Zoltán Demeter is a great organiser: when he wanted to make his own traditional method sparkling wine, and then hit a barrier, he composed a manifesto – 12 points from winemakers regarding the regulations that excluded small producers. Then, he delivered it to the top decision-makers, personally. The successful action eventually affected the entire industry, and traditional method sparkling wines made by small producers have kept appearing, one after the other, ever since.

He stands by almost all good causes in the same way, and if he wants to use a quote by the Hungarian pop band LGT, he seeks out the songwriter directly. He has always been really interested in Hárslevelű – it was he who first bottled it as a single-varietal wine in Tokaj, and traditionally-trained, old Hárslevelű vines stood on the plot he first purchased. “What can Hárslevelű achieve as a traditional method sparkling wine harvested from loess soil? The idea to give it a go was obvious for me,” he adds. 

For his new traditional method sparkling wine, he harvested the grapes from the 70-year old vines of the Szerelmi vineyard. The base wine was made reductively, then the secondary fermentation happened in the bottle, which was followed by disgorging within a year. Owing to the shorter ageing, the mousse is livelier and the character is fresher, while the Hárslevelű appears in a more pronounced way. If it’s well chilled, it disappears from the glass with you barely noticing. 

*Eszter Demeter’s drawing of the family in the Szerelmi vineyard can be seen on the inside part of the back label.