HUNMiskolc, Arnóti sor 128, 3530

About us


We were „well fed townies”. We thought we would buy a wine cellar at Avas. We found the prettiest (to us). In it’s original state, in the so-called Zakopane-style (almost all cellars at the Avas used to be like this). Since then we have been taking care of it to the best of our ability.

However my friend said that a cellar without wine is just a hole. So we bought grapes, casks, we „made” wine. It was not good. I have been keeping a bottle of wine from one of the first batches since then. Because I hope one day I can be very proud of it. Not because it’s that good, but because it shows where we started…

I have read every piece of literature and books, I could fine about wine making, I compleated a wine-technician degree. We even bought a small vineyard. We learnt to prune, shoot selecting, aborting (household name for green harvesting), aszú collecting.

Winemaking started as a hobby, it became a way of life, and today we consciously upgrading, so that if one of our children feels drawn to it, it can easily be expanded into an asset that can sustain a family.

The world is heaving, boiling, but those that create value, has to be able to get by. One can’t find a more beautiful profession anyways.

Tradition


From my mother’s side we come from Erdőbénye. Out of respect the winery was named after Czabala János, my grandfather (and his ancestors).

Before “the second war” they they have been making their living by working with vines, but the family got a small piece of land in 1945. After the temporary government’s law of 1945. march 15. lands had been given out. The frontline was still at Székesfehérvár, but at Bénye they were already pruning. Only if today’s administration was that efficient, even without computers, fax, and travel…

Every year I went on “vacation” to the property. I didn’t help a lot, but I felt the defencelessness of the workers but also their freedom. If I learnt anything, it was the respect towards the vines, hard work, and the diligence of farmers - sadly I had to acquire viticultural and oenological knowledge from books.

Every year we harvested two or three times, it was a real family festival.

Not that long ago we went by a steam engine on railway, into the village a rear-engine Ikarusz took us. Up the hill we went by coach, the children could stand in the bottomless barrels used for transporting. I even had a small basket on my back, where the “collectors” emptied their buckets.

The grandparents died off, the vineyards were sold. Today the Béres vinery operates there.

We didn’t buy vines there. The hills of Erdőbénye are cold, the wines are acidic. Mád is half an hour closer anyway. We were a little disloyal, but in the spirit and name of our vinery our ancestors live on.