Side by side, without a spreadsheet.

Each degree north is roughly a week less of ripening; Poland's whites keep more acid, Slovenia's reds get riper.

Hungary ripens Kékfrankos and Furmint fully; Poland picks early; Slovenia can do both within 200 km.

Rain at harvest is Poland's gamble; Primorska's flysch holds the water it gets.

Height stands in for latitude: Slovenian terraces at 400 m taste as cool as Polish valleys.

Volcanic ground gives Hungary smoke and weight; flysch gives Slovenia texture; Polish loess gives fruit, granite gives grip.

Only Poland still leans on hybrids; Hungary and Slovenia work mostly with centuries-old local varieties.

Poland and Slovenia share the skin-contact revival; Hungary's great wines are sweet or volcanic.

The one axis that explains most of the rest.

Hungary starts in August in hot years and picks aszú berries into November; Poland is still waiting in September.

All three were interrupted in the 20th century; only Poland had to start almost from zero.

Hungary is fifty times Poland's size; a Polish estate of 10 ha is a large one.