Biodynamic Archives - Hungarianwines

Karakterre 13 tasting in Austria on 22-23 May

Hungarianwines.eu — Sat, 27 Apr 2024 17:41:05 +0000

Kristinus and 199 more winemakers

Kristinus Wine Estate is the largest biodynamic winery in Hungary, and it will be one of the exhibiting estates at the annual Karakterre 13 wine event in Eisenstadt, Austria, at the stunning Orangery Palace Park. Taste organic and biodynamic wines from Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Italy, Romania, Slovakia, Serbia, Poland, Switzerland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the USA and Hungary. It is worth participating on both days of the event, since there are different winemakers on the two days, and the price for the two days is more reasonable (45 EUR for 1 day, 70 EUR for 2 days).

“Karakterre is one of the world’s leading wine festivals, showcasing organic, biodynamic, and natural wines from Central and Eastern Europe over a two-day event. It takes place annually at historic locations in Austria (at the Esterhazy castle in Eisenstadt, the capital of Burgenland winemaking region) and New York (at Rockefeller Center, in the heart of Manhattan). With ecology at its core, Karakterre festival promotes wineries committed to values of sustainable living.”

More information and tickets

Kristinus Holistic Kékfrankos 2020

This Kékfrankos is one of the wines in our cover photo. Kékfrankos (also known as Blaufrankisch) is an important indigenous grape of Hungary. “Carefully selected raw material, partly whole bunch fermentation, longer periods of soaking, 12 months of mellowing in ceramic vessels and unstrained bottling all contribute to the natural likability of this wine. Red, vivid but not so deep, that is what you have in your glass. Your senses will absorb in kindly flattering sweetness and shrill floral & herbal fruitiness. Fresh plum, sour cherry, violet and lavender – with a little salty and dusty character. Small amount of fine tanning that turns into a silky taste in your mouth. Medium body, perfect elegance.”
Find the wine on Kristinus webshop

Kristinus – Officially biodynamic with all of its 62 hectares

Hungary will rank higher in the biodynamic world chart thanks to Kristinus. Read more.

“No more gas masks!” How did it all start?

Read our earlier interview (from 2020) with Florian Zaruba, winemaker and general manager of Kristinus Wine Estate from two years ago, at the beginning of the convertion.

You are what you eat

“We offer local food made of local, seasonal ingredients.” Have you heard this sentence a thousand times? It is one of the “must-say” slogans of bistros, the more hipster the place is, the most passionately they have to repeat this mantra. However Kristinus with its in site restaurant, Lokál 47 took a deep dive and raised the term of “local ingredients” to a next level: all the growers and producers of the ingredients are listed in the menu, therefore we know exactly where the porcini comes from (Zsolt Szabó / Fox Chili) or who bred the catfish (Panarini Fish House).
More about Lokál 47
Our earlier articl about Lokál 47

You can order Kristinus wines in Germany from Treat Specialty Wines or from Grape Times.

Kristinus wines are available in the Netherlands from Craft Wine.

EU: order Kristinus wines from Winelovers Webshop,they ship to every European country.

Find Kristinus wines at Zev Rovine Selections in the US.

Kristinus estate on the south of Lake Balaton

The post Karakterre 13 tasting in Austria on 22-23 May appeared first on Hungarianwines.

Two French guys in a Hungarian vineyard

Hungarianwines.eu — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 17:39:31 +0000

3 months at biodynamic Kristinus

Text by Guillaume Plewa

Jeremy and I have completed a master’s degree in international business and wine in France, with different studies in business as well as in viticulture and oenology. We have worked in different areas of the wine industry in different countries but we did not work in the cellar for the wine-making process, so we wanted to find a job to learn more about it and to get a new experience.

At the beginning we focused on North America, to discover a new region, we made several job interviews and some wineries offered jobs, but COVID made visa applications complicated. So, we decided to find a job in Europe, in a country that does not border France, to go to a place we know less about.

If money matters

We looked for in Hungary and https://hungarianwines.eu/ made our work easier, because there was a list of good wineries and it was written in English. We contacted Ms. Ágnes Németh, who gave us some advice and we contacted the different wineries. Thus we found a three-month job in the biodynamic Kristinus Wine Estate in the winemaking process.

