Up until 2006, the life and plans of Gyula Szabó were heading in a completely different direction. This was the year when the desire for wine-making called him back to his roots, to the home village of his father, Köveskál. In January, he bought a small vineyard right next to the old family wine cellar that increased their lands a half hectare. Three years of passion, serious learning, and experimentation, followed this decision. Through tasting the wines of Káli Kövek, which Gyula founded with a few of his friends, customers have been able to enjoy the benefits from this dedication.

Over the years, their land has not been increased so they buy the majority of their processed grapes by working with the local producers through long-term cooperation. Their names are indicated on the back of each bottle. These wines are appointed as villagewines, and the grapes are harvested from Köveskál, Monoszló, Szentantalfa or Szentbékálla. The winery offers a variety of Riesling, Furmint, Rhine Riesling, Pinot Gris, and Sauvignon Blanc, as well as, a specially pleasant and fruity Cabernet Sauvignon for red wine lovers.

The winery is minimally mechanized, and the grapes are hand-pressed. Gyula seeks a natural process during winesmaking; everything is spontaneously fermented and then ages in wooden casks. The wines retaining their character while reflecting the distinctive qualities of an area, are most important to me.

The winery is led by Gyula Pálffy and his two sons, Attila and Gyula Junior. The family can be traced back six-generations, and the visitors can also trace it back from all the memories that are so beautifully told in the tasting area. István Palffy settled down in Köveskál in the early 1800s where he married a local girl. The family has always been involved with wine making.

Gyula began to cultivate the family estate in the early 2000s. They have 6 hectares in Fekete-hegy, and from 2007 they cultivated with a completely organic approach. The winery recently expanded with 10 hectares of leased lands. They use only sulfur, copper and plant extracts for spraying. They follow this principle in the cellar as well, and work only with healthy, ripe grapes. After the pressing, they elutriate the stum for one night, and then the clean, fresh, cold stum goes to the barrels without any additives. As Attila said, they let their wines ferment spontaneously at a low temperature, for a long period; maybe even for five months. The selected wines from the vineyards are kept on the lees, stirred several times repeatedly, and then are left to live in small oak barrels (225l) for one year. Most of their wines they are temped down by hand. The malic acid degradation spontaneously occurs immediately after fermentation.

Their premium red wines are matured in small used oak barrels for 18 months, and are then bottled without any intervention, fining, or filtering. The Pálffy family is working with both red and white vines: Riesling, Furmint, Juhfark, Gewürztraminer, Cabernet Sauvignon, Blue Franc, Pinot Noir, and Syrah. In the future they see great potential in the Furmint, which was known in the wine region as Szigeti before the phylloxera epidemic. Like all of the wineries we have chosen, they also strive to observe and cooperate with nature in the case of vine as macro, and cellar as micro-ecosystem. This is how they can create these long, harmonious, rich wines.

Mihály Liszkay left the country in 1957, and for many years earned his living as a renowned pianist. He lived in New York, Paris, London, The Netherlands, and many coastal cities in Europe. After that, he moved to Canada and raised his two children in a 36-acre estate.

Fortunately fate brought him home, and in 2001, he found his current home in Monoszló. Today he has 10 hectares. His estate is in one of the most valuable vineyards of the country, Pangyér Vineyard.

˝Due to its natural endowments, the vineyard has the ability to produce high quality wines; it sloca cadastre was classified 385 points out of the possible 400. Of the growing sites nationwide, there are slightly more than 1% of terroirs that are classified with total score over 380.̏

He built a modern, fully equipped, stylish, but rather homely Wine Lodging where excellent cuisine awaits its visiting guests. Besides Pinot Gris, he makes fruity, long-living red wines from Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Pinot Noir.

The Istvándy family has been producing wine for generations. As a member of the young winemakers generation, Gergő took over the leadership of the winery from his father. He sums up his work with the following: "We’re honoring the traditions and looking for something new, but the focus is always on quality."

A few years later, his nephew joined the family business and began mangalica breeding and meat processing. The estate is hosted by Gergő‘s sister, Csilla, who offers traditional and modern dishes made with local ingredients to their guests.

