There are always two sides of a coin, yet in this case it’s positive in both ways at least for the moment.

The wine region of Villány became the first after the political system changed which benefited the most of the capital and investment. Reputation build on red wines (yes purely on red wine) helped the region also to establish further fame as this turned into fashion amongst the consumers.

The warmest wine region (latitude 46°) of Hungary, close to Mediterranean the climate. Annual average rainfall is around 600mm and the average sun shine hours in a years are around 2100 hr, overall it’s a fairly dry area.
Plenty of lime stone, loess and loam can be found in the area. Low cordon is the common training methode. Villány, Siklós, Harkány (spa town) are on the south side of the region and the major towns. The region can be reach by car (bus, takes long and considering from where you travelling you have to change) but also train (same again). From Pécs the main road 58 or 56 from Szekszárd towards South.

It was my last year as chairman of the Wine Society at our University College, so I made my move to organize a wine tour where I was not before.  Overall a pretty good mixture came together. With well established names (Tiffán, Bock, Gere-both of them) emerging yet bigger producers (Vylyan) and some rather less known one (Kecskés). To finish up the tour we dropped into Szekszárd (Heimann) as it was on the way back anyway.

The good thing is within Villány you can reach all the wine makers and their cellars on foot. As always it’s good to make an appointment in Hungary when you intend to visit the wine makers. If you intend to go to Villány
One quick recommendation on a restaurant which we tried out before we arrived to the first producer was the Oportó Restaurant at the main square. Nice interior and they also do menus, no wine to the lunch as we had plenty wine makers and wines to cover that day.

József Bock one of the leading producers in Villány, the family estate has around 50 ha of vines the best vineyards are the Ördögárok (Devils pit), Jammertal (Crying Valley). He was also amongst the first ones to give to some of his wines fantasy names. Such like Capella, Magnifico, Ermitage Cuvée. The later one is rather annoying as it lets you think of the Northern Rhone appellation. And for what reason do you have to call a Cabernet Sauvignon led blend so? The “sommelier” of the winery enthusiastically guided us around the cellar and conducted the tasting, later. The winery expanded over the years, beside the bottling line and small barrels temperature controlled tanks you find yourself in a modern winery, no doubt about it. But not only the equipments to make wine are up to date but also the facilities are given if you consider to spend a pleasant night or two in the house. Welcome to the wonderful world of tourism, hospitality. Villány does benefit a lot from it.

Our way continued to the Gere Winery, the more famous one out of the two, Attila. You could forgive me to compare the two bros, but that’s really like that, Attila makes better and more expensive wines. I’ll talk about the winery of Tamás Gere in a moment. The estate is a stone drop from the Kopár vineyards (one of the flagship wines comes from this vineyard) at the very end of the town Villány. Something rather amusing is that opposite is the Wunderlich winery and it looks like they try to compete against each other, at least in terms of who builds the bigger estate. I wonder who will make the next step.
Zoltán Pauli was the founder of our Wine Society, here again I have to post a big thank you to establish such an amazing Club. And I can not only be honoured be part of it but also to be leader of it, continue his work and elevate it as the wine culture deserves it. Zoltán is now part of the Gere family and he was our guide for the evening. High-tech winery with all the needs, Zoltán was talking that evening about some ideas to make sparkling wine, I was joking with him to use some American grapes (like Othello) most of them have a sparkle feeling anyway. The wine Solus (Merlot, I reckon 100%) became around that time quite famous at least in Hungary as it beat Petrus (a few points difference far as I know) in a blind tasting in Vienna. It’s a Hungarian thing to ride on a horse which no one really cares. What I mean is, it’s astonishing and great that a Hungarian Merlot is so good that it can take it up with the bests of the world. Yes, so what?
On average a Petrus is 1200 EUR while the Solus is around 120 EUR (maybe). Gere sure has no problems to distribute his wines – and neither has the Chateaux in Pomerol-, and I’m happy that Hungarian wines receive more and more recognition on the international ground. But such comparings has no proper ground for me and is meaningless in the long term as you should not compare yourself but just do it and step out of the shadow if you strong. As the Californian did with their Cabernets, for instance.

We tasted the Olaszrizling 2003 which was fabulous, such a tropical intensity and pronounced quality. Last but not least the marc of the Kopár wine clear colour with no oak influence, lovely finesse, very nice indeed. And what are the wine makers up to when it comes to drinks tells you this story: a friend of mine was at Gere´s place and he asked him what would he like to drink. He says a beer and the wine makers reply was: you’re in a wine region I’m the only one who are allowed to drink beer. Quite right.

A quick drive took us to the other Gere estate, Viki the daughter of Tamás was once the president of the Wine Society before I took over from her, she as well did a great job and even if she doesn’t like to talk in front of people much as I do, she worked hard and good to pass me over a successful Wine Club. Thank you.
Gere Zsolt (son of Tamás) is more and more involved in making wine, I remember some rather forgettable samples of wine. Unbalanced wines, hard and nasty tannins with no structure and little joy. Times changed for the better and most of the wines what we tasted were rather pleasant. It ain´t easy to step out of the “big” brothers shadow. Yet I believe a healthy competition is good for business and customer alike. Further, if the new generation sticks together, learn from out side and each other the whole region will benefit from it.

