The Story of Bull's Blood Wine

The story of Bull's Blood Wine began in the fall of 1552. Castle Eger, located in Eger, Hungary, was under attack by over 2,000 invading Ottoman Turks. Totally surrounded by the ensuing army, a group of 200 Hungarians, consisting partly of women and children, were able to defeat the attackers. The silver coin above (dated 1552) may very well been taken into battle during this heroic event in history.

One version of the story tells how the Hungarians, who were hopelessly outnumbered, began drinking a deep red wine to give them strength and courage. The wine spilled over onto the men's beards and armor, coloring them red. Word spread among the Turks that the Hungarians had been drinking the blood of bulls, and that the Hungarians would be a formidable and fierce fighting machine. The Turks, being naturally superstitious, began spreading rumors of a terrible fate. The battle was broken off and the Turks retreated.

The name Bull's Blood Wine (Egri Bikaver) resulted from this historic Hungarian event. Today the wine is still made in the same tradition of over 500 years ago. The wine is created in the famous channeled oak in the cellars of Eger in honor of the Turkish defeat. Egri Bikaver uses individual grapevine grades, separately picked.

The story, originally written by Geza Gardony titled "The Eclipse of the Crescent Moon" and has been translated into many languages.

The battle in 1552 provided folklore and later would become required reading in Hungarian schools.

Strangely enough, this courage would later surface in the 1950's when the citizens of Hungary, using sticks and stones, fought against the trained Russian Army who were invading Hungary. Unfortunately, the Hungarians fighting against the Russians were not a match for tanks and cannons.