Hungarian wines will be on the menu in Brussels yet again.
The Hungarian government has officially handed over the European Presidency to Poland after it’s six-month turn in the rotating post, but one aspect of the country’s largely forgettable semester in charge will remain, at least until the end of the year.
Upon receiving a 15-liter cask of Hungarian wine as a “welcome to the neighborhood” gift from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Polish PM Donald Tusk announced Hungarian wine would still be the official wine of the EU presidency during its term.
“Hungarian wine is comparable to the best wines of France, Italy or Spain,” said Tusk, who, in exchange for the wine gave Orbán a sabre as a parting gift. “We will make it the flagship wine of our presidency.” Poland will serve the wine at all official receptions during its term, he added. “Poland will be evaluated also by the way it will treat its guests. That’s why we are going to treat them with good wine.”
The exchanging of weaponry and alcohol as gifts seems like a decidedly American way of celebrating, well, anything. But it seems these PMs weren’t just trying to write their own, more sophisticated, Toby Keith song. It turns out both countries have a popular rhyme that translates (roughly) to: “The Poles and the Hungarians are cousins in sabre and in wine” which means, basically, that they’ll fight side by side, then get drunk together as the sun goes down.
But only, apparently, if they drink Hungary’s wine.
Poland’s foreign ministry reportedly organized a wine tasting event, staged by the country’s best sommeliers, in an attempt to find a good Polish wine to be the country’s “flagship” wino. A tough call for a country not known for its wine production. Not surprisingly, no one could agree on a wine good enough to take to Brussels.
“It did not end successfully,” Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told journalists.
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