15th edition at New York Palace

At the jubilee edition 42 wineries will pour their wines from the volcanic Badacsony wine region, plus as a result of a new partnership between Badacsony and Wachau, 10 guest producers from the Austrian wine region will also participate. Entrance for members of the trade is free, but registration is necessary.

Date and time: 11 April 2026, 14.30–17.00 trade tasting, 15.00–20.00 consumers’ tasting
Venue: Anantara New York Palace Hotel, Budapest, Erzsébet krt. 9, 1073 Hungary
Tickets for consumers: purchased in advance: 14.900 HUV, at the venue: 19 900 HUF
Student discount: 2000 HUF off.
A masterclass will be held with wines of Badacsony and Wachau by Dr. András Csizmadia and Sándor Németi wine experts. To participate in the masterclass a special, combined ticket is needed: 29 000 HUF (purchased in advance). Wine bites will be paired made by András Wolf chef (New York Café).
Registration for trade members and ordering tickets: badacsonynewyorkban@gmail.com, telephone: +36 87 531 013
Tasting glass: available to rent, cash is needed.
Food will be available to purchase at some exhibitors.
Facebook page of the event
Exhibitors below the photos

New sparkling wine by Borbély Family Winery

Do you want to get married? Come to Badacsony (Lake Balaton), sit on ‘Rose Stone’ and you will, according to the popular belief. And you are more likely to enchant your future partner if you serve him / her sparkling wine made of (partially) ‘Rose Stone’ (Rózsakő) grape!
Cover photo: the Rose Stone in Badacsony covered in rose petals
See the story of Rose Stone below.

Borbély Metamorphosis Extra Brut 2024

Borbély Family Winery has recently released the first traditional method called Metamorphosis. The 2024 vintage sparkling spent 12 months on the lees, extra brut (4 g residual sugar), and the base wine is a blend of Rózsakő and Furmint.
Double uniqueness, since there are hardly any sparkling wines made of Rózsakő (we haven’t tasted any, never ever), plus there is not much Furmint in Badacsony. And the sparkling wine is a super novelty of the family winery!
As Tamás Borbély commented, he had been considering Rózsakő as a sparkling base wine, since it gives a great structure of acidity in every vintage, whether it is a dry or a wet year. The sparkling wine fermented fully, and the sugar level was zero. Tamás decided to add a dosage of 4 g, to make it more elegant and richer. Disgorging is carried out in several batches, to see how the wine develops. The first lot was disgorged on 3 December, after 12 months, this is available now.
The Rózsakő–Furmint Metamorphosis boasts charming aromas, elegant, it has a saline minerality and it reflects the terroir nicely, without being excessive.
Sarah Marsh MW has just released an article about Hungarian sparkling wines, she was impressed by the versatility and mentioned Kéknyelű, as base wine of sparklings. She should come back to Hungary to taste the first sparkling wine of the love child of Kéknyelű!
Metamorphosis Extra Brut 2024 is now 6900 HUF (instead of 7900 HUF), which is approximately 18 EUR.
Borbély Webshop

Borbély wines are available in Germany (ungarische-weinauslese.de) and in the Netherlands (wijndruppels.nl). If you are interested in importing Borbély wines, contact Tamás Borbély.

The story of Rose Stone

On the way up to the top of the Badacsony, you can see a basalt mound which has fallen down from the rocks of the mountain, called the Rózsakő (Rose Stone).  It is named after Róza Szegedy, the wife of the 19th century local poet Sándor Kisfaludy. The Rózsakő (Rose Stone) not only commemorates the love of the Kisfaludy couple, but also countless lovers after them. According to a local legend, if lovers sit down on the Rose Stone while holding hands with their backs turned to Lake Balaton, they will marry the following year.
Source: Badacsony.com

When you find the one, you don’t need superstitions

Tamás Borbély, second generation winemaker, the youngest Winemaker of the Year ever likes working with Badacsony grapes, like Kéknyelű, Rózsakő, Zeusz and Budai Zöld and this new bottle fermented sparkling wine is a great example of his knowledge of terroir along with his urge to experiment. Has he ever sat on the Rose Stone with his partner? Well, he is personally not so keen on this story, but he is happily married to Barbara Borbély-Kiss, and they are happy parents with their 7-year-old son!

Rózsakő grape variety

– This grape is exclusively grown in Badacsony wine region.
– The skin is rather thick therefore less sensitive than Kéknyelű, and more productive. It resembles Kéknyelű in its characteristics and can also give high quality wines.
– A cross between Kéknyelű and Budai Zöld develoved by Dr. Ferenc Király in Badacsony in 1957 – a most logical decision to cross these two grapes, since they are often planted adjacent to each other to improve pollination.

More about Borbély Family Winery

Borbély Family Winery

Another local cuvée

Tomaj 2024 – Badacsony blended

The Best Kéknyelű of Balaton

Borbély – Kéknyelű All Star

Back to black grapes in Badacsony?

