Wines of the Weekend

Winelovers Wine Awards international wine contest took place in June and the results were announced earlier in July. The best red wine of the competition is Eszterbauer Grand 2017 from Szekszárd with the highest score: 92 points. ‘Grand’ is the top red blend of Szekszárd producers only in the best vintages. Eszterbauer Grand is a very special wine – it places the crown on a sumptuous Sunday meal.

What is this Grand?

The most versatile wine region of Hungary, Szekszárd created a new community label, the so called Grand in 2012.  It has to be a blend of the top lots of a winery, from only exceptional vintages, bottled in a bottle designed especially for Grand wines. As for the grapes, Grand should contain at least 25% Kékfrankos (Blaufrankisch), and regarding the ageing 5 years is the minimum. The first Grand labels appeared at the end of 2018 by only 4 wineries of Szekszárd: Eszterbauer, Heimann, Takler and Sebestyén. The list was short, but as János Eszterbauer said, other Szekszárd estates were welcome to join. The first vintage of Grand wines is from the extreme sunny year of 2012, and since it was a superb year, the next Grand wines came from 2017, released in 2022. 18 wineries attempted to receive the name, however only 6 of them proved to be up to the required standards: Bodri, Németh János, Prantner, Schieber, Takler and Eszterbauer. Eszterbauer Grand 2017 has not been released yet, it will be available from September, but the pre-sale is on.

Order Eszterbauer Grand 2017 here

More about Eszterbauer Winery

About Winelovers Wine Awards

The 1st edition of Winelovers Wine Awards took place on 20-21 June at Continental Hotel Budapest, Hungary. The competition had been organized previously on national level, it was the first year to step onto international stage. Immediately it has been a huge success: 58 wine experts from 19 countries evaluated 623 wines from 14 countries within the 2 days of the contest. The highest score was 93 points, 5 Hungarian wineries recieved it, all with natural sweet wines – for example Holdvölgy Culture 2017. The best red was Eszterbauer Grand Cuvée 2017 from Szekszárd, Hungary with 92 points.
See all results here