Taschner – a one-man-show from the west

Kurt István Taschner followed his father’s path, who was a grape grower in Sopron wine region, near the Austrian border, and he made his winery well-known all over Hungary. His Irsai Olivér is usually not only the first to be released in every vintage, but it is also among the best new wines. He works with rare grapes as well, his ‘Korai Piros Veltelini’ is one of the best thirst-quenching wines. Apart from Kékfrankos, the flagship grape of Sopron, he makes red wine from Pinot Noir, Zweigelt, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. It is more than interesting to compare his Sauvignon–Franc blend with a similar blend from the south of Hungary. He is one of the very few winemakers, who bottles wines in small bottles.

More about Taschner Winery and Sparkling Wine Cellar

Lajver – extravaganza from Szekszárd

Lajver Wine House has a wide portfolio with labels from the affordable, easy to drink wines through the exciting experimental projects (like the white Incognito from the black Kékfrankos) to the blockbuster red wines. For wine tourists the state-of-the-art winery with rooms with view of the vineyards is a must-go, and certainly the estate is the best place to taste the whole portfolio. Lajver Bordeaux blend is called Infinity, and the name reveals the rich personality of the wine: “Berries and ripe raspberries are present in a sip; elegant barrel notes, sweet spices, roasted notes, a pleasant tannin feel make it meaningful. It has strength, firmness, fruit and spice, and long-lasting flavours. Hardcover, the potential is very much in it.” Vintage 2020 received silver medal at Decanter World Wine Awards.

More about Lajver Wine House

Tűzkő – majestic blend from the hills of Tolna

Marchese Piori Antinori’s Hungarian estate is situated in a lesser known, picturesque wine region called Tolna. The soul healing scenery is ideal from crispy white wines, fruity rosé wines and also for great red wines. The winery has recently redesigned its labels, the new labels reflect the elegance of the wines perfectly – only the label with the hoopoe bird remained unchanged for reason. The Bordeaux blend of the estate is called Tűzkő Domb (‘domb’ stands for ‘hill’, while ‘tűzkő’, the name of the estate means ‘flintstone’) a true icon. “Tűzkő Domb was crafted from a careful selection of grapes from the best vineyard parcels on the estate and is made only in exceptional vintages.“

More about Tűzkő Estate

2. Babarczi Family Winery – Oh, mother!

Look at this strong, ambitious lady! She is part of the family winery, of which someone has just passed away. Zsuzsanna’s mother, the founder’s wife, the “mom” of the estate has left to a place where glass is always full. The first Christmas without her must be hard. Let us send her our condolences.
More about Babarczi Winery

3. Taschner Wine House – hey, how about the planet?

Kurt Taschner is keen about posting stunning photos day by day. Around Christmas he wanted to share a lovely photo with snow around – but we do not have any snow. We have unusual high temperature, so Kurt was left with no choice, but to share an earlier photo. Yes, he and we are all longing for some normal climate circumstances! Climate change is not the change we wish.

More about Taschner Winery and Sparkling Wine House

4. Csetvei Cellar – always a family

Krisztina Csetvei is amazing – as we have said hundred times, but we must keep repeating, because indeed she is. A person with infinite energies, with unique wines and – which is the most important around Christmas – with the ability to create a community. Csetvei Garden is the ultimate place for winelovers, whatever the circumstances are. Her little daughter, Panna is older now – the changes of our kids are always astonishing.
More about Csetvei Cellar

5. Sabar Wine House – Sabarism, the new philosophy

Have you heard of impressionism? Cubism? Dadaism? Forget all. Sabarism is the new trend:) “More and more people like spending time here with a growing family and a growing circle of friends, and sometimes you celebrate important anniversaries with us. When you are here, it is like spending college years together. The most essential thing is being together, laugh and share experiences, just like back in school. This is what sabarism means to us. Relaxed and cheerful moments, days, tearful laughs, emotions, tranquility.” Sabar Wine House, this small estate on the small hill makes great wine, and also made a great change: it created a whole new word for those who experience sabarism.
More about Sabar 

6. Kristinus Wine Estate – closer to nature

This South Balaton winery is deep in the transition into a more natural way of viticulture and vinification. No more gas masks – spreading the vines is not biohazard at Kristinus any more. The person behind is Florian Zaruba, the CEO, a man who lives around the estate, a man who breathes together with the estate.
More about Kristinus Wine Estate

7. The writer

Hungarianwines.eu publishes a new piece of news almost every day. All the emails sent to us are answered. The person behind the words is me, Ágnes Németh. This year is a year of change for me as well. May God give me strength to continue.

