14 October 2024 / Edit Szabó
Which celebrities have drunk your wines?
The greats of the artistic and cultural world, top athletes, politicians, and many of them have also honoured me with their friendship. Péter Blaskó, Károly Nemcsák, Károly Eperjes, Cecília Esztergályos, Gábor Koncz, Andrea Rost, Tamás Freund, István Pálffy, Zsolt Bayer, András Bencsik, Levente Szörényi, József Meződi, Miklós Varga, Szilveszter Ókovács, Ken Hensley, Zoltán Magyar, Antal Dunai, Tamás Faragó, Katalin Kovács and many others have visited my cellar. And the Omega band, with whom I have played three concerts.
Wait a minute! You got up on stage and played music?
I did indeed. One concert in Siófok, one in Balatonfüred and one in Szekszárd. And now I have played with the Apostol ensemble. I play bass guitar, but I like to play drums, and I can also play keyboard instruments. But the greatest experience of my life was when Otto Habsburg came to see me in 2009, he was 96 years old, but he took the time and talked to me for an hour. It's amazing the people wine has brought me together with!
Is it true that you can trace your family history back to 1746?
Yes, that’s true, but I have to say that this is not so rare in Szekszárd. We are not of Swabian but Bavarian descent on our father's side, and according to archival records, our ancestors were involved in viticulture and winemaking for ten generations. When the Turks were expelled, there was an army of 20,000 Bavarians present, so our Bavarian ancestor probably came to Hungary at that time, and must have fallen in love and started a family here. There are also Swabians, South Slavs and Hungarians in our family tree, but don't ask us about the origin of the name Eszterbauer, because although many things have been suggested, we can't be sure about anything.
You represent the tenth generation, but the eleventh is already spreading its wings on the estate. Were you born into viticulture too?
Yes, but the intergenerational tradition was interrupted during the years of socialism, when all the land was taken away from my grandparents. The last small plot of vineyards was appropriated by the city council in 1986, and a housing estate was built in its place. So viticulture and winemaking didn’t mean much to me, but somehow, I was drawn to it. I had a small vineyard where I built a press house with my own hands in the 1980s, but it remained a hobby for me for a long time.
How was your wine?
My friends told me it was good, and I was successful with it in the family, but I didn’t consider selling it. I'm an engineer, I started an industrial automation company, which achieved success very quickly, and for a long time that was all I was interested in. In the early 2000s, however, I began to think that it would be good to revive the family tradition. The business was doing well, and I had the capital, so in 2001 we laid the foundations of the winery, started building, and as there was nothing left of our original estate, we bought the 37 hectares of vineyards that we are still cultivating today.
You have not only built a cellar and a modern winery, but also a guest house and an event hall. When was all this completed?
We put the finishing touches to it last year. I can now say that our cellar is beautiful, our winery is modern, our vineyards are well cultivated, and we have the necessary technology for everything. I got a lot of help from the Szekszárd winemakers at the start, and László Pálinkás, who is not only my friend but also my cousin, got involved in the winemaking. He established our style and played a major role in the very rapid success of Eszterbauer wines. Our current winemaker, an ambitious young man with a university degree, Miklós Klein, has also turned into an excellent professional under his wing.
How would you describe the winery's wines?
We strive to make Szekszárd's characteristics clearly recognisable in our wines, but while we do all this in our usual unique style, we don't follow a completely different path than the other local winemakers. Fruity flavours, a pleasant spiciness and good acidity are very important and should prevail in all our wines, so it's no secret that we sometimes even sneak 10% of Kadarka into our Cabernet Sauvignon. I am convinced that the true face of the wine region is represented by Kadarka, Kékfrankos and Bikavér, the trinity that forms its identity, but this does not mean we neglect the international varieties, as Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot always win great acclaim at wine competitions.
What have been the winery's greatest successes so far?
Let’s separate professional and business success! Competing is important, so we send our wines to many international wine competitions, and I am proud that they almost always get a gold rating. I think it is a great achievement that our 2017 Grand Szekszárd Cuvée not only won a gold medal at the Mundus Vini last year, but also the award for the best Hungarian red wine, but I must say that medals won at the wine region competition are just as important for me. We work closely with the others, but we like to beat each other and it's great to always be at the top. As for business: our domestic market is steady, and in today's world that's very important. We owe this predictable and calculable sales to the supermarket chains. Exports always bring great prestige and recognition, but we have to accept that they are less predictable. We often deliver to England, Germany, the United States and Poland, while Canada was a newcomer last year, but we have also won tenders in Scandinavia. We sell around 300,000 bottles of wine a year, which is what we need to keep the system going. A downturn would put us all in a difficult position, but we seem to be on a stable footing for the time being. I consider this our greatest market success.
Is there something new or surprising on the way in the cellar?
We must always renew ourselves in some way, otherwise we become irrelevant. We've also changed the labels a bit: the imagery is still evocative of the past, but the look is simpler and cleaner. And as for the wines: it is not easy in Szekszárd, but in response to market demand, we also make a semi-sparkling wine, we have launched a light Királyleányka, and we are also aiming for a lighter, fruitier style in our red wines. And this year's novelty will be a Néró red wine. We have only ever made this variety into rosé, but now it's been harvested fully ripe, resulting in a dense, full-bodied red, full of resveratrol, an essential antioxidant for the human body and a powerful cellular regulator.
So, healthy then?
In small quantities, certainly, but don't forget that it contains alcohol! I have seen a statistic that shows that Kékfrankos has 1.5 mg of resveratrol per litre, Merlot 2.4 mg and Néró 7.4 mg. It is no coincidence that this is the name of the label designed by Gézá Ipacs and his team: Néró 7.4. The wine is very dark in colour, almost black, and the flavour is completely different from what we are used to.
The beautiful cellars were built by Zoltán Heimann's brother, Ferenc Heimann. Can your guests see them?
We age our premium red wines there, there are no permanent opening hours, but we are happy to welcome groups of more than eight people who book in advance. Since my son has taken over the engineering company, I have much more time to organise tastings. I tell stories about the family and local history, and of course I also talk about the wines, but I don't bore the guests with unnecessary and uninteresting technical information. You can order dinner if you like, but we do not organise wine dinners. Our function room can seat 50 people comfortably, but our guest house is only for eight people.
When do you expect your children to join you in the ring?
They are already on board. As I mentioned, my older son János has taken over my engineering company. My daughter Ildikó worked for us for years, but then she married Zoltán Heimann Jr, and now she is busy being a mother. My daughter Kata is an agricultural engineer, she has taken over Ildiko's duties, but now they are also having their second baby. She has promised to return to the winery in three years and then she will be the manager. The youngest, Vivien, lives in Budapest, works in marketing and helps out from time to time, but she certainly doesn't want to work in the winery. At least that's what she says now, but who knows? Of course, my greatest joy as a father would be if all four of my children found joy and happiness in our family business. It's important to mention that my wife, Mónika Csatári, is also in the ring: she manages the winery's catering and is my constant companion at wine tastings around the country.
And then you’ll retire and play guitar?
That doesn't sound bad, but as long as I'm fit enough to work, I don't want to retire completely. The wine industry is a bit more demanding than the technical company, but our team there is already good, just lacking routine. I'm happy to still be needed a little, and at wine tastings I can sometimes put a smile on people's faces with my stories. Otherwise, I have a lot of hobbies, I play music, run, love Lake Balaton and I'm happy to pour some Szekszárd wine into anyone's glass, because it's health itself.
