Bencze

When we first saw Szent György-hegy, the hill that now houses our farm, we fell completely in love with it. The spirit and intact nature of this place has changed our lives forever. We started by making wine just for us, which to this day is inspired by the thrill of experimentation and ways to discover the potential of the terroir that surrounds us. We do not use commercial yeasts, we let the must ferment by its own yeast flora, which gives our wines a special, unique and distinct aroma.
Through the constant expulsion of additives from the wine we can preserve the original characteristics of the fruit and the unique minerality of the volcanic soil.
Our main objective is to make natural wines to show the terroir to the fullest. We try to focus on exploring the traditional Hungarian grape varieties and growing what nature gives us. In addition to cultivating vineyards and making wine, we felt the need to provide accommodation for the guests who came to the tasting. When we bought the vineyards on the hillside, we also transformed the old summer houses into guest houses.

Our estate is made up of three very different vineyards, located on the south side of Szent György-hegy. We have named these three places after their sizes. Our guest houses are surrounded by “Másfél”, which means 1.5 hectares, then we have “Hétésfél”, which is 7 hectares and is close to the chapel that is the symbol of the hill.
On the lower slopes, we have “Kilencesfél”, which is our largest contiguous vineyard with almost 10 hectares of vines. Most of «Kilencesfél» were planted in '99, others are from 2002, located between 118 and 136 meters above sea level. This vineyard is enclosed by two small slopes, in the upper part of them the soil full of basaltic stones, in the lower parts it is a mixture of clay, loess, sand and brown earth. Grape varieties: Pinot Noir, Pinot Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Piros bakator and Kék bakator. The last two are old Hungarian types. «Másfél» used to be a bunch of small plots, which we turned into one. Its lowest point is at 141 meters, its highest is at 170 meters, which means around 12-15% elevation.
The soil is mostly clay, loess and some brown earth with reddish tones with a high iron content. The highest part of this vineyard has basaltic stones, with large pieces of rocks, and at a depth of 1.5 meters we can find sandstone.
The small plots used to have quite a varied variety, but mostly Olaszrizling.
We harvested the vines for two vintages but we decided to standardize the plot, so we replanted it in 2014 with Chenin Blanc and Rózsakő. The second is a grape variety that was invented in 1975 in Badacsony, just a hill from us. Our third vineyard “Hétésfél” is located near Lengyel-kápolna, a chapel that is the symbol of our hill. This is our most talented and interesting plot at 180 meters of altitude.
We managed to cultivate it with tractors, but the ground is full of basalt stones and huge rocks that make the job difficult. In 2015 we started to replant the plot with Furmint, Hárslevelű, Rhein riesling and Kéknyelű. On the other hand, we still have about 2.5 hectares of 40-year-old vines, Rhein Riesling. We believe that over time this vineyard will make our best wines.