We were a bit late to our last appointment but that’s what happens if you having not only a good time but also trying to fit in too many producers. Last stop Ede Tiffán, he himself showed his wines in the family estate. Serious and very direct, as he would take never prisoners. Must have been a long day for him too, but nevertheless he did not show any fatigue but was determined to tell much about the wines even if sometimes with a bit of a grimy mood. This was the first time that I came across with a Hungarian Syrah I didn’t think in my dreams that it will become such a popular wine in Hungary, several years later. I remember we tasted quite a nice range of red wines, as I pointed out in the beginning the whites are just to “refresh” yourself, but the real thing in Villány are the reds. Michael Broadbent pointed out once that Cabernet Franc found a new home, within Villány. Well he certainly wasn’t wrong, the Mondivin (a co-production with the Dutch) Cabernet Franc 2000 was fantastic, much fruit as you can imagine and excellent balance fruit, acidity, tannins, harmony and very good finish. So look out for some hidden gems under the Cabernet Franc variety.

There is no shortage when it comes to accommodation in Villány as most of the wine makers have rooms, apartments for rent available, but always book in advance it’s also a well visited place.

For some people morning came too early and yes I do admit wine tasting from 9 am is a tough call but hey, you got to do it if you’re in the area, you can rest later. The winery of Vylyan was the first on the list. They came as an out-sider to Villány, Debreceni Pál and his wife Mónika. They established a great winery around 100 ha of vines, nobody doubts their commitments towards quality. Not everyone appreciated the entrepreneurship in the area and there was some jealousy but hey, that happens if you have money and they turned it into quality wine making knowing little boundaries. They travelled a lot, to see how people do it around the world and had domestic and foreign consultants. I remember Debreceni Pál came to our wine club, he didn’t ask for any money (not even for the wines) but he was straight and did not held back on anything during his speech. I remember people were very pleased and called it one of the best presentations as he was very direct, out spoken and honest seasoned with knowledge. I asked him to join us for dinner, but he said his doctor forbid him to eat at such a late time as he has some hearth problems. A month later he died in car accident (hearth attack) I didn’t believe it when I heard it. He lived on the “overtaking lane” always on the mission to do it better and faster.

The chief wine maker Géza Ipacs showed us the wine. To my great pity they did not have any Kadarka in bottle, as I do believe they elevating it to a new level (it’s very vintage depending and Vylyan loves to use small oak barrels) not only in Villány but also in Hungary. Talking about changes, the first proper Hungarian Zweigelt what I tasted comes from this winery as well, most of them are nasty, green, stalky if dr. Zweigelt would know what the Hungarians did with it, mhm he wouldn’t be pleased at all. Yet there is rescue in sight, as I mentioned the Vylyan winery showed it how to do it.

Back in Villány (as the Vylyan estate actually is in Kisharsány, just between Siklós and Villány) we paid a visit to József Kecskés. I didn’t schedule him, but a fellow wine club member did as I’m open to suggestions. Maybe a welcomed change to the big and well known names to visit someone who is less renowned. Yet I have to say overall the wines were not convincing, mostly green and too herbaceous. The Oportó (now Portuguieser as it bears to much similarity with the Portuguese town, Porto) wines are one of the speciality of the winery, said that it’s not easy to make one. Most of them can go rather well with food as if it’s too lean and acidity drops out it can give you a cruel experience for you and your palate.

Sometimes ago I organized a trip to Szekszárd the wine region just above of Villány and we tried to visit the Heimann Winery but they could not arrange a time for us. So if you in the area why don’t you visit both (maybe with Pécs together the whole lot) it’s a contrast, really true. But now on the way back, all set for the showdown. His wife prepared some freshly baked stuff (no, it wasn’t pogácsa similar yet it was long with a curve) for us, now how nice is that. And Zoltán Heimann started to pour some Fuchsli (Fuchs means fox in German), this is basically a rosé or as they like to call it siller, but it’s a rosé maybe with a deeper rosé colour, but that’s it. Heimann –huge chap by the way- use to be in the financial world and made an effort to build or rather develop a winery which has the capability to produce great wines. This I do appreciate as we need people who put there money where their mouth is. Said that I find it annoying that he too, experiments with grape varieties (he didn’t show us any wine made from them, however) which are unnecessary in my point of view in Hungary. Give me one possible reason why would you want to drink Hungarian Tannat or Viogner? He should put those efforts into the Kadarka theme (he does have Kadarka by the way) or Kékfrankos or something else, but please spare me with a Hungarian Tannat. For what, just for the sake of the curiosity?

We did a bit of a tour and tasted some wine (not quite wine yet) in progress, half fermented must from the concrete vat and other stuff. His brother by the way is a famous architect and is responsible for quite a few wine cellars, hard to describe what a great arches can be found on the sealing all looks a bit like a sanctuary (as a very good friend of mine put it at Fritz Tanya, also in Szekszárd).

I have to slash out again, sorry but to talk negative about the Hungarian with no reason is a weak point for some people. So Heimann started to mention, when Japanese people go to the Teleki statue in Villány they salute in front of it and we Hungarian don’t even know who he was. I remember this sentence that night very well, and several years later I met my Japanese college Ai Watanabe who is a diploma holder at the WSET and might continue her journey in the wonderful world of wine to become a Master of Wine. So I asked her, what does she know about Zsigmond Teleki (he is partially responsible for cuttings – Berlandieri x Riparia-, specially during the phyloxera time). She doesn’t know him and neither does she salute in front of him. Fair enough. I hacked enough on Heimann, I shall protect him (and hack on someone else), he does some rather nice Merlot and I shall see how the Kadarka goes. He use to have a wine called Cervus a blend usually led by Merlot, now Cervus is Latin for deer. There is a picture of a kind of a deer on the label, but he had to change the name to Cervaes as the Austrians said, Cervus, no this doesn’t work it’s too similar with our greeting (Cervus, for Hi or Hello in Austrian). Now, how ridiculous is this, sorry but that’s really it, no appellation, geographical meaning but just a Latin word. Keep an eye on the Heimann Winery as they will develop over the next years.

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