ANDRÁS NAGY ---->
HAPPINESS IN THE VINEYARDS
ETYEKI SAUVIGNON BLANC 2011 IN GERLÓCZY
WE TOOK ONE OF OUR REGULAR CUSTOMERS, ANDÁRS NAGY TO SÁRA MATOLCSY IN ETYEK. READ ON FOR THE ACCOUNT OF HIS VISIT.
Sára Matolcsy Etyeki Kúria - Executive Director
I’m no wine expert. I socialized in a college dorm where we drank things that would give even a mentally strong sommelier a crying fit for days. (There was that canned red for example, that left an everlasting strip of red paint on the bottom of the glass.) Then age brought along wisdom, so now I can pronounce the difficult French names tolerably, and I can nod confidently when somebody talks about fruity notes or the Kopár 2006. The fact that I’m no expert is not a serious obstacle in itself I think to myself on the way to Etyek, because one: Sára Matolcsy could do it (though she probably never tasted the above mentioned toxic liquid in a dorm), and two: I might one day have some money to invest, I might win the lottery or what have you, and I’ll be a winemaker (once I gave it a go in New Zealand where I pruned grapes for three weeks. I was so thorough in my pruning that the end result was on par with phylloxera; wherever I went I left practically barren lands). On the bumpy road to the Etyek wine cellars I quickly list in my head what I know about the village: although it has a silly name, I’d love to move out here (pro: beautiful location, con: no rail transport). There’s a film studio where I’ve nearly been once. There’s also a festival at the end of September called Kezes-lábos which I’ve been to once but my memories of it were clouded by alcohol. And this is the cornerstone of the Etyek-Buda wine region. As we arrive at the Etyeki Kúria Winery, it is as if we’ve been teleported to Tuscany. Sára Matolcsy, the adorably loud hostess invites us to take seats on the winery’s terrace under the walnut tree (note: if I really move here, I must have a walnut tree). ‘Before I came here, I’d work as a financial investor in the US for thirteen years’, says Sára, ‘I’d never drunk wine, and I‘d never seen dirt roads or winemakers in my life. I imagined the grape was somehow produced on supermarket shelves. I didn’t even have winter boots as I didn’t need them: I arrived at the office garage in my heels and suit and I went home from them in the evening.’ ‘My siblings, who used to live in Budapest at the time, used to come here for hikes. Them made friends with Tibor Báthori (Vintner of the Year in 1992, as the second winner of the award that’s been around since ’91), and when his winery was put up for sale, they took it over. Five years later they moved to Austria. So they need somebody they could trust and who could take over the management of the estate. So they called me.’ ‘And I thought why not. I put my car in the garage and came here for three years. It happened in 2001, eleven years ago’ laughs Sára. While we’re sipping on our Sauvignon Blanc (it’s a cathartic experience), she goes ahead with her story. ‘As soon as I arrived, I had to manage the harvest. It was awful. People took me for a fool, drank up the old wine, some of them got dunk by the afternoon and fell into the vines crashing whole rows. But then I found my bearings; right at the start we hired an Austrian vintner who came once a week. I was following him around in the vineyard taking notes of whatever needed to be done in a notebook. But this method couldn’t when the estate expanded (now 28 hectares are cultivated only in Etyek), we needed a permanent oenologist.’ Soon after that, with the help of a recruitment agency, they found the old oenologist of the late Tibor Gál, Sándor Méhész. He worked in California and Tuscany, but he’s been with Etyeki Kúria Winery ever since. One of the best wine brand designers of Europe did the brand image and the labels, who used the local Swabian women’s needlework stitches as the main motif. This design is visible on the Etyeki Kúria Winery website too (http://www.etyekikuria.com). As the portfolio was reduced, to six wines are produced today. Sára set about work too; she put on her willies and worked hard ‘I pruned the vines, filled the baskets at the harvest, and transported the workers when it was needed. I did everything.’ I nod and swallow my third glass of Chardonnay enthusiastically while Sára is telling me about the incredibly professional running of the estate. They regularly seek advice from a French consultation firm, study the surface and vegetation on aerial photos, plant nitrogen-content inducing plant communities prior to vine installation, and geologists study the soil. ‘We drive the workers crazy during the harvest; we don’t harvest row by row but in patches depending on what the soil is like under the vines.’ I ask her about her favourite vintage. ‘On this level we can’t allow for vintages to be too different. If it happened, it would cost the oenologist his job’ she replies with a smile. ‘We managed to get an excellent quality even in 2010. How much it cost us to make it excellent is another story.’ I’m wondering about how consciously the whole winery is organized and operated, the design, the excellent oenologist, the technology, everything. I suspect the placing of the walnut tree wasn’t accidental either. There’s a new cellar being built now, and soon the whole winery will be expanded into a building complex, the plan already hangs on the wall. I’m looking at this ex-investment expert. Does she think about investments and portfolios? Or does she enjoy this at all? Sára Matolcsy, as if she knows what I’m thinking, fetches another bottle and laughs while pouring it. ‘You see, I’m happy here. Before Etyek I had sun allergy, and here it’s gone. I’m happiest when I’m alone in the vineyards.’ I nod. I believe her.