Collection: Balázs Palya

Balázs Palya and his wife Julcsi emerged like uncut diamonds on the wine scene, beginning to bottle their own wines in 2019 with their 2020 vintage. Balázs is a local native, while Julcsi comes from nearby Nagyréde, a village with a long viticultural tradition and a family deeply involved in grape production. Both are shamelessly young, endlessly enthusiastic, and exemplary in their vineyard work and winemaking.

The Mátra wine region is defined by a diverse array of soils: brown forest soils formed mostly on Pannonian clay, loess, andesite, rhyolite tuff, black lymphoid soils, clay-rich forest soils, brown fields, and humus-rich Pleistocene and Holocene sands. The Mátra mountains shield the vineyards from northern winds while also capturing precipitation, resulting in a moderately dry climate with ample sunlight on the southern slopes.

They currently farmed 0.75 hectares at the foot of Kecske-kő in the Tangó vineyard, primarily growing Kékfrankos and Cabernet Sauvignon. In 2020, they acquired an additional 0.15 hectares in Szücsi, for a field blend, composed of old plantings and unidentified heritage varieties.

The vineyards are farmed organically and the couple is committed to biodynamic principles as well and the grapes are processed entirely by hand. The wines are neither fined nor filtered, and since 2020, sulfur has been completely eliminated from the cellar. Gravity is used to move and bottle the wines.

Their family house and cellar in Szűcsi are built with care and simplicity. Beyond a Kossuth press (Julcsi's family heirloom) three Zemplén oak barrels, and a few tanks, they require nothing more to craft their precise, refreshing wines, demonstrating that minimalism and attention to detail can yield remarkable results.