. As they watch their food prepared in the open kitchen, they savor glasses of wine — 15 are always available — from Hungarian producers like Somló Kincse and Egly Szőlőbirtok és Borászat from Veszprém county, north of Lake Balaton.

Ultimately, this brood of new hangouts fosters a sense of community among oenophiles eager to expand their social circles, best exemplified by Bortodoor City. In 2021, when Suze Collings, Smike Letwinsky, and Renee Heard founded their bar in District VI, the friends — from the UK, U.S., and Australia, respectively — were keen to bring together locals and visitors over a mutual love of wine. Collings and Letwinsky first bonded when Letwinsky stayed at one of the Budapest hostels that Collings then ran; later, he ended up working with her there, where they shared a guest-centered approach to hospitality that now permeates Bortodoor City. Heard, whose mother is Hungarian, bonded over wine with Collings a few years later. 

At Bortodoor City, the wine list is shaken up weekly, so on Sunday, guests can scoop up bottles or sip glasses from the previous lineup at a generous discount. Wednesdays are especially lively because that’s when the coveted Wine Mafia evenings unfold with blind tastings, trivia, and scent boxes, a ritual born well before Bortodoor City when the owners helped their friends choose wines for their wedding in similarly unconventional fashion. Wine Mafia even orchestrates excursions to must-see Hungarian wine regions like Tokaj.

Whichever Hungarian wine guests are drinking, whether it’s from Haraszthy in nearby Etyek, Kovács Nimród from Eger, or the Pannonhalma region’s Cseri, it is an opportunity to learn about a critical aspect of the local lifestyle in a cozy setting bolstered by charcuterie plates and camaraderie.

“For me, it’s the excitement of meeting new people,” says Hollings. “You never know who’s going to walk through the doors, whether they’re going to be your new best friend, staff member, or future husband or wife.”