While in Hollywood you can see names of celebrated movie stars in Walk of Fame, in Budapest, Hungary you can see similar stars, but they belong to celebrated winemakers. Borászok borásza (Winemaker of the Winemakers) is an award with great prestige, because the winner is selected by the winemakers themselves, thus the award is given by the most able experts. Now the 50 nominees are announced.

Great to be among the 50

The award was founded in 2007 by Pál Rókusfalvy, a creative expert, who used to be well-known as a radio commentator, but changed career and became a winery owner himself in Etyek wine region. He has a great role in increasing the popularity of Etyek by organizing several smaller and larger events. The nomination procedure was done by the previous award winners at one gathering (consensus is needed), and the circle of the best 50 was announced on 6th March at the Wine Marketing Conference in Budapest. Now the voting period is taking place: the winemakers have already tasted each other’s wines, so they should give their vote to their chosen ones. Then a second round is taking place, when they vote for the 5 winemakers with the most votes. So who is the next person with a star on the pavement of Zrínyi pedestrian street in the 5th district of Budapest? It will be announced on soon, certainly we will share the information.

Meanwhile, check the list of the 50 best winemakers with photos

Some intersting facts

The other famous award, the Winemaker of the Year is older and the selection process is different, but we can see a lot of names on this list who had previously won the other award: János Árvay (Tokaj), Géza Balla(Arad, Romania), Tamás Dúzsi (Szekszárd), Károly Áts (Tokaj), Péter Vida (Szekszárd), Ferenc Takler(Szekszárd), József Bock (Villány), Ede Tiffán (Villány), Vilmos Thummerer (Eger), Attila Gere (Villány) and Ferenc Vesztergombi (Szekszárd). However a significant difference here is that we can see several estate managers, who are not necessarily the winemakers themselves, but the leading force who shape the style of the winery. For example Károly Barta (Barta Cellar, Tokaj), Péter Molnár (Patricius, Tokaj) or László Mészáros(Disznókő, Tokaj). Another important feature of this list is that we can see many young winemakers (of course there is a greater chance to have young people on a list of 50 in spite of the other award where there are only 5 nominees in the final round. Some young talents of the list: Krisztina Csetvei (Mór), Jr Tibor Gál(Eger) or Marcell Bukolyi (Eger). It is also great to see some less famous names: the winemakers of some celebrated wineries, who are usually mentioned, but still the name of the winery overshadows them: István Ipacs Szabó (Vylyan, Villány), Sándor Mérész (Etyeki Kúria) or Zsolt Liptai (Pannonhalmi Archabbey Winery). Congratulations to all the 50 winemakers, they are already winners! (In Hungary there are about 600 quality wineries.)