01 April 2022 / Borbála Kalmár, on behalf of the Agricultural Marketing Centre
The hill is easy to find: proceeding from Eger towards Noszvaj, as soon as we leave the town sign, we can see the landscape of the gentle hill. We can even explore it on foot, although as we get closer to the hilltop, the terrain becomes steeper and steeper, with gravel and rocky soil under our feet. Besides the elevation, another specialty of this production area is the soil: while the entire Eger Wine District stretches over volcanic rock such as rhyolitic tuff, the soil of Nagy-Eged Hill and Kis-Eged Hill is based on limestone. “As the soil decreases, the roots of grapes get less and less nutrients and water, as there is nothing to bind these,” says István Polyák, winemaker of Kovács Nimród Winery, explaining the features of the terroir. “Proceeding upwards, the conditions are more and more difficult for the grapes to survive, which puts the plants under stress. This is the reason why the berries are smaller here, so we can say that nature performs yield limitation instead of us. Smaller berries contain a larger proportion of skin compared to pulp, and the higher tannin content provides more aroma and flavour material, as a result of which the wines made on Nagy-Eged Hill are much more concentrated. Our property on the highest part of Nagy-Eged Hill has produced wines of special quality, like Sky Furmint, the vintage year 2017 of which received the VinAgora Champion Award and the title of Hungary’s best Furmint, or the iconic NJK, recognised more than once on international as well as Hungarian level, which confirms the virtues and qualities of the red variations planted here as well as the great terroir every vintage year.”
The motto in the title, “One Parcel to Rule Them All”, comes from György Lőrincz Jr. (St. Andrea Vineyard), demonstrating how much the Nagy-Eged Hill parcel means to them. “When we obtained this terroir in 2006, my father already regarded this place as an emblematic grape production area of Eger, and he wanted to compose this parcel into a large Eger wine by all means. The planting already took place with regard to the terroir being represented in the form of a blended wine. We think that if we have a serious terroir, it must be able to show its unique features not only through one grape variety but also through a blend. So Kékfrankos was planted, with Kadarka next to it, providing a base to be decorated with Pinot Noir, Merlot and Syrah, which lends a little Rhône Valley character to their top wine coming from here, the Egri Bikavér, featured in their sortiment under the name Agapé since 2021. Its white counterpart is Mária, based on Furmint and Chardonnay planted on Nagy-Eged Hill. György Lőrincz thinks these are the white varieties that can best convey the unique nature of the terroir, and they also coexist in harmony within the wine, as the acids of Furmint complement the creaminess of Chardonnay perfectly.
Descending a little lower, but still on Nagy-Eged Hill, we find the Nagy-Eged Parcel which offers an equally valuable terroir. The best proof of this is the success of St. Andrea Vineyard in 2021: the 2017 Grand Superior Egri Bikavér wine of the Nagy-Eged Parcel received a score of 97 at the Decanter World Wine Awards, and was also granted the Best in Show award, by which it got into the top 50 wines of the world.
Marcell Bukolyi planted his first vines in the Nagy-Eged Parcel in 2016 and has been doing organic cultivation from the very start. The small vineyard branded by his name (Bukolyi Marcell Organic Wines) lies at the foot of the hill, in an environment surrounded by nature, so we can say that the wines breathe in harmony with the terroir. They planted four red and four white grape varieties, serving as the base of Egri Bikavér and its white counterpart, Egri Csillag. And as to what makes batches coming from here so special: “From Nagy-Eged, physiologically ripe grapes can usually be harvested with a high must weight, and despite that, wines are characterised by a thrilling, tight coolness. While in other terroirs a Mediterranean type of red wine with an alcohol content of 15% already has fruit jam or preserve notes appearing, the Nagy-Eged Hill wines keep their fresh and fruity character due to the unique environmental factors, particularly the complex lime soil.”
