WINE Challenges for the Szivek Wine Cellar

wine

The Szivek family grows grapes and crafts wines in Kesztölc, at the easternmost tip of the Neszmély wine region (northwest of Budapest) in a special terroir, at the foot of the Pilis Mountains. The winery cultivates mainly white varieties. Some of its parcels are bio-certified and practically all the vineyards are farmed organically.

The drought last year was a serious challenge. As winemaker Péter Szivek points out, “during winter, there was little precipitation, hardly any snowfall, maybe five centimeters on two occasions, and not much rain either. Loosening the soil didn’t do much good as there was no precipitation to drain into the lower strata of the soil. In hot vintages, spring tends to arrive early but in 2021, nature was awakened three weeks later than usual. May was wet, shoots started to grow with real gusto, so by the time of flowering, the plants have managed to do a bit of catching up. Conditions at flowering were ideal with no rain or frost. From then on, everything happened at the right pace, there were some rainy days but we were hoping for more.”

A key decision

He adds that “as the ripening process advanced, we were happy to notice that the acidity remained well preserved. Thanks to the chalky bedrock in our vineyards, this is actually rarely an issue. However, by midSeptember, we were still detecting high acidity levels, so we decided to accept the risk of higher alcohol and waited. In hindsight, this was the key decision that led to success as it saved us from harvesting grapes with excess acidity. Overall, the wines of this vintage are somewhat weightier and with higher alcohol than usual but show excellent acidity.”

DROUGHT, PESTS, SMALL BERRIES

LOSS IN QUANTITY COMPENSATED IN THE 2021 VINTAGE IN KESZTÖLC

Compensation for the loss in quantity

Furthermore, the winemaker highlights that a setback at harvest that no one could escape was the drought-induced decrease in the size of the picked berries, which, in turn, resulted in smaller volumes. “For the loss in quantity, we were compensated by concentrated musts with intense flavors. I believe that the mid-term ripening varieties will show good ageing potential, so it seems sensible to lay away a few bottles even for an extended period of time. It was not only the vines that struggled during the drought, pests looking for something to quench their thirst with were much more frequent intruders in the vineyards than in other years. They have caused serious damage, further decreasing the already low yields. On one of the final days of the harvest, we were shocked to find that some pests managed to get into the fenced off section of the vineyards and caused so much damage that it made harvesting pointless.” Péter Szivek stresses that with drought and wildlife damage, they lost the chance to produce their Zöldveltelini Trilogy. “In years like this, all Veltliner lots are vinified together. The resulting wine is actually quite promising, it’s evolving nicely. We have planted an experimental vineyard with resistant varieties, i.e Solaris, Sauvignac and special clones of Olaszrizling and Kékfrankos. So far, our expectations have been fulfilled, the stocks show high resistance to disease and as wines, they also hold good promise. This year, the first vintage was vinified as pét-nat and it turned out to be an exciting experiment; as this is a rather limited lot, our plan is to make it available only to our visitors.” In conclusion, he says the 2021 harvest clearly demonstrated that there is always something new to learn. “The peculiar acid-sugar balance of the vintage posed a challenge for all professionals but unexpected things like these are the engines of progress.”