Disorder F, réka.koncz

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Region

Barabás

Grape

Furmint

Soil

loamy and volcanic rhyolite heavy

Notes

Organic

Disorder F

réka.koncz

My name is Annamária Réka Koncz. I was born in 1988, in Hungary, in a small town called Vásárosnamény. As a little kid there were few things that didn’t interest me. One thing never changed, however: my love for nature.

I had many ideas for possible career paths, including the pursuit of UFO studies (at that time I had not yet found my true calling, but my best friend, Ágika and I used to love sitting in our makeshift tractor tire spacecraft, observing “suspicious activities”). I remember wanting to be an ornithologist, a biologist, or a forest warden, but never did it cross my mind that I would one day become a horticulturist or winemaker. I had not even harvested grapes before my internship years at the university.

I cannot recall what it was exactly that brought about my interest in wine making, but I distinctly remember an in-class essay I had to write in 10th grade titled: What Would I Be? I wrote that I would be a grape, and that I’d give my life for good wine. My dad saved it, and it’s still there today, in my grandparents’ restored cabinet.

After high school I did a BSc in Horticultural Engineering at the University of Debrecen. I wrote my thesis on wine made of inter-specific hybrid grape varieties. I did my Master’s in Agriculture, in Copenhagen, Denmark, and my enthusiasm only grew. I wrote my thesis on the evaluation of Saccharomyces yeast species isolated in South African vineyards. It was during my studies at the University of Copenhagen that I first learned about natural wine, made without chemical (or technological) intervention.

What started out as a student job at Terroiristen later led to visits to Italy, Slovenia, and France. There was no way back from there. I was already thinking of making my very own wine. And although it took some years for it all to pan out, today, with the help of my family, I make wine in Barabás. Where? That’s right.

We farm our vineyards organically – going to be certified from the 2019 vintage on – on only a little less than 3 hectares. The majority of the 40 – 60-years old vines are of the Királyleányka variety, together with some Rhine Riesling, Furmint and Hárslevelű.

Winemaking: Half destemmed, direct press into 400L clayver amphora, half macerated in an open vat, basket press into 400L clayver amphora.

-From the producer

This is only the second vintage of this wine. The Furmint is sourced from the 20-30 year old loamy and volcanic rhyolite heavy soils of the Hintós and Danczka vineyards in the Tokaji Village of Mád. Hintós is in the northeastern corner of Mád and Danczka is in the southwest – a cross section of the village. Danczka is named after the Polish port city of Gdańsk (Danzig in German) and was used to get Tokaji wines to Sweden and Russia. Half of the fruit was macerated in alternation layers of whole cluster and destemmed grapes for about two weeks in closed off containers. Fermentation was completed in fiberglass before getting volatile. The other half was destemmed and direct basket pressed into a mixture of Clayver Amphoras and Apollo Flextank Egg fermenters. All in all, two vinification methods in three different vessels. Unsurprisingly, the Hungarian authorities have no idea what to do with this, so on the local labels, she can’t even write Furmint. – Danch & Granger

réka.koncz Winery, Barabás, Hungary - Danch & Granger Selections

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