Until now, you may have been wrong about where the wine of the wedding night grows

Most people would guess Somló Hill, a comfortable half-hour drive from Sárvár, and indeed the general consensus is that Somló is one of the most northerly of the volcanic witness hills that line the western basin of Lake Balaton, and that it is the dry white wine made from the special wine grape, the sheep’s tail, that is said to be the wine of wedding nights. So much so, that for centuries the Habsburg dynasty, who sat on the Hungarian throne, regularly ordered wine from here for their wedding nights. Why?

Because experience showed that if the newlyweds drank Somló wine on their wedding night, a son would be born 9 months later. But there’s a lesser-known twist to the story…

Somló Hill, famous for its wines and castle, has an even more northerly little brother – two, in fact. Kissomlyó, which “towers” on the road from Sárvár to Lake Balaton, and Ság, the most northerly of the volcanic witness mountains mentioned above, which is hidden just outside Sárvár and is clearly visible from our guesthouses, exuding the timeless tranquillity of the ancient world. Apart from being Hungary’s youngest volcano, the Ság Hill, whose power is currently used to heat the thermal waters of the region’s spas, has an interesting connection with the wine of the wedding nights.

As usual, the wine farmers of the Somlóhegy, the bigger and more famous brother, tried to make the most of the business opportunities. The wines produced on the slopes of the Ság hill were not so much sold on the market as bought and bottled as their own, knowing that this legendary high ground was a source of high quality wine. Thus, in fact, the wine made from the grapes grown on the Ság hill was the wine of the wedding nights, which reached the royal court through the intermediary of the wine-growers of Somló. Of course, the Somló vine-growers and winegrowers have every right to be outraged, questioning the authenticity of the legend. But in the countryside near Sárvár, the following story persists.

It was in the early 1700s that the Habsburgs once again laid claim to the famous Somló Wedding Nights wine. The order arrived in Hungary. However, the royal family could not have known that the previous year, Mount Ság had been hit by hail and the entire grape crop had been lost. The Somló winegrowers believed the legend of the wine of the wedding nights, and decided that it was all right not to send the wine made from grapes grown on Ság Hill to the Viennese court, but to send the original Somló. The royal couple then sipped the wine on this special night in the hope that a son heir to the throne would join the family in nine months’ time.

But since the wine in the glass was not the real wine of the wedding nights, the wine of Ság Hill, but the real Somló, it came as a real surprise nine months later that a daughter was born, the heir of King Charles III of Hungary and Queen Elizabeth Krisztina. This daughter was called Maria Theresa, who became the leader of her hereditary empire in grand form, despite the fact that at that time only a male child could have taken the throne.

And so it was that Sárvár and its surroundings gave the Hungarians a queen, that this region was enriched with new legends, and that the wine of the Somló wedding nights was ‘unveiled’. Since then, the Ság Hill has been generously pouring out wines of the finest quality, which you can sip on the terraces of our special apartment houses, and recharge your batteries with the natural energies of the region.