13 January 2025 / Edit Szabó
What were the ideas and goals that led you to decide that, come rain or shine, you would welcome visitors at the winery every day at 5pm?
Zoltán Demeter: Many people were interested in visiting our winery, but everyone wanted to come at a different time, and it was difficult to accommodate the numerous requests. That's why we thought it would be better to hold a guided tasting for an hour and a half at a fixed, predictable and calculable time. This time is also convenient for those who are staying in town as hotel guests, as they will be back in their hotel in time for dinner. Our experience has shown that the idea is a good one. There is a lot of interest, especially as the programme is also accessible to foreigners, since we can hold it in Hungarian, English or German.
Photo: Petra Oláh
Who comes to visit you?
Anett Demeter: The programme is particularly attractive to foreigners who plan their Tokaj tours well in advance and with great care. Many people come from America, not only Americans, but also people who have Hungarian roots but no longer speak the language. We have seen that foreigners coming to Tokaj are thirsty for such programmes, with some of them booking a year in advance.
How many people can participate in each tasting?
Zoltán Demeter: The maximum number of people is twelve, that's how many chairs we have around our table, but we can also accommodate just two people. We also welcome larger groups, but not as part of this programme. The harvest season was very popular, and the weekend is always busier, but generally speaking, the number of participants is increasing steadily.
What feedback do you get?
Anett Demeter: Many people are surprised to meet us in person and not be guided through the winery by a hostess. Everyone likes the programme, they tell us, and we also therefore know that they recommend it to others. They like the fact that we don't give them a 40-minute standing tasting, but also we give them the opportunity to be welcomed as friends. We talk about our lives and our work for an hour and a half.
Zoltán Demeter: When I go somewhere and the winemaker himself guides me through the cellar, I feel honoured. They feel the same when they meet us. Visitors are trying to scan the place and the environment with incredible sensitivity, and we strive to do our best with our typical perfectionism, so that they leave with an experience of a lifetime. We don't go to Colorado to showcase our wines, they've travelled the distance, they've made sacrifices to be here, and we appreciate that.
How do you choose the wine flight?
Zoltán Demeter: It is important to us that our guests get a cross-section of our work, that the wines we present reflect our philosophy. As our winery was the first in the wine region to obtain a sparkling wine licence, we really have to start with a sparkling wine, then two estate wines, a Furmint and a Hárslevelű, a single vineyard wine as the fourth, and a sweet wine at the end, because you cannot leave the table in Tokaj without a sweet wine. Tasting this flight will give you an idea of the current professional state of the Tokaj wine region and what we have achieved in 30 years. I trust that this will be inspiration enough to taste at other wineries, to take a few bottles home, to look for opportunities to buy at home and to come back again later.
Are you guests also open to sweet wine?
Anett Demeter: Fortunately, yes. There are a dwindling number of people who don't want to taste sweet wines, but we manage to win even some of those over by showing the role these wines can play in gastronomy. You should see the faces of those who taste a Tokaji sweet wine with blue cheese for the first time in their lives. It seems like a small thing, yet for many, it is that bite of blue cheese that breaks through the walls, as they taste flavours like nothing they have ever experienced before. This pairing opens up a new dimension, as it is much easier for a foreign guest to order a bottle of sweet wine when they return home, knowing that it can fit well into a dinner’s wine flight and doesn't have to be the dessert wine.
Zoltán Demeter: We are usually visited by people who want to taste high quality Tokaj wines, so in addition to the basic package, we also offer more sophisticated tastings. We offer local cheeses to accompany the wines on request, but we also have a tasting series where we serve Anett’s homemade goose liver pâté with Tokaj Aszú. I think it's brilliant, I'm a fan, I can't wait for someone to order this package so I can taste it too. For us, it is an important mission to link our wines to Hungarian gastronomic culture, and it is obvious that the marriage of foie gras and Tokaj Aszú is a match made in heaven. This is a unique value that we absolutely must show to tourists. In my opinion, Hungarian restaurants should operate in such a way that they give you a piece of foie gras with your Tokaj Aszú without you even requesting it. One bite, one sip, but for first time tasters, I'd make a series of recordings, because this is a cavalcade of flavours that everyone is amazed by.
So it seems that the 5pm tasting has lived up to expectations. What's next?
Zoltán Demeter: For a year and a half, we have been preparing to offer the opportunity to taste and discover our wines to those who want to do so without time constraints. So we are opening a place called "Demeter Zoltán Vinoteka" in Tokaj, next to our historic house, in a 100-year-old building. It will be open from Thursday to Sunday, from 10am to 7pm, and Anett will be working there. The 5pm tastings will continue, of course, but for those who don't need a personal guide but want to linger over a glass of wine on their own, there will be that option.
Will the wine shop offer specialities, unique wines?
Zoltán Demeter: This will be one of the most important missions of the wine shop. I have some red wine experiments that people will only find in this shop, and next year I will release a Purcsin, which will not be available to the general public due to the very limited number of bottles, but it will be available here, as will the orange wines and the library wines. And under the shop there is a cellar that can seat 32 people, and as we will have a professional kitchen where we can comfortably prepare a French boeuf bourguignon or duck leg baked in a ceramic egg, we can even serve cellar guests a one-course hot dinner. It is important for us that people’s encounter with Tokaj wines and local gastronomy leaves a lasting impression on them. We don't follow trends; we bottle the wine we like. It's the only way we can identify with it. And identity is one of the most important elements of authenticity, which the wine tourist observes and seeks with a discerning eye.
Anett Demeter: The past 10-15 years have shown that large-scale investments are not viable in the current wine and tourism space, but small family-run wineries and restaurants are attracting visitors.
Zoltán Demeter: With the exception of Champagne, all the world's wine regions work on the basis that family wineries provide the credibility. That is why we must be very careful not to lose this potential in the coming decades in Tokaj. Because we are creating this value for the world: Tokaj is not only for Hungarians, Tokaj is for the world! This tiny area is treated with special attention by all the wine-loving nations of the world, which is why it was declared a World Heritage Site. But until we ourselves believe that it is the most valuable wine in the world, no one will believe it for us either.
Photos (including cover picture): Demeter Zoltán Borászat
