Ferenc Horváth, the owner of Kancellár Birtok, is a waste manager, which means that his aim with winemaking is nothing less than to turn Kancellár Birtok into a world-famous cellar. He seems to be on the right track!
In 2014, he bought an existing winery, Oszvald Cellar, on Somló Hill in Hungary, and the then existing 11 hectares have now been expanded to 25Ha, with a new processing facility, a winery and restaurant building (opening soon on Somló), and plans for a hotel behind the cellar. Much investment has been made in mechanisation, spraying with drones and, due to chronic labour shortages, the first of Somló's hypermodern harvesting machines will arrive in August.
"It's so hard to find people, it's unbelievable. In the end, we calculated that it takes 20 people nine days to take down Irsai in our country, and it costs us 5 million HUF (around 12.500 EUR). The machine can do it in a single dawn so we don't have to worry about someone promising more money to the harvesters and then not coming the next day because of the extra 10 HUF (0.025 EUR).“
Since they bottle in batches and many of their wines are not released until they are 3-4 years old, an average of 80,000 bottles come out of the cellar each year, but this is set to expand soon. In addition to the traditional Somló varieties (Furmint, Hárslevelű, Juhfark) they have Cserszegi Fűszeres (instead of Tramini), Irsai Olivér, Sauvignon Blanc, Kékfrankos and Cabernet Franc. With the current 25 hectares, they are the third largest player on the hill behind Kreinbacher and Tornai, and they have no problem selling, as the owner's interests include several hotels and restaurants, where the wine sells well.
They are also making wine spirits, and their aim was to see if they could achieve a similar taste to Japanese whisky using this method. They usually sell out 1600 bottles a year in 3 months, and the market seems to prefer it even more than their wines.
Last year at the Decanter World wine Award, their '19 Furmint won a gold medal, and this result not only clean out the cellar, but the '20 and '21 vintages of this Furmint were also sold, so they are very curious to see what the impact of this CMB result will be! (For which you'll have to watch the video. I mean, to see which of their wines won.)
- Sometimes you have to twist the hill down a bit in the wine to make it more appealing to people. To make it less Somló. People don't understand this minerality anymore. - says Gyula Bertalan, the commercial director. We hope this award will convince them that the Somló Hill and the terroir deserves a gold medal, not just the consumers!
Olaszrizling orange wine (500l plexis barrel, 5 weeks on skins) 2024 I 85 points
Medium golden oak colour. Aroma of spices, punch, parsley, sweet overtones, slight sweetness of alcohol. Big body, lively acidity, tiny grated apple, apple acidity, bitterness, tight tannins. Nice support on the palate. The finish is medium, with hay, herbal, wolfsbane, lemon, lime and green apple flavors.
Olaszrilzing 2023 barrel sample I 89 points
Medium golden oak colour. Nose of sweet spices, vanilla, cloves, punch. Full bodied, round but nice acidity, petrol, pollen, stone, stone dust on the nose. Alcohol is a little off. On the palate sweet fruits, dried fruits, punch, vanilla, barrel spice. The finish is very long.
SomlAI 2021 I 94 points
Medium gold colour. On the nose it has a soaked stone scent which is very typical on the Somló Hill, plus Mediterranean spice bouquet, salty lemon, white flowers, pollen, honey. Medium body, lively acidity, a touch of co2, salty lemon, vibrancy, honey-floral-dust character, pear and fig aromas on the palate. Lively, vibrant, tinglingly long.
Juhfark 2004 I 91 points
Medium to deeper gold colour. Walnut oil and tangerine, orange peel and basalt minerality on the nose, with dill and beeswax. Full bodied, with a touch of co2, salty lemon, zippy acidity, lively, vibrant, endless. Wow! Stands out like a sore thumb, and those acids, that smoky-basalt minerality!
