Somló Kincse

OUR CREED The fact that we can work in Somó is divine grace, perhaps the greatest gift from fate after our children. Many years have passed since I first set foot on the eastern side of Somló, on the very first small parcel of our vineyard. Yet today, as I put these lines on paper, I am still seized by the same feeling as when, already from our own little estate, after a night of struggle, I first stared down the rising sun. This place has a kind of magic that captivates anyone whose soul it touches, and then never lets go. A sweet and bitter captivity. It grabs you, knocks you down, chains you, yet at the same time fills you with some unearthly energy. It shows you your place, teaches you—teaches you again—and marks out the path you still have to walk. It teaches respect for nature, for the fact that love and humble, faith-filled work always bear their fruit. The wine we help bring into the world is a very special living being. It is an independent creature in the barrel, behaves as such when you pour a glass from it, and even the droplet that falls back to the soil has a life of its own. It is the mystery of life–death–rebirth, carrying within it a divine message. What kind of science is it that labels this as wine chemistry or provides biological keys to understanding it?! Wine has a spirituality, if you understand it, you come closer to nature and perhaps to God as well. You recognize true human values, your own virtues and faults. This is the secret we seek! THE FIRST 15 YEARS The estate founder and the cellar’s jack-of-all-trades, László Andrási, bought the first tiny plot in 2005 to realize his long-held dream. This dream was a nature-focused, artisanal family vineyard and winery where wines are made in a traditional cultivation system from ancient Carpathian Basin varieties, using natural methods. The first chapter of our story was the reintroduction of these old, almost forgotten grape varieties. Thus began an experiment whose result is that today the legendary Gohér thrives here once again, Bakator bears fruit, and others from the vineyards of the distant past. God also gave a family to the little estate, three children’s carefree chatter breaks the silence of our hillside. Through decades of experience, successes, failures, much work, and unwavering faith, it has been proven that our cherished old varieties easily match the virtues of popular international ones. Our wines stand proudly on the tables of the most demanding domestic and foreign wine lovers and alongside the menus of top restaurants. As the icing on our cake, from the 2018 vintage we crafted the first multi-component blend, intended to evoke the memory of the Somlai wines of old. From this point onward, our story took an exciting and joyful turn! 2020 — THE NEW ACT With hope fused together by shared faith, Somló Kincse Kézműves Kispince is now formed by two families. We have doubled our vineyard area, now 3 hectares, and continue building our path with the same philosophy. According to our plans, our traditional processing building will be constructed, our mysterious underground aging cellar completed, and we will gain an elegant tasting room where we can marvel together with our friends at the treasures Somló’s terroir hides in bottles. WINEMAKING In our cellar we craft artisanal, natural wines with spontaneous fermentation. We have banished all additives, no enzymes, yeasts, or aromatics. We do not use chaptalization, acid addition or reduction, or any other chemistry. Except when making sweet or aszú-style wines in certain years, we harvest the grapes at full ripeness, then after varying durations of skin contact, separate and use only the free-run juice, fermenting it reductively, excluding all factors that could influence the grape’s natural aromatics. During aging, for certain special batches, we also use wooden barrels and amphorae. We strive to minimize sulfur; some of our wines are bottled un-fined, most are unfiltered, and we occasionally produce wines classified strictly “natural.” Our wines cannot swim, run, or jump, so we do not compete them. They are not trendy wines, so we do not intend to follow consumer trends either. In them we seek above all to present Somló, the variety, the microenvironment, and ourselves. Our work is not motivated by financial gain; our goal is simply the same as that of any pure, honest, love-driven human activity: Creation—that is, the lifting up toward the heavens of that which was shaped from the earth.