A quick matter of curiousity: a 30-million-year-old fossil of Vitis hungarica leaf was unearthed in the hillside of Kis-Eged, located within the Eger region.
 
Eger was inhabited from as early as the tenth century. It is believed to have developed into a settlement of significant size by the 11th century. One of the earliest episcopacies in Hungary was founded here by King St. Stephen. The monks who settled in this episcopacy had brought along grape varieties indigenous to their home countries. Similarly to the devastation in other areas, the invasion by the Tartar hordes decimated the local population. As part of the re-populating process, following the Tartar destruction, King Béla IV resettled Walloons in this region who introduced their knowledge about winegrowing and wine production to the area (such as the use of barrels). In the 13th and 14th centuries, the clearings on the hills surrounding Eger were planted with vine stocks. These grapes were used by the local Cistercian monks to supply their wine needs. Eger played an important role in the early centuries of the Middle Ages. The castle was seat to one of the major episcopacies; with its authority not only to include the adjacent Heves county but also encompass as large an area as the entire Northeastern Country.   

With wine being essential primarily for church ceremonies, the initiation and development of viticulture were due to the central governing influence of the Catholic Church. By virtue of regal ordinance, the church and secular institutions were entitled to tithing, i.e. levy one tenth of the harvest. No wonder that it was with the storage space for the tithe in mind that the first cellars were built. The method of producing red wine by fermentation on the skin as well as the Kadarka variety were introduced by the Serbs fleeing the Turks. In 1596, following several decades of failed siege, the Turks succeeded in capturing the fortress of Eger, however; winegrowing endured during 91 years of its Turkish occupancy. Even though the Turks weren’t much of wine drinkers themselves, with wine being a source of substantial revenue, they did no harm to the vineyards. In the 1600’s, red wine varieties spread taking the place of more and more whites. Having recaptured the stronghold of Eger back from the Turks in 1687, the area and its environs witnessed a rapid progress. During its peopling, it took no longer than two decades for the local grape mono-culture to develop. In the late 1600’s and the 1700’s, the vast majority of  hills took their names that have beed in use to date. It was in 1886 that the phylloxera turned up in Eger, wiping out its vineyards virtually entirely. During the re-plantings (reconstruction), some new varieties were also introduced to the Eger area. From that point on, the tendencies have been similar to those of the other winegrowing regions.

Bikavér (Bull’s Blood) is the most famous of all wines from the Eger region. Bikavér is made from blending several red grape variety wines. In the past, certain varieties of Kadarka used to dominate whereas nowadays mostly the Kékfrankos (Blaufrankisch) varietal is the prevalent. Bikavér was the first wine to be given origin control protection.  In 1997,  the local wine producing hill community has created the so-called "Bikavér kódex" (Bull’s Blood Code). According to an important one of its regulations, Bikavér must be made from blending at least three red wine grape varieties of the ones set forth in this list. Bikavér was known to Szekszárd prior to Eger, however; it earned its fame in the latter. The region totals 3,206 hectares.