’This wine is barbarous.’ - said Tibor Horváth, sitting on the terrace of our winery, sipping Furmint, the 2007 vintage that we estimated to be the biggest. Although Tibor (Fekete Winery from Szekszárd) is connected to the countryside only by the namesake between our cellars and the love of wine, he felt something about the spirit of Somló.

Our winery is located on the southern slope of Somló Hill, which stands alone between Kisalföld and Bakony. The mountain is an old formation of volcanic origin, where the power of nature can be felt in extreme proximity and fills every glass of Somló wine with rich minerality, robust acid structure and healing power according to local tradition. These values of the place of production and the sophisticated elegance of the noble white varieties characteristic of the wine region are present side by side in our wines, they always form a harmonious, complex unit, whether one or the other becomes more dominant for a moment.

This timeless terroir has been serving local winemakers for almost 1,000 years now, and the permanence has given them a reputation and recognition that belies the small size of the wine region, which we believe will continue to grow in the coming decades as our borders disappear.

Mr Béla Fekete, the ‘Grand Old Man of Somló’, the famed founder of our winery bought the first part of the farm in the beginning of the 70’s and extended it step-by-step to the 3.3 hectares, what we further grow to today’s 4.3 ha. Traditional vinification technology has been used from the very beginning, that is followed by at least 3-4 year long maturation in the cellar. That allows for the evolvement of all the value that was delivered by the very special soil and climate, giving a unique personality to our wines.

The ‘modern’ history of the cellar was started by my friend Gyuri, who has since tragically passed away, in 2014, when he persuaded my friend Ákos and me to buy the cellar. Under his leadership, we have laid the foundation for the continuation of the inherited tradition and have been working continuously since then to keep it sustainable.

Today, we run the cellar together with Zsófi, and make the new vintages with the support of my brother and our employee. It is a great pleasure and value for us to have a close relationship with Uncle Béla and to be welcomed by the winemaking community in Somló. We hope that with our wines we can continue the most beautiful traditions of Somló winemaking and strengthen the reputation of the wine region.

Gábor Riesz