Elõd Szijjártó

Whole clusters on Öreghegy

Whole clusters go into the open vat for Pinot Noir when Előd Szijjártó, winemaker at Elõd Szijjártó in Öreghegy, Etyek, Hungary, wants the fermentation to carry more stem, skin and air. The name above the cellar is his own, which makes the work unusually direct: one maker, one hillside address, one set of decisions returning to the same bench. Szijjártó founded the winery as a small, personal estate in Etyek-Buda, a region long associated with cool-climate white varieties and sparkling base wines. His cellar sits on Öreghegy, where the slope gives the tasting room its vineyard views and the wines their local frame. The published story around the estate calls him a young winemaker talent rather than a keeper of an old family house, and that matters here. The lineage is not presented as inherited generations. It is the shorter, more exposed line of a founder building a cellar around Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir and sparkling wine, with the method visible in the glass.

A program built by vat, barrel and bottle

The clearest view into Szijjártó’s hand comes through the Pinot Noir 2022. He fermented it in an open vat with 20% whole clusters, worked it with gentle punch downs for 21 days, then aged it for 10 months in first-fill Burgundy barrels. Those numbers tell more than a tasting note can. They show a cellar willing to take extraction slowly, to let tannin and spice arrive through contact rather than force, and to use new wood as a frame for Etyek fruit. On the white side, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay carry the cool-climate register of the estate. The Sauvignon Blanc 2021 was described through elderflower, green herbs, green pepper, mint, apricot, pomelo and grapefruit, a profile that keeps the grape’s edge in place. The sparkling program turns to Chardonnay Brut Reserve, made within Etyek’s traditional-method discipline, with bottle fermentation and at least 24 months on lees.

The cellar stays close to the slope

The room is informal because the place is small. There is no grand architectural gesture to compete with the cellar work, just a hillside estate, a tasting area, and the view back across Öreghegy. Conversation can stay at bench-side volume here; the scale suits guided tastings where the person pouring can speak about vat, barrel and bottle without turning the visit into theatre. Etyek’s proximity to Budapest has made the region easy to reach, but Szijjártó’s property keeps the feeling of a working address rather than a satellite showroom. The craft remains tied to the cellar, to the vineyard rows outside, and to the decision to keep Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc in the foreground beside Pinot Noir.

The release that fixes the method

For now, the most concrete thread to follow is not a calendar announcement but the bottle that makes the cellar’s discipline plain. Pinot Noir 2022 carries the open vat, the 20% whole clusters, the 21 days of punch downs and the 10 months in first-fill Burgundy barrels.