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:)

Niola – when the lady also wants her own selection

Dúzsi is a big family – as every member is involved in the wine world in one way or another. Ilona, a teacher, the wife of the founder Tamás Dúzsi, the mother of five children, has soon become interested in the miracle of winemaking – tough she is also responsible for the financial and sales matters of the estate as CEO –, so it was just a question of time to realease her own selection. Niola is the second of her selection wines, the first one is Niola Super Premium Merlot Rosé from the same vintage. Niola, the name is an anagram of Ilona.
“Dúzsi Niola Kékfrankos is an exquisite, silky red wine from the most prestigious vineyard, in Szekszárd, called Görögszó. Layers of cherries, plums, black currants, and spices reflect beautiful complexity” – as described by UK Hungarian Wine House.
Find Niola Kékfrankos 2017 on Dúzsi webshop (in Hungarian, bit google can help)
More about Dúzsi Family Winery (in English)

More about Kékfrankos grape below the photo

Kékfrankos

Regions: Hungary has over 8000 hectares of Kékfrankos, which makes it the most widely planted black grape of Hungary. In Austria Blaufränkisch is the second behind Zweigelt with 2640 hectares. Germany has a little bit more than 1700 hectares (and known as Lemberger or Limberger). Kékfrankos is grown in most of the Hungarian wine regions, it is probably the most famous in Sopron region (neighbouring Austria), and in the two Bikavér (Bull’s Blood) producing regions: Eger and Szekszárd. In Villány Kékfrankos is also cultivated with great care and believed to have potential. South Balaton, Kunság and Hajós–Baja also produces significant amount and quality.

Character: Dark-skinned, dark-fruited Austro-Hungarian variety. Vigorous, early budding and late ripening, thus needing a relatively warm climate. It is susceptible to downy and powdery mildews. Its wine is ritch in fruits and acidity. Kékfrankos can give elegant wines with long ageing potential.

Story: “From the Middle Ages onwards, the name Fränkisch was given to several high-quality varieties, indicating their superiority over the inferior Heunisch varieties. One of these high-quality varieties might have been Blaufränkisch, whose name did not appear until 1862 at a grape-variety exhibition in Wien (Vienna; Aeberhard 2005) and was officially adopted by the international ampelographic commission in Colmar, France, in 1875. It was later mentioned in Germany under the synonyms Lemberger (1877) and Limberger (end of the nineteenth century), both deriving from the Austrian locations from which the variety was exported to Germany: Lemberg in the Steiermark (Styria) and Limburg in Maissau (Niederösterreich/Lower Austria). In Hungary, the variety was first mentioned in 1890 under the name Kékfrankos, the literal translation of Blaufränkisch.”
Excerpt From: Robinson, Jancis; Harding, Julia; Vouillamoz, Jose. “Wine Grapes (9780062325518).” iBooks.
Sopron wine region has more than 1100 hectares of Kékfrankos, and this is the largest Kékfrankos plantation in the world. Sopron, this west Hungarian city is also known as the Capital of Kékfrankos, and it even has its own currency named after Kékfrankos!