Importer of the Week: Ewa Hangel, Kociolek i Wino

By Ágnes Németh
It all started with selling cauldrons – the dishes to cook goulash on open fire –, and now Kociolek i Wino sells around 5–6000 bottles of wine a year, about 200 labels along with quality food products and warm dishes. The person behind is Ewa, an always smiling, hard-working, amazing woman. I had the chance to visit the shop and bistro personally on Friday, so this year’s Christmas has started for me on that day.

Some of the labels so far: Barta Winery (Tokaj), Béres Vineyards (Tokaj), Dereszla Winery (Tokaj), Fehérvári Wine Estate (Somló), Szeleshát (Szekszárd), Teleki Wines (Csányi) (Villány), Thummerer Winery (Eger), Tornai Winery (Somló), Tóth Ferenc Winery (Eger), Vesztergombi Cellar (Szekszárd), Zsirai Winery (Tokaj, Somló, Villány)

Kociolek i Wino

Ul. Kajki 68a, Warsaw, Poland
biuro@kociolkowanie.pl
Tel.: +48 517 599 595
Open every day
More information here

The “Cauldron Lady” feeding the neighbourhood

Once upon a time there was a woman happily married, and since her husband was half Hungarian, they decided to sell cauldrons in Poland, just to maintain some relation with the husbands’ father’s home country. The Polish people also like cooking on open fire, but they mostly use a grill, so cauldron was something exciting for them. Ewa must have a natural born marketing talent: she wrote a book of cauldron recipes to boost the sales of the pot. But then the customers started to demand ingredients, spices – just to prepare Hungarian stew and goulash perfectly. Why not?

So, she launched a tiny shop in the outskirts of Warsaw. It did not go well, so Ewa needed her marketing instinct to work again: she started to organize picnics for the neighbouring families. They loved the delicious (and free) food, so the thing became a tradition, more and more people came, they also brought food themselves, so the “community building side effect” was also considerable. And these people did not leave without buying something in the shop. What is more, they wanted more. “I don’t want to wait a month to eat your fabulous goulash, I want to have the opportunity to eat it every day!” – claimed one of the customers. Ewa agreed, of course, so seven years ago a slightly larger shop became available in the same building, this is where she opened the shop and a little covered garden with some tables. And soon I met Ewa for the first time…

How many bottles do I sell? Well…

I first met Ewa when Borjour Magnum wine event organized a buyers’ programme, and I was in charge of the people to invite. After the expo we took the guests to Tokaj, during the trip we could talk. As Ewa explained, she had discovered so many stunning wines during that trip, earlier she dealt only with some mediocre wines, so it was a real eye opener journey for her. Funny enough, we visited Zsirai Winery back then, we had a late night tasting and we also stayed in the guest house – and now, after five or six years Ewa ordered a whole range of Zsirai wines from all the three wine regions where they have vineyards, the shop is full of Zsirai wines!
– So how many bottles do you sell?
– Well, I have no idea. I know that I have 6000 bottles in the store.
– So how many do you sell a day?
– I have never counted… About fifteen. Let’s count.
So, she brought a calculator, multiplied the daily amount by seven (since the shop is open every day), and with 52 (weeks), which is 5460. This little dialogue illustrates where her focus is. The objective is definitely not the financial success, not to earn more, but to serve the clients well, to make all the customers happy and satisfied.
– There is no space here at all, yet she keeps ordering new products… – say Giorgio, Ewas’s partner. And indeed, the shop is full of Christmas candies, wines, salamis, boxes of different sizes – it would be a challenge to place a pen in the crowded shelves…

What sells the best

Kociolek i Wino customers like international varieties, but they are seeking adventures, new things, therefore they love wines made of indigenous grapes. Kékfrankos, Irsai Olivér, Furmint – really big hits.
– How about Juhfark?
– I had Tornai and Fehérvári, but they are already sold out! Now I have Zsirai and I will order again from Fehérvári and Tornai in spring.
– And what about Hungarian bubblies?
– Well, Polish people are crazy about Prosecco, and not so much crazy about Hungarian sparklings. Though Tokaj method traditional sells quite well.
– What do they buy now, in the Christmas season?
– Mostly full-bodied red wines, but Tokaj is also popular, both dry and sweet. Hárslevelű and Sárgamuskotály are real favourites! And they also buy noble Tokaji wines, Szamorodni, Aszú (including 6 puttonyos) and Esszencia as well.

Helping the helpers

Ewa has a great relationship with the Hungarian Embassy in Warsaw. On the day when I was visiting the shop, two guys came from the embassy to fetch some boxes. Ewa sold them several cases of wines – Thummerer, Tornai, Vesztergombi and more –, but without any margin, because it is for charity. The ambassadors’ wives sell products of their nations, and the profit all goes to some sort of charity organizations. The person in charge at the embassy is really happy to have Ewa and her shop – they can source everything at one place.

Christmasy feeling

It is hard to finish a sentence, customers keep coming. Natalia, a colleague (Ewa’s “Right hand”) is behind a counter, but Ewa greets almost all the customers, some of them are old friends, she chats with them, then another client comes in. It looks busy, but Ewa explains that weekends are much busier, about 200 people have lunch at their place. Later we sit in the new restaurant room, it had been finished three months before, the brick wall was built with their own hands. Giorgio helps Ewa with everything, he is also the “lepeny master”. Lepeny is a pizza-like dish, but Giorgio makes a “fusion lepeny”: Swiss dough, Italian olive and ricotta, Hungarian sausages and salamis, there must be something from Poland as well, at least the electricity… Ewa’s daughter also takes her part of the business, Hungarian winemakers could meet her as well, Magdalena was in Budapest with Ewa and Natalia at Winelovers Wine Awards this year. Mother and daughter, loving partners, lifelong friends – this is the personnel of Kociolek i Wino – no wonder that love is all around.
(Thanks, Edit Szabó for the photo below:)