I wish a happier new year to all of our readers – in the name of all of our partner wineries:

Babarczi, Barta, Béres, Bock, Borbély, Csányi, Csetvei, Dereszla, Dubicz, Dúzsi, Eszterbauer, Etyeki Kúria, Frittmann, Garamvári, Gere Attila, Gere Tamás & Zsolt, Grand Tokaj, Haraszthy, Heumann, Hilltop, Koch, Kovács Nimród, Kristinus, Lajver, Paulus, Patricius, Sabar, Sauska, Taschner, Thummerer, Tornai, Tóth Ferenc, Tűzkő, Vesztergombi, Villa Sandahl, Vylyan, Zsirai.

In the shadow of the vine

Grapegrowers in Sopron region used to plant beans among the vines. The simple plant survived, in fact thrived in the shadow of the vine, it gave food, what’s more, no special tax had to be paid. No wonder, the vineyard owners used to eat a lot of beans and devised several plates with this humble ingredient. Babsterc is a typical example. (‘Bab’ is bean, ‘sterc’ is fried flour, again an Austrian word). There are several variations of the recipe, let’s see one.
– Soak 200 g dry white beans for a night.
– Boil the beans in salted water until tender.
– Put 200 g flour into a thick pan and fry it without any grease. You have to be careful not to burn it.
– Add some hot lard or goose-grease and stir it well.
– Add some boiling water from the beans as well.
– Mash the beans with a fork and add it to the fried flour. Mix it well.
– Before serving you can bake it in the oven or you can heat in a frying pan.
– It is often served with fried onion rings. At weekends people use it as a garnish of beef stew. Delicious when eaten sweet with sugar and jam or yogurt.

Kékfrankos, of course!

We asked Kurt Taschner Sopron winemaker what to pair with babsterc. Kékfrankos, of course – he said. The fried flour gets a special, toasted flavour, while the bean pasta also has a toasty, chestnut-like aroma. Lard wants some acidity to balance, and Kékfrankos has enough of the acidity along with the lovely, refreshing fruitiness which makes this rather hearty meal lighter.
For Taschner Classic Soproni Kékfrankos the fermentation took place in traditional 1000 L vats with maceration, and the wine matured in large wooden barrels for a year. “Fresh and lively wine, which represents the colour blue on the nose as well (‘Kék’ in Kékfrankos means blue): plum, blueberry and blue flowers with charming, playful spicy notes. Spices dominate the zesty palate supplemented by ripened fruits like cherry and plum.”) Now the vintage 2017 is on sale.

More about Taschner Winery ans Sparkling Wine House

How to make ‘babsterc’ attractive for connoisseurs?

The simple meal of the poor can also be made in a way to appeal to restaurant goers with more refined taste. Zoltán Erhardt is a renowned Sopron chefrunning his own restaurant. Zoltán Pauli gastronomic expert visited him and asked him to show how to cook this authentic meal, so here it is. Zoltán Erhardt used goose-grease he topped the meal with fried duck liver and carrot. The video is in Hungarian, but still you can see the most important steps of the procedure (he did not mash the beans as thoroughly as the cook of the plate above).

“Wine course” in Sopron any time with Kurt 

Sopron is only one hour by train from Vienna, and 2.5 hours from Budapest. At the winery Kurt István Tascner offers two types of tasting package (the names are Swabian words connected to wine cellars). Taschner winery used to be located in the outskirts of the city of Sopron, but in the past years the city has grown through the winery, now it is surrounded by lucky habitants – they are lucky, because the winery is a little green oasis, since Kurt is keen on keeping green places, the garden is full of colourful oleanders, and there is even a so called “bee pasture”.
Taschner winery can seat as many as 64 people, parking is easy and free, warm plates can be arranged with prior arrangements. The winery has a white range of wines from the traditional method sparkling wines to the late harvest dessert wines and complex red blends, and ‘pálinka’, the Hungarian fruit distill is also available (made of the marc of the Irsai Olivér grape).
– Poncichter tasting: 6 wine samples, mineral water, bread with olive oil. Price: 3900 HUF / person (around 10 euro)
– Buschenschank tasting: 6 + 2 wine samples (2 from the more exclusive and expensive wines), mineral water, bread with olive oil, cheese. Price: 5900 HUF / person (around 15 euro)
Do you want to know what Poncichter means? Read it here!

