Winemaker and proprietor Tímea Éless was born in the Tokaj village of Tállya, spending what she calls her most “impactful years” there. Both of her grandparents in the village worked with vineyards, as well as doing work vine grafting; she was particularly close with her grandmother, and the work she remembers as a child left an imprint. After many years of city life in Budapest, in 2009, Tímea was more than happy to take over a tiny 0.3 hectare plot from her grandparents; the family was on the brink of losing this very last historical parcel, and so she returned home to Tállya after many years away to reclaim her heritage and to try to connect with the deep memories of the vine and Tokaj she had kept from youth.

The winery Szóló took some years to put together after entering into working that .3ha vineyard; a marriage, a few babies, a few more old vineyard parcels obtained, and finally a small winery building, and finally the label was born in 2013. Straightaway the focus was on natural, organic farming and restoring as much health and diversity to the vineyard parcels as possible; from the beginning Tímea was focused on making strictly single-vineyard wines, from well-regarded, historical named vineyards in her village such as Tökösmály, Bártfai, Sípos and Palota. The terroir here is important, and represents much of what made Tokaj famous over many centuries: rocky rhyolitic tuff soil, mixed with rich luvisol, produces high quality grapes and wines with a fiery acidity and complex sense of minerality on the palate: one of the famous features of this area’s volcanic soils.

The 12 ha of vineyards that Tímea and husband Tamás now have in total are planted mostly with 60 - 80 years old vines of Furmint and Hárslevelű, the two best-known and most important white varieties in Hungary, or certainly in at least Tokaj. Since initiating in 2009, Tímea has cultivated her vineyards in harmony with nature, using no chemicals and avoiding completely synthetic pesticides. Her ultimate goal, as she describes it, is to achieve a balanced interaction between man and nature, in order to produce pristine wines. As Tímea wants to preserve purity of the fruit, as well, she opts to ferment in porcelain eggs and stainless steel tanks. (She was very excited to follow the development of her wines in “egg” when she first used one in 2014; the special porcelain vessel, she claims, induces a constant, gentle circular flow so the wines develop a smoother texture and a powerful character.) As of 2020, Tímea is also using no added sulfur in any of the dry wines at all; the winery’s farming has been certified organic for ten years and is in its second year of Demeter biodynamic conversion as well.

We’re really thrilled to introduce these fully natural versions of this deeply noble white wine region into our portfolio at Coeur: Tímea’s hallmark as a winemaker is definitely that of someone with a gentle hand—the powerful minerality in this region can be a bit difficult to handle, but these wines manage to feel both light in frame, delicate in texture, and powerful in sensation, all at once. They’re not like any Hungarian wines, dry or sweet, that we’ve yet had: they have the sensation of springtime plants and meadows in them as much as ancient empires, liquid gold, and baskets full of botrytised grapes. Tímea Éless is clearly a special winemaker from a special village for the tradition, and we’re honored to help her make her debut in New York.