An impressive ZV line-up at Steigler Cellar in Sopron

Though being a chief winemaker is far from “dolce far niente” aka “sweet idleness”, it is easy to understand what it may mean in an organic wine estate. As Tamás Varga, chief winemaker of Steigler Cellar explained, they do as little as possible – until the must ferments. Then comes the playful part, like making white wine of black grape, adding a handful of fine lees to a barrel or blending varieties that have never been blended.

By Ágnes Németh

Steigler Cellar came into the Hungarian wine scene less than a decade ago, but they became rapidly successful. The owner, Bálint Lőrinczy is a gentleman with vision, who follows family traditions with being a “poncichter”, a grape grower in Sopron. Tamás Varga is a winemaker of great experience (Austria, California and New Zealand) and with endless ideas and experimental spirit.
“It is the only cellar in the world which is underground when you enter, but then you leave up on the floor” – commented Tamás as he took us around in the tiny cellar in the heart of Sopron. Though I doubt the uniqueness in this regard, it is obviously cool to have a functioning wine cellar in the heart of city, especially with those tricky steps and tunnels.
It was my second visit, first I took foreign wine experts including Pasi Ketolainen MW and other highnesses, back then I was the organizer, I paid more attention to the wellbeing of the prestigious guests. But now it was more of a private visit with my sister, brother and my sister-in-law. Tamás was back then and now again simply irresistible. Funny, witty, generous with the tasting portions, and only as professional as it was needed – in other words, he is great to talk to wine lovers of any level, even with less background knowledge.

“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!

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