Nagy & Sons Vineyards
Amphora Wine &Traditional Hungarian Wine
How did it all start?
Peter has had a lifelong passion for winemaking. He turned any fruit into wine and there were always plenty of glass jars filled with fermenting fruits and juice in his homes. Even before the vineyard was acquired, large amounts of grapes were organized and turned into wine.
However, everything really started to take shape when we bought an old farm in the Hungarian Bugacpuszta and replanted the vineyard. In those years Peter completed his Horticultural Engineering & Viticulture as well as his Wine Management Engineering studies at the Corvinus University of Budapest. His eldest son Simon also got inspired and followed Peters footsteps by enrolling in the same University program. They form a great team, and Robert, the youngest son also joined them soon after.
The connection to the ancient Georgian winemaking technique originated in different ways. On one hand Peter`s research topic was focused on Georgian grape varieties and local viticulture tradition, on the other hand, he realized an old dream, inspired by reading Alexandre Duma`s novel, Adventures in the Caucasus. There is also a context between his ancestors in the old Russian Empire and thus to the Region of Caucasus.
In order to find out more about grapes, Qvevri wine and himself, one autumn Peter embarked on an adventurous motorbike journey to Georgia starting from the Balkans and crossing Turkey and he has succeeded in gaining firsthand experience in the unique viticulture technique.
While resting on a sawn log below the mountains in Kakheti, on the boarder with Dagestan, a winegrower passed by with his donkey pulling a chariot filled with freshly picked grapes. After some words, Peter was invited to the mans’ home to help processing the harvest in the Qvevri/Amphorae. He got to experience the great Georgian hospitality.
He took back this authentic practical and empirical knowledge, got in touch with Georgian ceramists who created several Qvevri vessels for us. Peter and Simon picked them up over the course of a next trip, and another adventure began with the precious load. After several attempts of transporting the huge vessels over land, the only solution was first a transport over the Black Sea, followed by a transport over land through the Balkans to the Pannonian steps of Hungary.