Ep 12. / Athena Bochanis (Palinkerie) pours Hungarian wines into U.S. glasses

“Welcome to the new old world!” This suggestive sentence greets the visitors of my next guest’s, Athena Bochanis, website. Athena is a New York-based importer of fine Hungarian wines. She is a former law student who fell in love with the Hungarian world and started her own import company under the name of Palinkerie about six years ago. Athena shares her insights into the beverage world’s current trends and demands, then she explains why education and environmental awareness comes more and more to the forefront in customers’ eyes. After listening to this episode, you will certainly get a great overview of the Hungarian wine market, some lesser-known regions as well as indigenous grape varieties. Athena also shared her unconventional marketing practices and ways of generating interest around this lesser-known wine country. I also asked her to recommend six Hungarian wines to get to know the country’s wine culture in a flight and discussed how lesser-known regions should find their ways of getting more spotlight falling on them. Guest: Athena Bochanis | Palinkerie's Instagram: @palinkerie Wine Ghosts Instagram:@wineghosts | E-mail: [email protected] |  Palinkerie’s Website: https://www.palinkerie.com/ | Palinkerie’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/palinkerie/ | Hárslevelű music video on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLpJmdYdlP4 | Beginning: Introduction to the Hungarian wine market 27:20: Natural wine trend 36:30: Marketing tools to sell wine 46:00: Sommeliers’ perception of Hungarian wines 50:40: 6 wines to get a taste of Hungary 54:30: What Hungary is missing