Wines made of LOVE – Csetvei Cellar

Though hungarianwines.eu is an informational website, this article is going to be a subjective one. Excuse me for this, but it is impossible to write about wines of emotion without emotions.

A DJ with a special taste

Long time ago, being the editor in chief of a wine magazine, I had planned to add a free CD to our printed magazine with cool music adjusted to different moods of drinking different wine. The choice of the person to be the editor of the CD was obvious for me, a DJ called Nesta, whose musical knowledge is like a library. He showed me a whole new world through the radio station where his selection of music was broadcast. The regular „music factory countries”, like United Kingdom and USA were far from being enough for him, he picked up his peculiar favourites from France, Iceland, Africa or New Zealand – from anywhere without boundaries. Unfortunately the CD has never been produced due to lack of profitability, only one for me, which I had cherished for a long time.

A young lady with passion for wines and loving the world

Also in the same years we received a bottle of wine for our magazine’s New Releases section with a beautiful name: Sun Moon Star. How simple, how beautiful, how comprehensive! Of course it raised our interest, but we did not know about the quality of the wine. The blind tasting was done, and this new label from nowhere (in fact from the second smallest wine region of Hungary, Mór) proved to be outstanding with a result of 4 stars! Then I had the chance to taste the wine myself, and I was amazed by the richness and at the same time elegance of the wine. Soon – still as the editor of the wine magazine – I could organize a winery visit article of 6 pages to this unknown, yet interesting winery. The article was marvellous, just like the young lady, who left a career of marketing for the passion of making wine in a tiny town in an ancient cellar.

The perfect constellation…

Years passed, the great radio station with the cool music went bankrupt, so I could not listen to those amazing songs any more. I met Kriszti, the young lady who created Sun Moon Star for a couple of times. Once in Brussels in the European Parliament, then at VinCE Budapest, where she exhibited, and many other times. And later I was invited to a radio station for an interview regarding the upcoming edition of VinCE Budapest wine event. The editor of the programme was Nesta, my adored, favourite DJ. Who happened to be the boyfriend of Kriszti Csetvei, the wonderful, young winemaker by that time! I learned that they had met – where else? – at a wine tasting, where Nesta or as he is really called Frici played music, and Kriszti presented her wines as an exhibitor.

Photo: szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu

The flow of love

Time passed, they got married. We met several times, we even had a small company of winelover friends, who gather together from time to time. We visited their estate in Mór, which made a big impression on all of us. The top of the steep slopes of vines were ideal for our tent, and the dinner they made in a newly built stove in the courtyard was unforgettable. Still they did not return the visit when it was my turn at my house – however they had a good excuse: their little daugther, Panna had just been born!

Photo: Réka Kovács

They live in love and happiness together: a man of music, a woman of love and creativity, a tiny girl, a friendly dog, and the barrels, who happen to be their children as well. Kriszti wrote on the very first barrel of hers beneath the technical information: P.S. I love you. And have things changed? Well, the family has grown bigger, and love has grown bigger, too! The new love has just arrived in the form of a bright red juicy-fruity pleasure called pinot!

The very youngest child: Frici Noir

This is what the creator, Krisztina Csetvei said herself about the very first red wine of their estate:

“Our very first red wine has just been released!
Frici Noir 2015 (after the beloved husband, Frici alias Frigyes Machán)
Grape variety: Pinot Noir
It is our first red wine, our dream, which was finally captured in bottle. It was Frici, who brought the grapes home, he macerated it, he had midges for breakfast and he had midges for dinner, too. Then he handled the whole thing to me.
Light, spicy, exciting, full of love, a real fruit bomb. We love, we adore it, it is our own child!
It was bottled in the middle of December 2016, its alcohol level is 13% vol.
The terroir where the grape came from is in Neszmély wine region, we bought it from a beautiful vineyard from near the village of Neszmély. And – to continue the story – we have planted 500 vines of Pinot Noir as a kind of experiment in our region. We will see, but it would be great to have our own Pinot Noir vineyard…”

P.S.: from the journalist

Sorry for being so emotional, but I love them, and I cannot resist it. I love their personality, which proves the fact that you are what you eat, or if you are a winemaker, you are what you make.

Ágnes Németh, editor of hungarianwines.eu
Former editor of VinCE Magazine

Frici Noir is available at:
– WinoWonka, Budapest
– Galéria12, Budapest
– Csetvei Pince, Mór

The upcoming tastings with Krisztina Csetvei