Tornai Winery celebrates 80th anniversary

This year is a special one for Tornai, the celebration goes on all year long. It started with the release of the first traditional method sparkling wines of the estate, and in the summer the orange wine made of Hárslevelű has hit the shelves. 100% Hárslevelű, 100% flavours!

Orange wine boom still continues, as Decanter wine writer Gosia Young in her article analysing the results of the 17th Decanter World Wine Award. Hungarian producers are also eager to try themselves making the long macerated, amber colour wine, and adventurous wine connoisseurs greet their efforts.

Tornai Narancsbor 2025 (‘Narancsbor’ means ‘Orange wine’) is made of 100% Hárslevelű grape with prolonged skin maceration. “The dry sip on the palate is reminiscent of figs, but there is no hint of sweetness. A tight sense of acidity and a clean, unique flavour. Notes of oily seeds and herbs, earl grey tea and dried peach alternate. A long, complex and particularly likeable finish, with a slight phenolic character, rounded off by a nutty oil flavour.”
Recommended food pairing: pumpkin cream soup with artisan pumpkin seed oil. (In the west of Hungary, in “Őrség” region, there are several traditional small pumpkin seed oil producers.)
It costs 3600 HUF / 10 EUR on the webshop of the winery.

More about Tornai Winery

Tornai wines are available in several countries, for example in the United Kingdom, imported by Astrum Wine Cellars. If you are interested in importing, contact the export manager.

Our earlier article about the new sparkling wines

New release by Tornai: Sparkling made of Csomorika

Wine & Painting at Tornai Winery

Zsuzsanna Kővári artist will share her passion of creation with joy at Tornai Winery on 11 April. Wine, wine bites and paint will be provided, guests only need to bring their heart. Plus: do not miss the chance to stock some of the 4 recent gold medal winner Tornai wines!

Date and time: 11 April 2026, 13.00
Venue: Tornai Winery, Somló hegy 1242., Somlojeno, Hungary, 8478
Participation fee: 12 000 HUF (approximately 30 EUR)
It includes: refreshing wines from Tornai, some wine bites, guided painting
Booking: +36 70 663 6641 / rendezveny@tornaipince.hu
More about Tornai Winery

Tornai Winery celebrates its 80th anniversary this year with several events all year long.

Painting with heart

Vivid colours, different techniques, several styles – Zsuzsanna “Zsanna” Kővári does not want to stay in her comfort zone, she wants to try herself in new techniques and genres to evolve. She grew up in Balaton Uplands, her love of the lake district is reflected in many of her paintings.
11 April is the Day of Poetry in Hungary, commemorating one of our most famous poets, Attila József, who was born on this day. Then why a painter? First of all, why not, secondly, Zsanna’s painting is poetry. She often reads poems for inspiration, because, as she says: “good things inspire me the most”. She “paints with heart”, and she can transfer this passion through a workshop like the one at Tornai Winery.

More about Zsuzsanna Kővári

Grow du Monde 2024, Balatonfüred, Hungary

The 3^rd edition of GROW du Monde international wine contest took place from 28 to 31 May in Balaton wine region. This year, the event aimed at promoting Olaszlizring grape variety in international markets and sharing experiences among winemakers. More than 50 producers gathered to present their Olaszrizling wines on the last day of the competition at GROW After tasting. Maria Pozzo-Tonkova represented Hungarianwines.eu at the tasting, she earned the right to be our reporter by completing our recent Olaszrizling quiz without mistakes, along with Elizabeth Smith wine writer. Maria interviewed three participants at the tasting, here is what she learnt about the challenges and dangers for Olaszrizling producers.

Our other GROW article with the results is coming tomorrow.

More than just a low-budget wine

On the last day the participants and the guests gathered in Balatonfüred Congress Center to find out the winners of this year’s winners and to taste the wines. It was a unique opportunity to discover the variety of wines made from the Olaszrizling grape. As noted by Borbély Tamás (Borbély Family Winery), also known as Mr. Olaszrizling, Olaszrizling “is more than just a low-budget wine”. “We can work with this grape variety in a lot of styles: from the light fruity wines to the single vineyard selection full body mineral terroir wines and sweet wines”, he said.

This opinion was shared by Davide Bortone, a wine critic from Italy who was among the judges of GROW du Monde this year.

“This kind of competitions are able to show that Olaszrizling has beautiful shiny sides that people should know better than ‘Fröccs’ (Spritz) side. With Olaszrizling, you can produce from easy to more complex wines aged in oak or late harvest wines with botrytis. It can be a big thing for the future of Hungary and of all the countries involved in the production of this variety”, he emphasized.