Zoltan Demeter, Tokaj, Hungary: Current Releases

„Demeter's holdings are spread across 9 different areas and 5 different villages in Hungary's Tokaj-Hegyalja wine region, whose violently volcanic past has produced a highly heterogeneous geology. Demeter makes a dry white wine from each of these soils, in what he sees as a race against time to learn the terroir of Tokaj.

»There is no time for us to waste. We cannot make mistakes«, he says, trying to explain his drive for perfection. »We have to get rid of the last 60 years and we have little time to advance and catch up. It was too much time, and we broke the chain between grandfather and father -- we can't catch each other's hand. We have to do something quickly, something that surprises people, and we have to live through quality. There is no place for mistakes because we have only one time per year where we can ask questions and collect answers. I have only 20 or 25 harvests where I can collect these answers.« Demeter is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished winemakers in Hungary, but you'd never guess that listening to him talk. (...)

Now in only his third vintage since commercially establishing his winery, Zoltan Demeter already produces some of the best wines in Hungary. While there are others that have as much or more experience than Demeter, there are few that surpass his skills as a winegrower. With the deepest of humility he is managing to reveal the true potential that Furmint and Harslevelu, the two primary white grapes of Tokaj, have to produce world-class dry white wines.”