2025-07-25

At BOR 2025, Master Sommelier and author John Szabo brings a global perspective and deep enthusiasm to the topic of volcanic wines. With firsthand experience from Santorini to Szent György Hill, Szabo explores what defines this singular wine category, why Hungarian varieties stand out among the world’s volcanic offerings, and how sommeliers can turn lava-born bottles into storytelling tools on the table.

What drew you initially to volcanic wines, and how did that fascination evolve into your book and the Volcanic Wine Awards?

After much travel, it suddenly dawned on me about 15 years ago that wines grown on volcanic soils represent a particularly fascinating and singular group of wines. They were often made from indigenous grapes grown nowhere else, often old vines, often unique methods of farming and winemaking. And, most importantly, I liked the way many of them tasted: saline, stony, crunchy.

You said that volcanic wine is impossible to define precisely. How do you personally identify it, and what qualities must a wine have to qualify?

It’s not so difficult to define. For me, any wine grown on soils derived from parent volcanic material (a long list, but which does not include magmatic rocks like granite that never breached the surface of the earth – most geologists agree on this point), can rightly be called volcanic wines. There’s no quality or style judgment inferred.

Having visited Santorini, Etna, the Canaries, and Hungary’s volcanic sites—how do Hungarian volcanic wines both align with and stand apart from other iconic regions?

Hungary’s best volcanic wines align with other greats in the category in that they tend to be more savoury than fruity, always excellent at the table, and highly distinctive. They stand apart most obviously because of the varieties they’re made from, grapes which grow in few other countries. Hungarian varieties are amazingly unique.

Which Hungarian varietals—like Furmint, Kéknyelű, or others—do you feel respond best to volcanic soils, and why?

I tend to find that in Hungary, and in most parts of the volcanic wine world, white varieties are more transparent and reflective of place, at least more easily identifiable as ‘volcanic’. Hungary is fortunate in that it is blessed with several fantastic white varieties, like Furmint, Hárslevelű, Olaszrizling, Juhfark, and Kéknyelű, that clearly reflect nuances and variations on the volcanic soil theme, and produce exceptional wine in the right hands.

As a sommelier and critic, how do you recommend incorporating Hungarian volcanic wines into international wine lists or pairing menus?

This is the easy part. Volcanic wines are by and large very ‘gastronomic’ wines, that is, wines with zesty acids and a particularly sapid and saline profile that makes them easy to work with at the table. They are the squeeze of lemon (acid) and a pinch of salt that chefs invariably use to enhance the flavour intensity of pretty much all foods.  

I’ve seen many restaurants with a volcanic wine section, which is a superb conversation starter at the very least. People are fascinated by volcanoes, their destructive power, but also the incredibly rich and varied things that grow on their slopes. A sommelier can have fantastic fun creating a volcanic wine pairing menu, and guests are almost guaranteed to enjoy. There’s just so much to talk about, so many incredible places and stories to tell.