The most important kind of the winery is the Kéknyelű, a grape variety grown exclusively in the Badacsony Wine Region and out of which they make unique items from year to year. Also, they are trying the unique, traditional fermentation of Champagne in-the-bottle with these ingredients. In addition, an emphasis is placed on the quality use of Riesling and Pinot Gris as the typical grape varieties of the countryside. In the center of Badacsony, they recently founded a beautiful wine workshop where in addition to the wine tasting, the guests are able to blend their own wine produced by the basic wines of the winery, and have it bottled and labeled too.

The main varieties of the winery is Kéknyelű, Riesling, Pinot Gris, Hárslevelű, Yellow Muscat, Muscat Ottonel, and Cabernet Sauvignon.

Bence Laposa is also an integral member of the region‘s young winemakers community. His family first bought land in the late 1990s. Today they have eight hectares. Their vineyards are in Badacsony, Csobánc, Köves-hegy, Szent György-hegy, and Somló.

Bence is dedicated to the development of the wine region; his professional knowledge, awareness, and readiness for cooperation, complemented by his youthful dynamism, is always in service of continuous improvement in quality. For him it is not the winemaking itself that is important, but rather his thinking of it as a task in accordance with both the small and larger communities.

His wines represent a tight, firm line. In the legendary and serious Riesling blend, the bright glow of Lake Balaton reflects back. In their lands they have Riesling, Pinot Gris, Rhine Riesling, and excellent Juhfark.

Réka and Judit Folly are the fourth generation in a family of winemakers and also take care of the botanical garden. The latter and the winery operates as an organic whole. The cellar they still use, was built in 1878 by their great-grandfather.

They grow and process local white grape varieties like: Pinot Gris, Muscat Ottonel, Buda Green, and Riesling. Their wines are fresh, crisp, and clean, like the air in Badacsonyörs. However, with some of the items they go back to tradition using wooden barrels and leave the wines on the lees for creamier, even more meaningful traits.

Visiting guests can enjoy the fragrant wines under centuries-old trees with a magnificent panorama of the Lake Balaton.

The vineyard is situated in Örsi-hegy and has been in the family's possession for 40 years. On three hectares they produce Riesling, Pinot Gris, Hárslevelű, and Kéknyelű.

With its exceptional endowments, the estate was bought by Beáta's father. Afterwards she and her husband carried out the reinstallation of the vineyard. Today the third generation, one of their daughters, manages the Wine Estate. The viticultural work is done by a local family with great care. They asked professional, and personally close winemakers to produce the wines. The main goal in both in the vineyard and in the cellar is gentleness.

Among their beautiful items I found the Riesling 2012 outstanding with its taste of quince, as well as the floral and fruity Hárslevelű 2012 which was awarded 5 stars in the National Wine Excellency Programme. The surroundings of the vineyard is really fascinating; from the terrace there is a beautiful view overlooking the Lake Balaton and the Badacsony. This is accompanied by Dóra and Beáta’s warm, friendly hospitality, and kind nature.

Having Transylvanian roots, Róbert Gilvesy grew up on a family farm in Canada. His cellar is in the heart of Szent György-hegy, in the middle of the south-facing slopes with a fantastic panorama of the buttes and the Lake Balaton.

The cellar was built on the ruins of the Eszterházy press house from late 18th century. They preserved the remains of the original buildings, and rebuilt the missing parts with modern spirit but using traditional materials. Lying in front of the cellar, the Tarányi vineyard was their first area in which they are growing Rhine Riesling on 1,3 hectares of forty years old vine stocks. The main grape variety of the northern Hazelnut vineyard is Sauvignon Blanc. In the recently planted Váradi vineyard, they have Rhine Riesling, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc and Furmint.

