For those who follow the history of Hungarian wine, the name of the Hernyák family must surely sound familiar. In 1993, they started with the traditions they brought from Vojvodina and with their first 100 litres of pálinka. Today, they are one of the leading names of the Etyek traditional method sparkling wine scene. Their seven hectares of organically cultivated grapes grow in the Tóra, the Sánc and the Báthori vineyards, and around the press house on Öreghegy, they have a neat estate with copper stills, a distillery and cozy spaces. We sat down there in March to taste the estate's current sparkling wines, out of which we picked two for the summer.

Today, two generations work together on the estate, where the ‘initial pasta-filtering’ artisanal solutions have now been replaced by much more professional technology. "Our common dream was to create a self-sustaining farm, where WiFi and ladybugs, pneumatic presses and manual plunging, climate-controlled tractors and hoes coexist and even help each other." Hernyák sparkling wine was first made from the 2010 vintage, and since then, every step, from viticulture to finishing, has been carried out in-house.

The organic, self-cultivated Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Blanc grapes went into the press, then the taut-structured base wine was rounded out with barrel-aged components and a blend of reserve wine. Not only the silhouette of the label, but also the character of the wine brought something new to our Hungarian traditional method sparkling wine selection. The lean and mineral character typical of Etyek is complemented by a creamy mousse and mature flavours. It was aged for two years, before disgorging in the spring of 2024, with 7 grams of dosage.