Creed

On my father’s side, I come from a lesser noble family from Őrség, my ancestor Bálint Dienes received the title from Emperor Maximilian II in 1725. On my mother’s side, we are from Lower Ság. The genealogy dates back to the 1750s to Alsace, from where my evangelical ancestors, who knew about viticulture and winemaking settled to Hungary. My maternal grandfather sold the must produced by himself to the Badacsonyi Pincegazdaság. As a child I used to love harvests because I was taken out of school. As a university student – under my mother’s guidance – I already had greater tasks in the vineyard. I am proud to say I can distinguish the different grains from each other.

The image of the yellow linoleum table with the small glasses on it and the way my grandfather refills them is vivid in my mind. I was four, I crawled between the men standing around the table, grabbed one of the refilled glasses and drained the wine. I got horribly drunk and I can still remember that strong, dry wine from Somló.

I was full of wounds. They kept kicking me, but I loved playing soccer, we used to go to the ground every day. I wanted to play football on a higher level even during my high school years in Celldömölk but it remained just a dream. I got my passion for football from my father – who was a fan of Haladás, the club of Szombathely. On the other hand I could draw pretty well and earned my summer income by painting portraits on Lake Balaton.

Back in those days I used to go home with bags full bottles on wines, we tasted plenty. Among my personal successes I can list that I managed to wean one of my friends from red wine cola and through barriqued wines he has now got to the point to prefer white wines. My wife, Edit and I made one of our wedding anniversaries memorable with a great wine from bordeaux at the La Fontaine restaurant, behind the Gresham Palace, which was still open at that time.

I gave up on my plans to become a veterinarian at a preparatory course in Gödöllő when I faced biochemistry. After that my strengths, math and physics lead me to Győr where I graduated as an electric engineer. I had the possibility to learn from professors who practiced their profession. After a six-month internship with Matáv I started my career as a test engineer. After managing an international project I actually became a leader. At the peak of my network operations career I managed 400 people. In the meantime I became interested in organizational development but due to the constant confrontation with the old-fashioned managers I left Telekom.

The Dénes Hegybirtok was built from my severance pay. I lost twenty kilos from mild depression and from carrying stones to build a retaining wall at the property. At this time I already took the wine business seriously. In 2005 I bought more land to expand the family estate and I no longer missed the hustle and bustle caused by the multi-company. Unfortunately, my marriage almost cost me the building of the estate but now my wife has caught up with me.

I’m so grateful to Zsolt Liptai. He helped a lot in starting our winery business in the first two or three years. He insisted that I send our 2006 Olaszrizling to the Pannon Wine Show where it became the top wine of the competition. This result was a big leap because I think our very first wine from 2005 was a terrible one but it was still cultivated by someone else. The collapse of the market in 2008 was a serious challenge because by that time we had already built up the estate and invested a lot of money in it. On the other hand this period was useful for professional development and for building relationships. We tasted a lot of wines from the locals like Imre Györgykovács and Béla Fekete and we also tried the products of István Szepsy, Karcsi Áts and Zoli Demeter from Tokaj.

I am the first on the market from our hill. Due to the divided plots the construction seems to be an impossible challenge. We currently cultivate on three hectares but I am thinking of continuous expansion up to about ten hectares and in line with that we are also developing our cellar system consisting of small houses. Among our assortment you can find olaszrizling, rajnai rizling, szürkebarát, chardonnay, kékfrankos and my beloved type furmint. We bottle the different types separately but for my own amusement I am trying out blends as well. Due to the incomplete and mixed plantings and the aging plants we are working hard on vineyard renovations. All members of the family take part in the daily work.

You have to register in advance in our kitchen who creates when because my wife, my daughter Míra, and I also love cooking. And when we cook together it’s the real refreshment, at such times we barely fit in the kitchen. My task is the preparation of the meet and fish dishes. At my father-in-law’s, I can perform all phases of the pig slaughtering process apart from stabbing the animal. We often visit the Adriatic and the Mediterranean seas where we now feel like we were at home. We enjoy trying out the different gastronomies all around the world.

It is a tradition in Somló and around Ság hill that at weddings the groom washes the bride’s feet in wine. I also did this at our own wedding. I even pour some white wine into the boiling broth on Sundays just to cool it a bit. I feel connected to the hungarian people throughout the culture. It gives me confirmation that my writer friend Lajos Ambrus not only perpetuates our wine region in his writings, but also grows grapes himself.

I feel God closest to me through faith in myself. My grandmother practiced religion in an extraordinary way. We are Reformed, I consider God important but not the religion.

Written by: Hedvig Tallián
Foto: Simon Móricz-Sabján