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Tokaj, Hungary

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Tokaj, Hungary

Coordinates: 48 8 N 21 27 E

Population: 5,028 (2007 est.)

Eastern Europe isn’t likely to be the first place most people think of when they hear “wine country,” but red and white grapes have in fact been grown on the slopes of the Carpathians for centuries. Perhaps the best-known region is Tokaj in northwestern Hungary, where the Bodrog and Tisza Rivers converge near the village that lends its name to this part of the country. Well, oenophiles may have to contend with a few more people on the streets of Tokaj next year as the New York Times just included it on their list of the 53 Places to Go in 2008, explaining that it is “regaining its reputation for quality whites, especially wheat-colored dessert wines made from furmint grapes.” Of course, the truly adventurous aficionado could always venture even further East, to say, Moldova for instance. About one tenth of this small country is covered in vineyards.

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Ben Keene is the editor of Oxford Atlas of the World. Check out some of his previous places of the week.

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