Sátoraljaújhely is a town split in two by a river and a border. The Ronyva stream divides it into a Hungarian half and a Slovak half, Slovenské Nové Mesto, and the line became a national frontier after the First World War, when streets and gardens were cut in two. Today the border is open and easy to cross, and a pleasant walk takes you from one country to the other along the bank. The town sits at the northern tip of the Tokaj wine region, where the Zemplén hills fall to the plain, and it is a good starting point for exploring that country.
The wine of Tokaj is among the oldest and most famous in Europe. Tokaji aszú, a sweet wine made from grapes shrivelled by noble rot, was called the wine of kings and the king of wines, and it was prized at courts from Versailles to St Petersburg. The vines grow on volcanic hillsides, mostly Furmint and Hárslevelű, and the cellars are dug into soft rock under the villages, forming a labyrinth of tunnels covered in a black mould that is said to help the ageing. The whole region was listed by UNESCO in 2002 as a cultural landscape.
Ungvári is one of the cellars, a reminder that wine is as much an underground craft as a sunny one. The town also has a link with literature, since Ferenc Kazinczy, the man who led the revival of the Hungarian language in the late eighteenth century, lived at nearby Széphalom, where a museum remembers him.
The riding is easy and relaxed, with roads climbing from the town through vineyards and woods in long, gentle bends, with views over the valley and the plains of the Bodrog. Traffic is light, apart from tourist buses in summer, and the surface is mostly good. Sátoraljaújhely has fuel stations, supermarkets and restaurants, and Sárospatak, a pretty town with a castle and a college, is a short ride along the valley. If you ride on, mind the glass: a tasting in a cellar is a very good reason to hand over the keys. Autumn, at the harvest, is the best time.