Domaine Bükk, Bükk, Hungary
At a Glance
2020
Bükk
Cool Continental
deep heavy yellow and gray clay, marl and Pannonian sea sediment
100m-250m
Rolling hills
Zenit and some Pinot Blanc
4 hectares
organic and biodynamic principles
Organic
Bükk
Cool Continental
deep heavy yellow and gray clay, marl and Pannonian sea sediment
100m-250m
Rolling hills
Zenit and some Pinot Blanc
4 hectares
organic and biodynamic principles
Organic
The Borbely Family - Bendegúz, Norbi, Csongor and Judit
The People
Norbi Borbely runs on what we can only assume is a small fusion reactor. We’ve hit the road for weeks on end with next to zero sleep and never seen him yawn, so no to a bite or a sip, or remotely hesitate to keep on going. And even though his own wine project, Domaine Bükk, only started selling commercially in 2021, we’ve known each other since 2016. He’s been like a deeply non-conformist Zelig-like character in our travels to Hungary and Romania for many years.
Pálinka welcome
Norbi is also a rare hybrid. Hungarian born and raised, but he also went to UCSC and founded a bakery in Santa Cruz called Chimney Bread that he ran for over 9 years. His language and cultural fluency between the two countries has been much appreciated and a valuable door opener for us. We are able to communicate what we are really after to producers and he’s able to translate that beyond our capabilities. He’s also just a gregarious character that manifests community and togetherness wherever he goes. Beyond good farming and delicious wines, he is emblematic of what the wine trade is fundamentally about.
The home and winery in Bükk
In 2020, he and his wife Judit founded Hunvino Inc. after having moved back to Hungary in 2017 after 16 years in CA to give their two sons a balanced Hungarian education and upbringing. Hunvino is not just about making wine, it’s also about helping other wineries with logistics, marketing, and export with a focus on regenerative/organic/biodynamic agriculture. Making connections and following through.
Norbi in the Pittyén vineyard
COVID was less than ideal for such services, so they ended up focusing their efforts on their home and winery in the hills of the Bükk region, just a few hours drive east from Budapest in the direction of Tokaj. Bükk is a lesser known appellation (in Hungary too) despite having some remarkable history. Before phylloxera it had about 17,000 hectares of first class vineyards. Today it has less than 900 ha. The nearby Ónodi Vásár Market, established in 1396(!) by King Zsigmond, is not only a massive market place for everything from livestock to handcrafts, it’s also a meeting point for people far and wide. From the top of their vineyards you can also clearly see Tokaj Hill and there’s even a village called Kistokaj (little Tokaj) just a 10 minutes drive away. In other words, this area has all the building blocks to be really special, they just need people to do something with it.
Harvesting at Domaine Bükk
Vineyards
They currently own nearly 4 hectares split between two vineyards (Pittyén and Körtés) planted in the late 1970s and early 1980s near the village Nyékládháza.
Zenit at Domain Bükk
Most grapes are Zenit with a lesser amount of Pinot Blanc along with a little Kékfrankos and Medina coming to fruition this year as well. All vineyard work is done manually by the family and a few Romani families and minorities who are in need and well skilled.
There’s a nearby gravel mine and lake that adds humidity and a helpful microclimate to their deep heavy yellow and gray clay, marl, and pannonian sea sediment.
There’s a nearby gravel mine and lake that adds humidity and a helpful microclimate to their deep heavy yellow and gray clay, marl, and pannonian sea sediment.
Lacto fermented tea from his property
As of 2023, they stopped spraying elemental sulfur and copper. To help mediate this, Norbi made his own lacto ferment sprays from herbs growing right behind the winery. Using wild garlic, chili, chives, yarrow, nettle, tansy, milk thistle, horsetail, worm wood, and horseradish (all antibacterial) in concert with aerobic compost (vermicompost, algae, molasses), they have both healed and added immunity across the board. Other than that, cover crops are native, but they try to focus their efforts on flowering plants that support the bees and manually remove those that don’t. They turn over the soil in early Spring and sometimes in mid summer since it can often be quite hot and dry.
Litro Libre aging outside
Winemaking
The winemaking is fairly straightforward. Hand harvested grapes are destemmed, and since they are super tannic, the only maceration needed is in the press. After two days of settling, everything was racked to tank for native fermentation. The tanks are also outside all year. No temp control. The thermal density and climate are enough.
White Wine , Organic
Zenit;
13.5%
0.6 g/l
5.6 g/l
Zenit;
13.5%
0.6 g/l
5.6 g/l
Coming from the relatively flat Pittyén vineyard as you walk up from the winery, this liter is 100% Zenit. Like most of the “Z” grapes in Hungary - Zefír, Zeus, Zéta, and Zengő, they are all crossings created in the early 1950s by the prolific Hungarian viticulturist Dr. Ferenc Király. Zenit is a crossing between Bouvier x Ezerjó. The Bouvier is frost resistant, thick skinned and aromatic while the Ezerjó brings a lot of acidity and sweet herbaceousness. Both are prone and do well with botrytis. The 2022 also had a light dusting of Botrytis which not only helped mediate the tannins, but also added more acidity and made the aromatics even more layered. The liters were bottled unfined and unfiltered with a small addition of sulfur. The label is of their two sons foot-stomping the grapes with great satisfaction. While not a crutch they lean on to make the sale, autism awareness is super important to them since their eldest son Bendegúz is autistic. A percentage of all sales goes to the Autism Foundation.
