Today about our exciting cuvée: INFUSIO

INFUSIO has been the name of the wine of special events and feasts on the table of the Archabbey Pannonhalma for centuries. This tradition, reaching back to the Middle Ages, gives even today a contribution to celebrations.
When making the most prestigious red wine of the Abbey Winery, they try to apply several fermentation methods. The destemmed and crushed mash is put both into wooden vats and steel tanks while fermentation and skin contact take 25-40 days. The juice is drawn off into medium-toasted new 225-litre-barriques.

The wine is maturated in wood for 14 months followed by further ageing in bottles. During this time our wine turns into a fiery, thick, characteristic one.
The relatively high alcohol is balanced by the outstanding extract content. Its elegance and deepness is rounded by its mature tannins and pleasant flavours of the new oak. While maturing into wine the characteristics of ripe grapes give a pleasant creamy feeling. Fragrance of ripe bramble and cranberry appear simultaneously, completed by the aroma of vanilla coming from the wood. The balance of extract sweetness, alcohol and mature tannins results in a mellow taste evoking the concentrated notes of parched sour-cherry and plum as well as chocolate.

We recommend this wine to festive occasions matching with game and other dark meat.


And F.Y.I.: The origin of the name INFUSIO goes back to the Benedictine traditions, not referring to medicine.

We have written records already from the beginning of the 18th century that the Benedictine monks of Pannonhalma divided their wines into three categories: the term "servant-wine" meant the wine obtained from the manorial deliveries; the "convent-wine" was used at the holy masses and served onto the table of the fathers at the meals while the "infusio" referred to the prime category.
The latter did not designate a certain variety but the best quality wine consumed by the members of the order during big celebrations and prominent events served from the bottle into the glasses. This custom explains easily the use of the Latin word "infusio" meaning "infuse".

Good to know I. - Irsai Olivér

Have you ever heard about Hungarian Irsai Olivér?

If not yet...read now!

Irsai Olivér is a little bit unknown Hungarian white wine variety, crossed between Pozsonyi /grape 1./ and Csaba Gyöngye /Pearl of Csaba, /grape 2./ / and developed in Kecskemét in 1930 as a table wine. It is early ripening, with a distinctive Muscat aroma and flavour, fine and elegant acids.

Reductive treatment produces light, airy, greenish yellow wine full of the flavours of the original grape.

It may be a coaxing partner to friendly afternoon conversations or chilled bottles of Irsai Olivér wine are great way to start a summer garden party, because it is a perfect "starter" wine. It sets a good conversation going and accompanies white meats and fried fish. :)

About Gróf Buttler wines - naturally

The Gróf Buttler Winery was founded in Eger in 1999. Their oenological phylisophy is making perfect wine in keeping with the features of the land and with the least possible intervention. Today they grow vine on 36 hectares of land and their wine is exclusively made from the grapes harvested on their own cultivated vineyards. They have two vineyards in the Eger region, on Szarkás hill and on Nagy-Eged hill and began with the plantations on the volcanic soil of Szarkás hill in 2000, and continued with Nagy-Eged in 2003.

Nagy-Eged hill, a special territory regarding its location and its soil composition, is a true Grand Cru terroir. The plantations extend up to 501 metres above sea level, making them the highest vine plantations in Hungary. Its complete southern exposure, the 20-30% gradient of the slopes, the particularly gritty, limestone-based soil as well as the continuous air flow all contribute to the develeopment of a special microclimate.

The winery would like to reflect the quality of the vineyard in their wine as well, which is why they make no compromises in vine-growing. Vine density is between 6,000 and 10,000 vine per hectare, and you can find the traditional lowhead training system with short spurs vines with stakes, as

well as low and mid-height cordon in vineyards. The yield is extremely low, often not more than 30 dkg/vine. They wait with the harvest until the grapes achieve complete ripeness and do not harvest unless the quality of the grapes is adequate. In 2010, due to the bad year, no wine was produced.

Gróf Buttler wines are produced by traditional wine-making methods, preserving the values and the exceptional quality of the grapes. Particular attention is paid to the integrity of the grapes during the harvest as well, and this approach is upheld throughout the entire processing stage. After the small-box manual harvest, skipping the sqzeezing and the straining process,

they destem the blue grapes, gently crack the grapes, then ferment them in vats with hand-made punching down. After the maceration, they draw off the free run juice and mellow it in excellent quality oak barrels. Their white wine is made partially by reductive technology, preserving the rich taste provided by the soil. Throughout the wine-making process, apart from minimal amounts of sulphur, no other chemicals are added to the wine, even the fermentation process takes place spontaneously, utilizing the natural yeast.

By selecting first-class vine species and the best quality plantations and by making wine using traditional methods that preserve natural qualities, they guarantee that their wines, with their natural, innate beauty, offer the unique, incomparable experience of the terroir.

We offer you 3 different wines from them:

1. the Nagy-Eged Bikavér 2006 - the Best Bikavér of Hungary in 2009

2. the Nagy-Eged Kadarka from 2008

3. and the Pinot Noir Selection from 2007

If you are interested in these wines, please click on the links above!