"It is more about our terroir, than the variety.." - 3+1 questions about Mogyorós, with Robert

What comes to mind when you think of Sauvignon Blanc? Aromas reminiscent of freshly mown grass, with a hint of nettle? The Loire Valley? New Zealand? Nearly 15 years ago, through a serendipitous encounter, Robert Gilvesy discovered that Sauvignon Blanc truly thrives in Hungary and on Szent György-hegy (Mount St. George). Since then he has been championing beautifully made, organic, low intervention wines from this volcanic terroir and wants to bring the true power of the "hill" to everyone. 

Mogyorós is one of Gilvesy's premium plot, on the north side of Szent György-hegy, primarily planted with Sauvignon Blanc

Where did you first encounter Mogyorós?

Nearly 15 years ago (the winery was still young; I had just started on the hill and didn’t yet know every nook and cranny), a group from Budapest entrusted me with a major task: I had to procure 20 liters of quality wine for a wedding, preferably from some special variety (at the time, international grape varieties were deemed as quite special). I turned to a local, elderly winemaker with whom I had already spent time chatting on several occasions, and who had helped me a great deal in navigating the hillside. He invited me to his cellar on the north side of the mountain (an old, classic little cellar), then poured me a glass of wine (with a ladle!!), which was surprisingly good, even if it wasn’t quite my style...

Love at first sip?

Yes, I really liked the "raw material", so to say, and of course I ended up getting the wedding wine from him... Over the next few years, I bought grapes from this elderly gentleman at every harvest, and later I was able to buy the land from him, as he could no longer cultivate it. This is the story of Mogyorós. The northern part of the hill is quite special; it “infuses” the wines with this interesting acidity and minerality. The entire Mogyorós area is planted with Sauvignon Blanc, but during the replanting in 2014, a small amount of Riesling was also added. We have been organically farming this area ever since it has been purchased, and from 2019 we are officially organic certified in the plot.

How are Mogyorós wines made?

All Mogyorós bottles are single-vineyard wines, which means we harvest grapes exclusively from this vineyard for these wines. We carefully sort every cluster, then after pressing, we ferment the must in 500-liter oak barrels (so called kádárhordó), and after fermentation, we age the wines in Hungarian oak barrels until bottling.
Without exception, every vintage brings that fantastic, mineral, salty character that made us fall in love with these wines many years ago. It seems that this variety thrives on our little mountain, but it is very different from a New Zealand or French, “world-class” Sauvignon. We don’t try to make it what it “should” be; Mogyorós wines speak much more to the mountain, and it was always more about the terroir here for us, than the grape varieties. 

What is your favourite wine from this vineyard?

The Mogyorós wines are beautiful vintages that age exceptionally well. I still have bottles from the first few years in storage, and they’re developing an increasingly clean and harmonious flavour profile. Right now, the 2017 is my favourite—a refined, elegant vintage with a fresh, salty texture and subtle buttery notes of dill and citrus.