If there is a truly modern winery in the wine region that matches up to the spirit of a film studio lying on the top of the mountain, then it surely is the “Etyeki Kúria”. If there is such a property on the mountain that took great pains to stick to the regional traditions, then it must be, without doubt, the “Kúria”. Those, who are at a loss to comprehend this contradiction should take a look at the pictures taken of the building. Modern, still its design preserves the peculiarity of the 250 year-old rustic German press houses. Initially, farming on barely 4 hectares, in 1996 it had no serious competitor in Etyek, thus the hard-working winery made a name for itself fairly quickly. The property’s executive, Sára Matolcsi, moved back from New York in 2001, resignin from a stock exchange company. The winery gradually increased the size of its lands and expanded its cellar capacity, doing so at first with the help of Rudi Krizan Austrian wine maker, then from 2009 the chief wine maker Sándor Mérész also joined the team. Not only was this date a milestone in the construction of the present wine-image (previously they worked with 13 different labels, since then,they narrowed it down to 6 wines, 3 main-wines –rose, white, red and 3 type-wines), but even the current design of the modern winery’s building started to outline. Even this year, they will plant grapes, thus the property is about to grow to 27 hectares. In addition, they have an extra 14 hectares of grapes at the wine region of Sopron from where they harvest for the main-wines. The three previously mentioned premium wines represent the slowly emerging assortment of Etyek, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir. The lettering on the label “Esterházy” is not a misspelling, in the backround there was a serious professional merger occurring between the Hungarian and Austrian wineries. The annual output is 120 thousand bottles, but they continuously expand and sell their wines while being on the lookout for the market conditions, since they know that trust is hard to earn but even a single mistake is enough to lose.They were the first to plant Pinot Noir in the wine region, having known that everyone compares their potential to that of Champagne, they thought this type must be compatible with their territory as well. This decision proved to be successful, since it was exactly the Kúria’s Pinot Noir that changed the consumer’s belief that here, only fresh wines can be made that one should potentially consume shortly after having bottled. Every year, they stage a vertical pinot tasting event, where even the 10 year-old wines distinguish themselves! The next, rather logical step will be to boost the local sales. According to Sára Matolcsy, if they achieve the 40% proportion, they would significantly improve their operational conditions. If, in the aspect of wines, philosophy and architecture there is only one winery we could recommend in Budapest’s agglomeration, then it would be that place.
This is a must for all wine-lovers!
