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WINEMAKING IS OUR PASSION! |
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Currently, our company which has a long and distinguished history covers 36 hectares. In today's increasingly uniformed wine culture, our goal is to preserve our originality and produce wines whose individual characteristics highlight the style of the wine region and cellars. Our wines are not necessarily in line with the trends, because we want to make them distinguishable. That is why we pay special attention to characteristic Hungarian wines like Kadarka and Kékfrankos. Our company owns one of the largest Kadarka vineyards in the wine region. The style of our company can be well-illustrated by our approach to Kadarka. According to the current trend, Kadarka wine is supposed to be full-bodied. We, however, produce less full-bodied Kadarka. This is a unique approach in Hungary, because we believe that the values of Kadarka can be found in its aroma and taste and not in its body. We support the barrique process as long as it does not take away the character of the wine and does not make wines uniform. Of grapes found around the world, we focus on Merlot and Cabernet Franc, as we consider them to be the most suitable for the Szekszárd climate and soil. We strongly believe that wine is inseparable from the gastronomy of its region; therefore, we make an effort to discover and learn about the cuisine of the wine region. We provide a comprehensive gastronomic experience at our vineyard headquarters, Castle Szent Gaál, and include regional specialities like artisan cheeses, home-made jams, pickles, sausage and ham from Hungary's traditional mangalica pig, fresh Gemenc game and the fruit brandies of the area. SZENT GAÁL CASTLE WINES The wines under the name Szent Gaál Castle have reached significant market achievements recently. This is due to two factors. On one hand, their quality improved, and on the other hand, the new owners decreased significantly the price of this series after their entrance in 2003. Thus the Szent Gaál Castle wines became one of the best price/value wines on the market. This improved remarkably its market position, and increased its sales threefold. The members of the series are picked in excellent Szekszárd hills, exclusively into cases and not into containers. The average load is 2-3 kgs/grapevine, the wines are produced by directed fermentation. PREMIUM CATEGORY WINES These wines differ from Szent Gaál Kastély wines only in some aspects that are important to us. Only the yield of the best territories can be part of this selection, the load is maximum 1.2-1.5 kg/acre. The time of the vintage is often delayed compared to the other series, which ensures riper grapes, but it also means a greater risk due to the weather, which is incalculable. We ferment the wines in barrique barrels for 12-18 months. We use Hungarian barrels, the barrels of Trust and Budapest Kádár, but we are experimenting with other barrels as well. In order not to let the wines loose their characteristics, and not to have the characteristics of the barrels dominate, we only put the wines partly into new barrels this is how we try to preserve the characteristics of the slope and the type. We only produce these wines in the years when the grapes grown possess the quality that is needed for a wine of this category. It shows the quality of the series that in the year 2005 two wines were sent to the Challenge International du Vin wine festival in Bordeaux, and one received a golden, the other a silver medal, which is the best result for Hungary in the red wine category.
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SZENT GAÁL CASTLE
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