2021 is a special year for us. We are celebrating our 25th anniversary.
It was 25 years ago, or a little bit more that our wine estate started to exist, when the Count Degenfeld family decided about the foundation of a new wine estate, thus evoking the old family tradition in the Tokaj Region.
Tokaj has always played an important role in the history of the Count Degenfeld family, not only because of its splendid scenery, but also because of the delicious wines only this region can provide. The tradition of viticulture and winemaking in this region was founded by the labour and spiritual inheritance of Count Imre Degenfeld, landowner, and it goes back to the 1800s. The passionate love of this region and its wines has stayed with the family ever since then.
Although after the 2nd World War the family was deprived of all their estates and possessions, Count Sándor Degenfeld could return in 1994 and buy a new estate in the Tokaj region, after he had built up a new existence in Germany. He could see the potential and the beauty in the neglected park and in the ruinous buildings, and he started renovating the center of the wine estate in Tarcal with resolution. In his quest he was supported by his daughter, Countess Marie Degenfeld and his son-in-law, Dr. Thomas Lindner. In the following years their task was to buy and exchange more estates and to build a winery, in which the first harvest took place in 1996.
Countess Marie Degenfeld and Dr. Thomas Lindner
At the foundation of the new winery the owners had a grand vision in mind; to make elite wines in the highest quality standard in a modern factory, but also with respect to the traditional ways of winemaking. In 1996 a grand extension and renovation of the factory was started by the plans of the architect Ferenc Salamin, a student of Imre Makovecz. Above the cellars, in the place of the former press house, the offices were located. The grape processing, the tank room, bottling, labelling and other stations of the logistics got a new wing.
Extension of the winery, 1996
The today's castle hotel was built in 1873 on the King’s order for a traditional winemaker's trade school to support the winemaking industry after the phylloxera epidemic. In this institute, owned by the King and then by the state, future cellar masters were trained, and we still can visit the spacious wine cellars which are used by the winery today. Traditional winemaking was always practiced in these spacious wine cellars.
After the renovation of the buildings and the replantation of the park, the castle hotel started to operate in 2003 and thus the first four-star hotel of the Tokaj Region opened. In the hotel, there are twenty double rooms and a suite. The elegant restaurant with the intimate terrace, which is open from spring to autumn, and the delicious harmony of the wines and the courses can offer a great experience to the visitors of the region. The wellness facility and the outdoor pool have been used and enjoyed by the guests since 2004.
The center of the estate with the château-style castle, the winery and the surrounding vineyards are all united as a whole in complete harmony.
The 35-hectare vineyards are located from Tarcal towards Mád, and there are some historical ones among them, like the Terézia, the Zomborka or the Borkút vineyards. Ever since the foundation of the estate, the vine-growing is the responsibility of Mr. István Varkoly.
The replantation of the vineyards took place according to the modern standards, fractionally, between 1999 and 2010, keeping a 1.8 -2 m row space and a 0.8 m space among the vines.
As a result of the owners’ enlightened, environmentally friendly way of planning, in 2009 the estate could start controlled organic farming. Until 2012 all the vine-yards were able to start organic farming in 100%. The winery could produce the first organic wines in 2017, these were the estate Furmint and the Muscat Blanc. The certification is verified by Biokontroll Hungária.
2015 was a new milestone in the history of the estate, the most iconic and beautiful part of the estate, the Terézia chapel was renovated. Since then, it has been the charming scene of thousands of photos and the location of weddings, christenings, engagements and anniversaries.
Theresa Chapel
During the 25 years of its existence, the Gróf Degenfeld Wine Estate has been rewarded with several prizes and acknowledgments. The most important ones:
- Renovation and Rehabilitation of a National Monument.
- Best hotel room – in 3- or 4-star hotel category
- Spa and Relax Award, according to the Business Journal Guide
- Best of Budapest Hungary Award: one of the best castle hotels in the country
- On wine competitions gold and grand gold prizes since 1996, and winners of several categories. Decanter, Berliner Wein Trophy, Mundus Vini, VinAgora, Prestige Reserve, National Excellency.
- The most beautiful wine estate in the middle size category, ‘Bor és Piac’ magazine.
For the last 25 years, several great experts and colleagues have been participating in the growth and everyday life of the estate, in the field of winemaking or viticulture or tourism. We owe thanks and acknowledgment to all those who added to the success of the wine estate. We owe a special thanks to Miklós Prácser, our retired managing director who built a solid foundation for the future of the Gróf Degenfeld Wine Estate and Castle Hotel****.
The leadership roles of the company are fulfilled by Máté Tóth as the managing director of the wine estate, Tamás Gábri as the director of the Hotel, István Varkoly as the responsible for viticulture, Balázs Sulyok as winemaker, László Kósa as the domestic sales manager and Rudi Lászlóné as the company leader.
We are proud of our colleagues, who stood their ground also during the Corona epidemic, and worked hard in the vineyards, the winery and in the Hotel in the most difficult times of the restrictions. We are proud and satisfied that we could keep 80% of our co-workers who worked in fields affected by the pandemic thus providing safe workplaces.
We also owe thanks to our partners in Hungary and in other countries who offer and sell our wines with the same enthusiasm as we make them. And last but not least we owe thanks to our customers who picked our wines in the difficult times, and our guests in the Hotel, who trusted us, and chose our hotels during their business trips.
In our everyday work we would like to follow the successes of our predecessors, and develop more fruitful long-term cooperation with our partners on the ground of confidence.
To achieve these, we would like to do several improvements in the future. We participate in researches and innovative experiments in connection with organic viticulture, since we believe that the foundation of a sustainable economy lies in the environmentally friendly solutions. According to these basic theories we do not use chemicals in the vineyards, our winemaking process is organic, and we also have a field of solar panels.
In the future we would like to expand the list of organic products. As a result, from the 2019-vintage our Tokaji Extra Brut Organic Sparkling Wine becomes available. And our new organic Aszú wine and Szamorodni is being matured in barrel.
To enlarge the scale of our products, after the Furmint plantation in 2020, we also plan the cultivation of some bigger vineyards in the Kakasok land.
In the far future we would like to make sparkling wine with long maturation. We will always take extra care of the special wines of the extraordinary vintages. Our 2017 Aszú Selection will appear on the markets this year, together with the second Essencia from our estate from 2017 which will follow the vintage 1999.
We have grand plans also for our Castle Hotel. In the near future, the expansion of the wellness facilities can start, which will enrich our services with jacuzzi and other options which are available for our guests in the winter season.
Download the catalogue of pictures: https://bit.ly/3thZkcC
More articles published about the anniversary:
Hungarian:
Bor és Piac: https://borespiac.hu/2021/09/07/negyed-szazados-jubileum-a-grof-degenfeld-birtokon/
BorPortré: https://borportre.hu/jubileum-grof-degenfeld-blog-borportre/
Borjour: https://borjour.hu/degenfeld/
Vince.hu: https://vince.hu/sztorik/grof-degenfeld-tokaj-bor-jubileum
Wineartculture: https://wineartculture.hu/grof-degenfeld-szolobirtok-es-kastelyszallo-tarcal/
Zemplén TV: http://www.zemplentv.hu/25-eves-a-degenfeld-boraszat/
German:
Karpatenblatt (page 12.,10.2021): https://karpatenblatt.sk/download/2021/Karpatenblatt_2021_10.pdf
Italian:
Winemag.it: https://www.winemag.it/grof-degenfeld-25-anni-a-tokaji-un-quarto-di-secolo-in-cui-e-cambiato-tutto/
More details:
Soltész Nóra
marketing
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