Vince Award winners

1. Fresh white wine made of international variety
   – Balassa Rhine Riesling 2024

2. Fresh white wine made of important variety of the Carpathian Basin
   – Jásdi Csopaki Olaszrizling Hegybor 2024

3. Fresh white wine made of other variety
   – Válibor Budai Zöld 2024

4. Fresh white blend
   – Gizella Tokaji Cuvée Hárslevelű Furmint 2024

5. Barrel aged white wine made of international variety
   – Kovács Nimród Battonage Chardonnay 2023
6. Barrel aged white wine made of important variety of the Carpathian Basin
   – Kikelet Tokaji Hárslevelű “Tarczal” 2022

7. Barrel aged white wine made of other variety
   – Folly Kéknyelű 2024

8. Barrel aged white blend
   – Figula 30 Olaszrizling-Furmint 2023

9. Fruit driven red wine made of international variety
   – Németh János Deviant Syrah 2023

10. Fruit driven red wine made of important variety of the Carpathian Basin
    – Heimann & Fiai Szekszárd Kadarka Bio 2024

11. Fruit driven red wine made of other grape
    – Vylyan Csóka 2019

12. Fruit driven red blend
    – Kislaki – Légli Géza Birtok Vörös 2023

13. Barrel aged red wine made of international variety
    – Gere Solus 2022

14. Barrel aged red wine made of important variety of the Carpathian Basin
    – Bukolyi Marcell Kékfrankos Reserve Nagy-Eged Grand Superior 2021

15. Barrel aged red wine made of other grape
    – Balla Géza Ménesi Fekete Leányka Sziklabor 2022

16. Barrel aged red blend
    – Pannonhalmi Főapátság Infusio 2022

17. Rosé, siller
    – Heimann és Fiai “Piros” Siller 2024

18. Natural wine or sparkling wine
    – Steigler Pet-Nat Zöld Veltelini 2024

19. Charmat method sparkling or aerated sparklig wine
    – Holdvölgy Hold and Hollo Uppp 2023

20. Traditional method sparkling wine
    – Kreinbacher Egoist Magnum 2017

21. Late harvest sweet wine
    – Barta Öreg Király Dűlő Késői Szüretelésű Furmint 2018

22. Sweet Szamorodni or Tokaji Aszú
    – Kikelet Tokaji Aszú 6 puttonyos 2019

Special Vince Awards

• Best wine bar: DROP SHOP
• Best restaurant wine list: Essencia Restaurant
• Best winery labels: Bolyki Winery, Eger
• Winery to watch beyond the border: Csernus Winery (Slovakia)
• Dr. Gábor Rohály Memorial Award: Sebestyén Nagy
• VINCE life achievement award:István Jásdi, Balatomfüred–Csopak wine region

See original Vince post here

“We have two varieties to focus on”

Steigler Cellar has a fermenting and processing winery building farther from the centre of Sopron, the city cellar is only for the barrel aged wines and for the visitors, of course. Tamás explained about his latest experiment with enthusiasm: he added a small amount of fine lees of Zöldveltelini orange to a barrel of “normal” Zöldveltelini. Why not? Though we have to wait a bit more to see the result, it sounds extremely interesting. Another experimental project is the recently released Paradox, a blanc de noir, a white wine made of the black Kékfrankos grape. It is not the first white Kékfrankos in Hungary, for example Heumann in Villány has released his first Blue – White this summer. However, at Steigler, the white Kékfrankos has a special role: it is dedicated to reveal another face of the key black grape of Sopron. Because Tamás varga strongly believes that Sopron should concentrate on Zöldveltelini and Kékfrankos, just like the neighbouring Burgenland (in Austria) does it. “Some other producers of Sopron may not agree with us, but look, these varieties are capable of literally everything!” And to illustrate that, Tamás made two impressive lines of bottles, one of Kékfrankos and the other of Zöldveltelini. Steigler Cellar has 16 hectares of grapes, 6 Kékfrankos, 3.5 Zöldveltelini and 2 Furmint.
In this article I concentrate on the stunning line-up of Zöldveltelini (except for Paradox), not that the Kékfrankos wines were not gorgeous, it is just that in my opinion the Zöldveltelini variety gets less attention – and it deserves the limelight!

An obvious Paradox

“A seemingly absurd or contradictory statement or proposition which when investigated may prove to be well founded or true.” This is the official definition of the word paradox, and Steigler Paradox 2024 proves the rightness of it. It may sound bizarre, but the result is actually outstanding. Some blanc de noir whites have that red wine character in the background making the wine awkward and clumsy, but this is not the case with Paradox. The pressing took place in whole bunches, and as soon as the colour started to change, the must for Paradox was stopped, the rest went into the Pet-Nat. Paradox is a true white wine, refreshing, floral, full of peach notes – for me. But the panel tasters of Vince wine magazine more agree with me, since the wine received 4 stars in the latest issue. “Pale greenish colour with a touch of pink, intense, spicy nose with white and red fruits. Full bodied, complex, flavoursome wine with refined, vibrant acidity and good length with green apple notes.”

