Disznókő

Furmint under one hand

Furmint sets the first decision for László Mészáros, Estate Director and Winemaking Lead at Disznókő in Mezőzombor. His station is not only the cellar or the tasting room; it is the estate as a whole, from vineyard work through winemaking and management. Mészáros joined Disznókő in 1995, after training as an agricultural engineer in Hungary and France, and became director in January 2000. That span matters in Tokaj, where a house is read through seasons as much as through releases. At Disznókő, he works with an estate known for dry mineral whites and Tokaji Aszú, with Furmint carrying the line between still white wine and the region’s sweet discipline. His biography also places him in the wider Tokaj conversation: he has served as chairman of Tokaj Renaissance, received France’s Ordre du Mérite Agricole, and joined the Académie Internationale du Vin. Those facts sit behind the work rather than in front of it. The more immediate measure is continuity at the bench, one director holding vineyard, cellar, and house decisions together across the same Tokaj slopes.

A single tract on the Zemplén slopes

Disznókő works from a single tract of vineyard on the slopes of the Zemplén Mountains, described by the estate fields as 112 hectares, with production scale given as 104-112 hectares. The figure gives the place its shape: not a scatter of parcels, but one continuous vineyard body looking toward the Great Hungarian Plain. The farming philosophy is stated as sustainable. The house’s focus spans still white Furmint and Tokaji Aszú, two different kinds of patience from the same landscape: the cut and line of the whites, and the concentration, selection, and long memory associated with Aszú. The appellation is Tokaj, and the work belongs to that vocabulary without needing to borrow gloss from elsewhere. Terraced UNESCO vineyards, a state-of-the-art winery, and modern-traditional architecture place the estate between inherited ground and contemporary cellar discipline.

The cellar stays cool

The tasting happens in historic cellars, where the atmosphere is cool, quiet, and close to the stone. This is a winery made for lowered voices: cellar tasting rather than spectacle, a scenic vineyard setting rather than a room built to distract from the glass. The belvedere offers a panoramic view over the Great Hungarian Plain, but the cellar brings the eye back to the wine. Outside, the Zemplén slopes hold the terraces; inside, the house keeps to a classic register, rustic in texture and elegant in line. The movement between vineyard, cellar, and tasting room is short enough to feel continuous. One sees the land, then drinks from it.

Recognition without noise

Disznókő appears on The World’s 50 Best Vineyards list at 45, with 3 awards recorded across the current and previous year. That recognition belongs to the place as a working estate, not as decoration. For Mészáros, the lasting subject remains the same: Furmint grown on the Zemplén slopes, shaped for dry white wine and Tokaji Aszú, then poured in the cool historic cellars of Disznókő.