“Red Balaton” – Oraculum Pinot by Borbély from Badacsony

Wine of the Weekend

Borbély Family Winery blended Kéknyelű, the iconic and unique Badacsony grape variety with Rózsakő (‘Rose Stone’), a “child” of Kéknyelű and with Olaszrizling, the most planted white grape of Balaton. The wine has recently received an outstanding review from Vince Hungarian wine magazine.

Tomaj is a fairly new release by Borbély Family Winery, which is located in a small place called Badacsonytomaj, hence Tomaj refers to the place within volcanic Badacsony wine region.
Vince panel review: “Light greenish yellow colour. Good intensity on the nose with some pronounced minerality and stone fruits. A little carbon dioxide makes it even fresher. Medium body, firm structure, crispy acidity, good complexity, green apples on the palate.”
(16.40 pts, September issue)

More about Borbély Family Winery

A sip of knowledge about the “ingredients”

Kéknyelű

– This grape is exclusively grown in Badacsony wine region. Planting alternate rows with a variety such as Budai Zöld encourages more consistent pollination.
– In good vintages it gives elegant wine with creamy structure and subtle, fine acidity. Rare grape variety that is capable of giving exceptionally high quality wines.
– Kéknyelű is quite likely of Hungarian origin. Very popular among the winemakers, though it is hard to cultivate. It ripens relatively late, therefore it needs protection from the hungry games living in the forests of Badacsony and Szent György mountain. “Kéknyelű, meaning ‘blue stalk’ and referring to the slightly blue tint of the petiole, is an old variety probably originating from the Badacsony region in western Hungary. The alleged synonymy between Kéknyelű and the Italian Picolit mentioned in the Vitis International Variety Catalogue has been disproved by DNA profiling.” Excerpt From: Robinson, Jancis; Harding, Julia; Vouillamoz, Jose. “Wine Grapes (9780062325518).” iBooks.

Rózsakő

– This grape is exclusively grown in Badacsony wine region.
– The skin is rather thick therefore less sensitive than Kéknyelű, and more productive. It resembles Kéknyelű in its characteristics and can also give high quality wines.
– A cross between Kéknyelű and Budai Zöld develoved by Dr. Ferenc Király in Badacsony in 1957 – a most logical decision to cross these two grapes, since they are often planted adjacent to each other to improve pollination. The name literally means ‘Rose Stone’ and given after Róza Szegedi, a beautiful and intelligent woman who is known as the eternal love of the Hungarian poet Sándor Kisfaludy. The poet and Róza used to sit on a heart shaped basalt rock on Badacsony mountain enjoying the spectacular view of Lake Balaton. The stone is named after Róza, the grape is named after the stone.

Olaszrizling

– It is grown all over Hungary, in fact the most widely planted grape in the country, and popular in the whole Carpathian basin.
– It ripens rather late, in good vintages even shrivels. When young, there are flowers on the nose, on the palate full of flavours and there is a little bitter almond note in its aftertaste. It has a pleasant, refreshing acidity. Olaszrizling is capable of long barrel ageing.
– It was and is mistaken for Rhine Riesling, though it is a completely different grape. Its synonyms include the most common Welschriesling (Austria, Germany), Graševina in Croatia, Laški Rizling in Slovenia. It is quite likely to originate from the Danube basin, though there are numerous other hypotheses. Though it is the most widely planted grape of Hungary, it did not have a good reputation for a long time and while nowadays wonderful examples are easy to find in Hungary both in fresh and aged style.

The results of the 21st Badacsonyi Kéknyelű Contest

Kéknyelű is a rare grape almost exclusively grown in the volcanic Badacsony wine region, north of Lake Balaton. The annual Kéknyelű contest results have been announced recently, and the absolute winner of the competition is Borbély Family Winery with 3 Grand Gold medals out of the 4 (plus 3 gold medals and 2 silver medals). The 2015 vintage with its Grand Gold proves Kéknyelű’s potential for ageing.

The versatile Kéknyelű

Altogether 23 producers entered 43 wines at the 21st edition of Badacsony Kéknyelű Contest. 4 Grand Gold was given, 17 gold, 19 silver and 3 bronze medals. (Yes, if you add up the medal winners, you will get the sum of 43, which means that all entered wines received at least a bronze medal.) The grand gold winner wines are:
– Borbély Badacsonyi Kéknyelű Selection 2020
– Borbély Badacsonyi Kéknyelű Selection 2015
– Borbély Badacsonyi Kéknyelű Selection 2019
– Weller Badacsonyi Kéknyelű 2020
The results of the contest give evidence of the versatility of Kényelű variety. Apart for giving elegant and delicate dry white wine, it is ideal for late harvest (Fölföldi Badacsonyi Kéknyelű Late Harvest 2015 gold medal) and also for traditional method sparkling wine (Weller Badacsonyi Kéknyelű Sparkling 2020 gold medal).

