This award is considered to be the most prestigious one by many experts, because the winemakers themselves choose the best one. The nomination was done by the previous award winners, and the circle of the best 50 was announced on 6th March. Then the voting period took place, the 50 nominated winemakers voted for their favourite among them. Now the top 5 have been announced: Károly Áts (Grand Tokaj, Tokaj), Sarolta Bárdos (Tokaj Nobilis, Tokaj), Judit Bodó (Bott Cellar, Tokaj), Zoltán Heimann (Heimann, Szekszárd), István Ipacs Szabó (Vylyan, Villány – in the photo). Now the 50 winemakers will vote again, they will decide who gets the “Hollywood Walk of Fame”-like star on the pavement of Zrínyi street in Budapest. It is great to see that the five of them are from different scales: Grand Tokaj is the largest winery in Tokaj and Vylyan is the second largest in Villány – but winemaker colleagues seemingly understand and respect the work these winemakers do to maintain outstanding quality in significant quantity. Heimann is a medium size winery, while Tokaj Nobilis and Bott are smaller ones with maximum respect of the terroir. All five have long history of dedicated, humble work to create the purest, the most elegant and most expressing wines. Congratulations to all of them!

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