ZV in every format

After the white Kékfrankos, we turned to the ZV line, aka the Zöldveltelini wines (the German name is Grüner Veltliner, in short GV, the Hungarian term is the same with green in the name). We started with Pet-Nat made of Zöldveltelini, disgorged by hand in water. It still has some lees, the wine is clean, playful and juicy. Then came my favourite, Steigler Extra Brut 2023, the bottle fermented Zöldveltelini with 3.3 g dosage. I had been impressed when I tasted first a week before, here is my applause, or rather my ode to this sparkling wine. I am not alone with this opinion, Steigler has just received a gold medal for this wine at Berliner Wine Trophy Summer Tasting (the results are not published yet officially). Then we tasted the two “normal” Zöldveltelini, the classic and the premium. The classic Steigler Bio Zöld Veltelini 2024 (the winery writes the variety separately) is a great example of the variety, a textbook GrüVe for wine students showing the typical refreshing notes of citrus fruits and white pepper. A serious fun fact: the 2022 vintage of this wine was selected the Best Zöldveltelini of Winelovers Wine Awards international wine contest in 2023. The premium Steigler Zöld Veltelini 2022 proves the ageing potential of the variety. Usually they harvest the grapes 10–12 days later than for the classic, and while the former matures in stainless steel tank, the premium ages in 500 L barrel for 9 months. The result is a complex, rich wine definitely capable of being paired with sophisticated dishes.

Raising the stakes

Then came Metamorf 2023, and exciting experimental orange wine. 300 kilos of grapes were used, pressed by hand after 7 days fermentation on skin. 1.5 millilitre of fine lees of the same wine was added to each litre. Altogether it spent a year in small barrel and was bottled without filtering. A stunning orange wine, it was the favourite of my sister-in-law, who is not a wine connoisseur, but was impressed by the infinite aromas and flavours of the wine.
We finished the Steigler Late Harvest 2024 of Zöldveltelini, giving another evidence of the potential of the variety as a noble dessert wine. The alcohol level is 11%, the residual sugar is 90 g.
And though we finished the tasting of ZV wines at the cellar, Tamás gave us a bottle Steigler Fusion 2023 as a “homework” assignment. This is a surprising blend of Zöldveltelini, Furmint and Muscat Ottonel, I have never tasted this combination. I tasted the wine a week later, alone, without any disturbing noise or circumstance so that I could concentrate. I do not consider myself a wine expert, more a journalist, but obviously 20 years of constant tasting means something. So, I tasted Fusion, telling the truth I was thinking of how to tell honestly, but tactfully if I did not like the wine. But it was not needed. Wow! This is what I thought. The impressive, fruity and spicy nose was followed by fireworks of flavours in the month. The aromatic character of the Muscat was not overwhelming, not too flamboyant, it was more of a decent duel partner. As if I were watching a fence tournament of equal fencers with gracious moves and exciting attacks. I fell in love with this wine, proving again another face of ZV, a great partner in a marriage.

Are you interested in Zöldveltelini variety? Visit Steigler Cellar, you will get “full service” from sparkling to orange wine, from pet-nat to late harvest. 7 wines, 7 faces – well done!

More about Steigler Cellar

Our latest article about Babarczi Vineyard and Winery (wines in our cover photo)

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Step on the bridge between East and West

“Wine competitions are a great aid to the consumer – who is often confronted with so many wines to buy they find it difficult to choose.  It gives the consumer guidance and confidence in their purchase if the medal winning wine has been scored highly by experts – says Rose Murray Brown, Master of Wine, judge at Winelovers 2022 and 2023. – The contests are particularly important in Central Eastern Europe as many of these wine countries are unknown to wine lovers as they are up-and coming.  The contests help the consumers choose from a range of unknown names – and helps the producers promote their product as a quality wine.”

“Wine contests are a valuable tool both for the consumer and the winery, especially if the wines do not boast with notorious recognition, as it is often the case with hidden gems from the Central and Eastern European countries. Medals awarded wines in serious wine contests improve brand awareness and visibility, which is true “gold” for wine countries from the Central and Eastern European countries. It attracts the consumer’s interest towards less- known wines and sometimes helps the product sell better than a thousand words would do, in places where there is no sommelier or a specialised salesman” – comments Julia Scavo wine writer and sommelier champion, judge of the competition in 2022 and in 2023 as well.

“Throughout history, Hungary has always functioned as a bridge between the East and the West, and our winemaking traditions and skills are also well suited to playing a catalytic role in this field,” explains István Tábor competition director, adding that the region’s wines still need export opportunities and marketing specifically supporting exports. Winelovers Wine Awards also helps them to do this, since, as well as extensive communication in Hungary, the wine competition is also linked to increasingly strong international publicity.

Entries are now open for the 2023 Winelovers Wine Awards, and producers can enter by submitting the necessary details on the competition website.

• More information on the Winelovers Wine Awards website: https://wineloverswineawards.com/
• List of 70 eminent wine experts in the jury of 2023: https://wineloverswineawards.com/jury
• Videos of the 2022 event and interviews with the judges: https://wineloverswineawards.com/videos
• Photos from the 2022 wine competition: https://wineloverswineawards.com/gallery
• Entering to the competition: https://wineloverswineawards.com/enter
• Entry fee structure: https://wineloverswineawards.com/entry-fee
• Key dates: https://wineloverswineawards.com/key-dates

ENTRY DOCUMENTS to be used

• company info: wineloverswineawards.com/Company-infos-Winelovers-Wine-Awards.pdf
• wine data: wineloverswineawards.com/Wine-data-Winelovers-Wine-Awards.pdf
• entry is also available online: https://wineloverswineawards.com/enter