The Villa Tolnay winery is located on the beautiful northern shore of Lake Balaton, at the foot of Csobanc Mountain, in the middle of the Lake Balaton Uplands nature reserve. The winery was founded in 2004 by the Swiss Philipp Oser and today comprises 22 hectares of vineyards.
In addition to the typical Pannonian grape varieties, there is a long, interesting and very important Riesling tradition at Lake Balaton. Particularly on the hilly north-west coast, in the magnificent volcanic landscape, very expressive Rieslings with an unmistakable character are grown on basalt and sediments from the Pannonian primeval sea. "We see all our wines as ambassadors of the local Csobánc mountain and the typical Pannonian terroir," explains Philipp Oser. The wines are always characterised by fresh acidity, fine floral aromas and a high ageing potential. Varieties such as Riesling, Welschriesling, Furmint, Grüner Veltliner and Chardonnay as white varieties and Pinot Noir and Cabernet Franc as red representatives convey the local character and centuries-old wine culture.
From the very beginning, the focus was on breaking with the traditional local wine tradition and making wines that tell a story. The story of the Pannonian region and in particular the story of the unique volcanic landscape around the winery. The wines serve as a narrative of the "new" Pannonian wine tradition.
Million-year-old soils of volcanic provenance with a subsoil of enriched Pannonian primeval sand, including sediments from the Pannonian primeval sea, seemed to guarantee a pronounced minerality and a beautiful, lively acidity right from the start. The grape typicity is probably more in the background, it is more about the special terroir, i.e. the symbiosis between climate, soil and winemaker in its unmistakable way to convey the local character. It is all about bringing the potential of the grapes, vineyards and soils into the bottles in the gentlest possible way in order to convey the unique relationship to the provenance of Pannonian wine.
The company deliberately avoids modern technologies and relies exclusively on traditional craftsmanship. "We don't see ourselves as wine producers, but rather as an accompanying link for the grape on its way to becoming wine. We focus on organic cultivation, pure manual work in the vineyards and during the harvest, no sulphur during processing, no additives for must clarification, the best available barrels, spontaneous fermentation and, whenever possible, no filtering in order to preserve the taste of nature's greatest gift: the terroir of the Pannonian Csobanc mountain," says Philipp Oser.
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