Book your visit here

Contact:

Kurt István Taschner
Address: 9400 Sopron, 168 Balfi road 168, Hungary
Telephone: +36 20 931 5225
E-mail: kurt@taschner.hu
Website (in Hungarian): taschner.hu

Taschner Fidelissima Cuvée 2024

Soproni Irsai Olivér 2024

Soproni Kékfrankos Rozé 2019

Soproni Kékfrankos Classic 2017

Chardonnay Brut 2018

Waking up the sleeping beauty

About 15 years ago Sopron was probably the most active wine region in the country. Versatile programs were offered to visitors cleverly tailored to the needs of each group. Foodies, families, sport lovers, history geeks – they all fcould ind something to do in Sopron region, and of course wine played the main role. Sopron’s annual wine marketing conference with national and international speakers was the icing on the cake. Then everything had changed, the active people were gone. Sopron turned into a sleeping town: a large proportion of the habitants work in the neighbouring Austria, they work all day and go to bed at home instead of going out. Plus the majority of the visitors come from Austria – and not for sightseeing, but for benefiting from the lower prices at the dentist or hairdresser. They also return home by night. Sopron wine region wants to attract winelovers again, and keep them within the region for a while. To do so they only need to communicate what they have: a stunning landscape with Lake Fertő (Neusiedler See), fascinating wines grown on diverse soil, the historic town of Sopron, and many gems to discover, like the tiny town of Kőszeg with its ambitious young winemakers.

Hard times to take action

The restart of Sopron wine marketing was initiated by Sopron Council of the Wine Communities, Sopron Wine Route and Effix-Marketing team – mostly as a voluntary action. Kurt Taschner, winemaker of Sopron commented the renewal of Sopron wine marketing: “Me, just like the other wine producers welcome the initiative and wish the best. We are sorry for them to introduce the new concept in the worst possible season, in times of crisis. And of course we must add that even the best ideas need financial support, we hope that the wine region will receive some kind of subsidy to survive.” Kurt Taschner sells wines – among others – to airline companies WizzAir and Ryanair, his Chardonnay is served in every flight – in normal times. Now only the deficit accummulates, therefore support is really needed. Kurt also adds: “We, winemakers should also improve in quality, without great wines no wine marketing can succeed.”

More about Kurt Taschner and his wines

The battle is ahead of us

Ákos Molnár, one of the “engines” behind the new marketing strategy (and president of Sopron Council of Wine Communities) agrees: Sopron wine regions has countless historic and cultural places of interest, and these must be connected to wine – but first the leaders of the town and the country should agree with this concept. As for the details of the strategy, Ákos Molnár did not want to reveal details, because first they must be discussed with the winemakers themselves, and it was not possible during lockdown. “I keep saying that the value of the wineries as a tourist attraction is much more than the wineries can pay as city tax.” Ákos also mentions Kőszeg and its surroundings as an attraction: “People often think of Sopron town when speaking about the wine region, but in fact this region is much bigger and it includes ‘Vaskeresztes’ sub-wine region. It makes sense to keep visitors within the region and to recommend wineries, programmes of each other’s subregion.” Another argument beside Sopron comes from an ancient document, as Tamás Taschner, Kurt’s brother claims, who happens to be a tour guide and an enthusiastic member of the wine marketing team: “Sopron is probably the oldest wine region in Hungary. Zárány or Zagersdorff is 10 kms from Sopron, and here grape seeds were found in ancient Celtic tombs from 700 BC.” (Read more in German.)

The new logo

The first visible sign of the new concept is the new logo. The creators believe that it is essential to avoid cliches typical of the region, therefore instead of one emblem of Sopron, they emphasize the diversity and the trinity of the region (Sopron, Kőszeg–Vaskeresztes and Lake Fertő). Three subregions, three types soil structure, three climates. And of course like every logo it should be easy to recognize and easy to use in different layouts.

Sopron’s new Facebook page