Róbert works with Márton Ruppert, a young, dynamic winemaker, and Imre Tóth, who takes care of the vineyards. The winery is an advocate of ecological production. Their wines are characterized with elegance and the characteristics of the terroir are strongly manifested in them. Their philosophy: “It is with our point of view that we bring to this extraordinary Old World wine region, fresh ideas and great enthusiasm. Digging into the ancient slopes of Szent György-hegy and the Badacsony Highlands on the north shore of Lake Balaton, we are focusing on cultivating Hungarian grape varietals. Utilizing both new and old wine making technologies, it is our goal to create fine handcrafted wines.”

The winery is owned by the Swiss-born Philipp Oser, who bought his beautiful estate in 2004. The name of the estate came from the property's building where the famous Hungarian actress Klári Tolnay lived during the World War II.

Philipp knows the European wine world very well and he is a passionate wine collector. He educated himself about winemaking, but since 2008 he has worked with Lászlo Nagy estate manager. They make joint decisions on all matters concerning the winery.

Currently, they work with 17 hectares of Riesling, Rhine Riesling, Green Veltliner, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon. They consider Riesling to be the main varietal of their winery because this type of grape probably the one that shows most beautifully on the terroir character of Csobánc. They do all their work manually and use only perfect cluster of grapes in their winemaking. They present a purity in their style of wine, minerality in the taste, ripe acids, in addition to not too high level of alcohol.

The family laid the foundation stone of the winery we know today in 2001 when they finished the cellar’s construction in Arács, however, the family’s binding of grapes and wine is much older. From the first half of the 19th century we find records that patrilineal ascendants lived and dealt with viniculture in Csopak.

The current size of the wine estate is grown paralleled by the ambitions of Tamás. Since the construction of the wine cellar, the winery has already been expanded. They built a beautiful main building, and in 2005, they expanded the cellar and finished the restaurant. Its terrace offers the most enchanting overlook of the northern shore of Lake Balaton, Arács, Balatonfüred, and Tihany. Currently, they own 7 hectares in Paloznak, and also in Csopak.

In the spirit of tradition, Tamás and his staff have set their Riesling as a priority. They make vineyard-selected items as they have land on all three of Csopak‘s typical rocks that appear in different altitudes: red sandstone, marl, and gray dolomite. These are Berekhát, Nagykút, and Kishegy, which clearly discernible in the soil and bedrock differences.

TAs Tamás says: ˝The red clay soil provides low-acidity, airy texture, ferrous minerality wines, and a strong fruit flavor and higher extract is typical for the lime-loess areas. The clay-calcareous soil creates a strong acidic character.“

Tamás is actively involved in the classification system of the wines of Csopak, and the operation of the Csopak Codex as well.

Szabolcs originally led an IT and consulting company, and has invested in several industries outside winemaking. Sailing around Lake Balaton has long been a hobby and led him to the love of wines. When given an opportunity, he purchased his estate in 2007 in Paloznak.

They focus on two types in particular: Riesling and Blaufrankisch, but have high hopes with the recently installed Furmint and Syrah vineyards as well.

The Homola Winery is also a member of the Original Csopak Codex origin protection system. Grape varieties of the winery: Riesling, Traminer, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Blaufrankisch, and Syrah.

This family‘s tradition of winemaking can be traced back many generations. The great-grandfather, István Tolnay was the most prestigious winefarmer of Balatonfüred in the 19th century. The current winery was founded in 1993. As a recognition of his multiannual work, the founder, Mihály Figula Senior, was awarded the highest professional honors of Hungary, "Winemaker of the Year" title. The family continues their work in his spirit.

Presently they have 20 hectares. They have vineyards in Balatonfüred, Balatonszőlős, Pécsely, Csopak, and Tihany. Their main grape varieties are: Riesling, Zenith, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Muscat Lunel, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Blaufrankisch.

Jelenleg 20 hektáros birtokon gazdálkodnak. Szőlőterületeik Balatonfüreden, Balatonszőlősön, Pécselyen, Csopakon és Tihanyban vannak. Fő fajtáik az olaszrizling, zenit, szürkebarát, chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, semillon, muscat lunel, cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot és a kékfrankos.

Misi’s intent is to develop an individual styled cellar that uses the possibilities of the terroir, resulting in unique and reliable quality wines. In his work he combines tradition with the most advanced technical possibilities.