Introducing Hungary's Ruppert Winery

  • 7 Jul 2016 8:00 AM
Introducing Hungary's Ruppert Winery
Let us introduce you to Ruppert Winery from western part of Villány. They will be one of our guest wineries at the next <a href="http://www.xpatloop.com/news/xpat_wine_club_summer_special_hilton_budapest_14_july" target="blank">Xpat Wine Club</a> event on 14th July at Hilton Budapest.

Ruppert Winery is a family enterprise whose story began in 2002 and that produces grapes on 27 hectares (66.7 acres) in the western part of Villány wine region. Back then, we had a unique opportunity to fashion the vineyards after our own taste, and, after four years of anticipation, we produced our first wines in 2006.

Feedback exceeded all our expectations and gave us yet more momentum to continue on the path we set ahead – it became clear that with hard work, a fine concept and a bit more hard work, our dream would surely manifest. We’ve been producing our distinct brand of wines ever since, wines that stand out with their complexity and boldness, following modern trends and blazing a few new trails along the way.

“Our hope is that faultless wines displaying their best natural flavours and that are harmonic in their flavours and aromas will bring sunshine anywhere they’re opened and joy to the people by the glassful.”

We base our work on the great geo-natural characteristics and justly esteemed traditions of Villány, combined with cutting-edge technology. Wine-making, as a profession, requires a great deal of precision – it is this latest technology that protects the wine as we slowly work towards the bottle, and allows our wines to reach their full potential. This is how we can produce the first-rate wines our partners have learned to expect of Ruppert Vineyards and Winery.



When the cork is popped, wine is a great dissolver of barriers, but when the grapes are just growing, they teach humility above all as they react to the slight changes in the weather – never the same vintage twice. Our vineyards are over ten years old, and they produce consistently high standard grapes with each harvest, repaying all the effort and care they receive throughout the year. It is just as well, for we maintain that any good wine begins with excellent grapes, so we spare no energy, handwork or time, keeping a close personal contact with the grapes as they ripen.

We grow nine varieties in our vineyards: Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Kékfrankos (Blaufrankish), Merlot, Portugieser, Pinot Noir, Muscat Ottonel, Olaszrizling (Italian Riesling) and Chardonnay.

Villány trends in the early noughties favour the three great Bordeaux varieties, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, all three producing quite similar wines, changing slightly depending on the vintage. The lighter, smokier Pinot Noir and Portugieser, along with the 2013 addition, the fruity Kékfrankos, are also available. When it comes to whites, we focus on light summer wines such as Muscat Ottonel or Olaszrizling, rounding the line with a fine creamy barrel-matured Chardonnay from the Siklós tradition.

We maintain that premium wines need both high-end equipment and great expertise from the winemaker to flourish.
This is why, in 2013, a new chapter opened in the story of Ruppert wines, when we invested in a new processing line that had proven itself invaluable in the harvests since.

The machines were chosen for their efficiency in both size, energy needs and the number of people necessary to work them; as a result, we can move and process the grapes of a whole day’s harvest with ease, a must for a small family winery such as ours. Thanks to these new machines, the wine-maker has both great freedom in and absolute control over the amount and quality of the grapes that make the wine.

This is how our red wines are made: once the grapes are in, the process starts with carefully separating the individual grapes, grading and hand-selecting the best of them, and sending them straight to the tanks right after crushing so they make as little contact with air as possible, thus retaining their fruity flavour.

During fermentation we use a variety of techniques all derived from the traditional method of pushing the grape shells into the fermenting must called maceration or ‘csömöszölés’, the expression referring to the sound the macerating tool makes when pushed into the mix and pulled out again. The process ends with pressing, the timing of which depends on the vintage, the variety and the yeast used for fermentation. All this happens within an arm’s reach to the wine-maker, who carefully considers each step along the way, making sure that the grapes become the best wine they can be.

Our intention is always the same: with great care and responsibility, we aim to produce fruity, clear tasting, natural-flavoured wines that will brighten the day whenever a cork is popped, and surprise and delight year in, year out.

More: http://ruppert.hu/

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