See the list of medal winners here

Read more about Borbély Family Winery

 

Taste Kéknyelű wines in Badacsony in July during the Badacsony Bor7, meaning “Badacsony Wine Week” from the 18th of July until the 3rd of August (well, it is a long week:). It is a free outdoor event with several exhibitors (including Borbély) and music concerts in the centre of Badacsony. No prior registration is needed, just go and enjoy.

More about the event here

 

Badacsonyi Kéknyelű – a brand new member of the Collection of Hungarikums

“Hungarikum is a collective term indicating a value worthy of distinction and highlighting within a unified system of qualification, classification, and registry and which represents the high performance of Hungarian people thanks to its typically Hungarian attribute, uniqueness, specialty and quality.” There are several categories including Industrial & Technical solutions (with the gorgeous Zsolnay porcelain) and Cultural heritage (with the 100-member Budapest Gipsy Symphony Orchestra).
Agriculture and food industry category includes – among others – the Hungarian acacia honey, the chimney cake and the ground paprika from the city of Szeged. As for wines within this category, we have Egri Bikavér and now Badacsonyi Kéknyelű.

Though the official website of the Collection of Hungarikums is not updated yet, Badacsonyi Kéknyelű was included in the prestigious list on the 29th of May, 2025.

See the Collection of Hungarikums here

A recent article about a new release by Borbély Family Winery

“Red Balaton” – Oraculum Pinot by Borbély from Badacsony

Budapest grand tasting

Well, the event will not take place in New York City, as the quotation marks suggest. The 14th editionof this annual tasting will be held at New York Palace in Budapest, like in the past years. This magic, volcanic wine region will be represented by nearly 40 wineries, among others by Borbély Family Winery. Usually, the tickets are sold out much before the event, so here we are warning you…

Badacsony includes Badacsony and more – what?

Badacsony is a mountain (in our cover photo), but also the name of one our 22 wine regions. Well, if you mean the wine region, the area is broader, it includes several witness mountains besides Badacsony: Szent György mountain, Csobánc mountain and hills like Sabar, Tóti and Ábrahám.

Villa Sandahl Ball of Fame Rhine Riesling 2017

While most white wines are consumed young, the queen of white grapes, Rhine Riesling should age to reach her peak. Ageing gracefully results in complexity and richness combined with elegance. This is why Villa Sandahl does not rush to the market, vintage 2017 is still on sale, though it is their „senior” wine on the shelf now.

Three consecutive miraculous years

Villa Sandahl is a peculiar estate in many ways, one specialty is that they have a different set of labels every year, and always there is an inspiration. In 2017 it was magic, because, as they say „this is the third year in a row that we produce very high quality” – it is a kind of magic… And what is the ball here? „The Sandahl ball has many times been a symbol for how Villa Sandahl see itself as located out of the box. Now a magician has taken over the ball to illustrate our best wine from 2017.” Indeed, the Sandahls are out of the box not only with their ever-changing labels, but with their focus on one single grape, namely the Rhine Riesling. We can confidently say that Villa Sandahl is the only winery (with significant presence on the market) with wines made of only one grape variety. If you check the website of the winery, you will see that even one single grape can offer countless opportunities depending on the vineyard, the date of harvest, and also the fraction of the must to be used.

How it evolves with time

The data sheets of Villa Sandahl wines are gold mines for students of wine: they detail not only the dates and characteristics of the harvest or the analytics, but they also contain tasting notes written by the owner, Christer Sandahl, at different times. According to the first tasting (January 2019) the wine has fantastic silky character, very balanced and it „is surprisingly open to be our highest quality, which normally use to be closed and shy at this point of time.” In 2021, according to Christer Sandahl it is already a „grown up”, and „surprisingly well developed (even with our own standard), clean, open, nice, well-made, refreshing, all such attractive characteristics”. And now? „Full and creamy sip, long finish, petrol, citrus, quince with honey, dried peach.”

See the whole, detailed data sheet here

More about Villa Sandahl

Villa Sandahl wines are available in several countries, first of all (after Hungary) in Sweden, due to the nationality of the owner. At Systembolaget a wide range of Villa Sandahl wines are available. If you are interested in importing these top-quality, terroir driven wines, contact the team.

The success of another 2017 vintage Villa Sandahl wine

Rabbit Periscope Rhine Riesling – the Winewriters’ choice

Sandahl Rezidencia – the perfect escape

“Sandahl Rezidencia” is a 4-room guest house, which is located in the central building of the Sandahl Promo house in the “Genesis” vineyard. Surrounded by fabulous and peaceful environment, visitors are guaranteed to be recharged. The house offers the most beautiful panorama of Badacsony, one of the most picturesque slices of the Lake Balaton landscape. The rooms and furniture are of typical Scandinavia design, appreciated in whole Europe. The place is really a sought-after guest house, thus it is advised to book well ahead.
More information