I must say that it was not so easy, because not everyone speaks English. Moreover, it is important to talk about salary, because it is lower than the French salary (the minimum salary is 2 times lower here, or even more), so it is important to negotiate benefits and other things beforehand. However, if the financial aspect is not a problem, skip this step.

It is also important to find a company that handles all the paperwork, we were very lucky with domain Kristinus, the team helped us all the time, thanks again to them (they will recognize themselves).

“Biodynamics is still a step above…”

Now let me talk a bit more about our experiences and compare with our previous experiences:

– We can say that biodynamics is something that requires a lot of time and manpower, because a lot of work is manual. We worked for organic wineries, but biodynamics is still a step above, requiring real know-how and undeniable knowledge.

– Compared to France, the specifications are lighter, you can plant more different grape varieties and offer a wider range of wines, with original blends. At Kristinus estate, we used different methods of vinification, it is quite incredible the work of the whole cellar team: plot by plot vinification, whole-bunch maceration even for some whites, full vinification in barrels, maceration in amphora….

– Orange wine is something more popular, in France it is also produced more and more, but it does not have the same popularity yet. In any case, it requires more work than classic white wine maceration.

– There are lots of young estates (created less than 15 years ago), so they have their whole history to create so marketing is used a lot, because it is essential to become known if you want to sell your wine. We also noticed that around Balaton, a lot of wineries are using Californian style wineries (restaurant, hotel…), ideal for wine tourism. In France, we are more and more involved in these projects, but we are still a little late.

– From a communication point of view, in France our communication at work is much more informal. But this has not prevented us from creating links thanks to the kindness of the employees.

Sun cream – a luxury product

We also notice that the life in Hungary is far from being simple, for the locals considering the cost of life. Many products are imported in Hungary, they are expensive, for example the electronic devices, the cars. Not to mention the price of gasoline, the costs for a doctor… One example that particularly shocked me was the price of sun cream (imported product), it was even more expensive than in France, as a result the employees don’t use it.

This remains our point of view, anyway this experience has been very enriching, but not easy every day because in Hungary few people speak English well, except in Budapest. It is difficult to communicate, except if you have some knowledge of German, but fortunately at Kristinus lot of people speak English well.

Special thanks

We would like to thank everyone and especially Florian (Winemaker & Director) and Lászlo (the Vineyard Manager) who welcomed us very well and showed us different places and vineyard, the culture, the gastronomy…

Thanks also to Marcell, for guiding us in the cellar (your knowledge and experience were priceless), Nikolett for being present at all times and especially with the administration (not easy every day), Bianka for all the papers to fill in, Orsolya for all the dishes cooked and especially for her time accorded to help us…

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New orange wine by Kristinus

Hungarianwines.eu — Tue, 02 Jun 2020 10:30:30 +0000

Kristinus Wine Estate in Balatonboglár wine region (South Balaton) is in the middle of convertion into biodynamic, as we wrote earlier in our article “No more gas masks!”. On the journey to more natural, Kristinus has created its first orange wine of 100% Szürkebarát (Pinot Gris). Only 600 bottles were made, therefore it will be a limited experience indeed. “The biodynamicly grown fruit was carefully hand-picked, handled minimally, soaked and fermented on its skins in clay terracotta then nurtured in Hungarian oak for six months. Not only is the wine alluring and delicious to smell and taste, but possesses an absolutely gorgeous copper like colour to admire. You’ll explore aromas and tangy flavours of brown spices, dried apricots, green apple, pear skin, tropical citrus, coriander, caramel and peaches. The wine has a noticeable, but balanced acidity beside its 12% alcohol, light to medium body and great persistence of flavour on the finish. This dry, exotic, textured and aromatic wine falls somewhere between heaven and hell but does not fit neatly into the „traditional” category“ – says Florian Zaruba CEO about his favourite wine. Because of the limited amount, it will be hard to find Kristinus Szürkebarát Orange Wine elsewhere outside Hungary, but thanks God our country seems to be over the pandemic, life has got back to normal, hotels and restaurants are open, thus Kristinus awaits guests again with its fascinating rooms, bistro and the untouched beauty of the neighbourhood.

More about Kristinus Wine Estate

Charity running contest at Kristinus in September

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