An HFP contributor and his winemaking past featured in The New Yorker

András Göllner’s son, Adam Leith Gollner, wrote a long-form essay for The New Yorker entitled “Does Your Wine Really Taste Like Rocks?” with a focus on vineyards and wines in Hungary. The piece, at times quite atmospheric and lyrical, takes off from the land of memories, before weaving its way through the mysteries of wine. The author’s father owned a vineyard on one of the slopes surrounding Lake Balaton. He bottled his own Olaszrizling, while reflecting and writing about politics and political philosophy. András Göllner sold his vineyard and left Hungary in 2010, just as the Orbán regime ascended to power. Years later his son returned and visited the old Balaton estate. This essay opens with a personal dimension, but quickly expands to explore the intersection of science and mystery — divine or otherwise — all through the prism of Hungarian wines.

We’re happy to share this piece with our readers!

It’s worth noting that this is hardly the first time Adam Leith Gollner treads on the peculiar soil where science and faith meet. His 2013 work The Book of Immortality: The Science, Belief, and Magic Behind Living Forever was published by Scribner and was featured at the time in the New York Review of Books.

The Benedictine Abbey at Tihany with Lake Balaton in the background. Photo: ilovebalaton.hu

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