Duality in wine

This article is available for reading in Trade magazin 2025/11.

László Romsics
CEO
Csányi Winery

Domestic wine consumption is declining, says László Romsics, the CEO of Csányi Pincészet Zrt., and this trend can also be observed globally, so export markets don’t currently offer much promise either. Furthermore, wineries are unable to respond immediately to changes in consumption trends, as in many cases this isn’t possible in historic wine regions. Csányi Winery is implementing a long-term strategy based on improving quality, creating value and reliability.

Csaba Koch
owner
Koch Winery

According to Csaba Koch, the owner of Koch Winery, Hungarian winemakers produce a large variety of wines at different quality levels, which means the sector is very diverse both vertically and horizontally. This is good from a tourism perspective and creates opportunities to choose the right path. At the same time, this diversity is the main obstacle to being successful on export markets: we are unable to define what Hungarian wine is like, what our varieties and styles are like.

Quality and oversupply

János Eszterbauer
owner
Eszterbauer Winery

The global wine market has been in crisis for years, says János Eszterbauer, the owner of Eszterbauer Winery, and this year the situation has worsened.

A big decline in demand has led to oversupply in the trade. As if this weren’t enough to worsen the situation, the rapid spread of grapevine flavescence dorée phytoplasma poses a huge threat to vineyards. The result can be a serious disaster that – without appropriate measures – could lead to a tragedy on the scale of the phylloxera epidemic at the end of the 19thcentury.

János Frittmann
co-owner
Frittmann Winery

According to János Frittmann, co-owner of Frittmann Winery and president of the National Council of Wine Communities (HNT), the 2025 harvest was very interesting.

At some places ripening was very rapid and so was the harvest, as sugar levels were high. However, there were places where there was more rain and ripening slowed down. Since the nights were cold, the wines became extremely fruity. White wine wineries are in an easier position than red wine makers.

Successful adaptation

Ákos Kamocsay
chief winemaker
Hilltop Neszmély

People have less money to spend on wine in Hungary, so end consumers are turning their attention to lower-priced wines, emphasises Ákos Kamocsay, chief winemaker at Hilltop Neszmély Zrt. The company can meet this demand, as they mainly produce fresh, fragrant and flavourful white wines in relatively large quantities, so their domestic market is quite stable. One of the reasons for this is that they produce a lot of wine, which they sell in large quantities in the retail sector – and based on feedback, with a good price-value ratio.

Gergely Kovács
head of sales
Sauska Winery

The wine industry is trying to perform well in a really difficult market environment, says Gergely Kovács, head of sales at Sauska Winery. Owing to macroeconomic effects and dropping wine consumption, it takes much more resources to achieve the same (or slightly lower) turnover as before. Because of the climate change, the winery needs to work harder to achieve the desired results.

Standardization of the style of certain wine varieties should be considered to better adapt to changing consumer preferences

Headwind

Dr. Róbert Szűcs
owner
Jammertal Wine Estate

Global and domestic wine consumption – especially red wine consumption – has been decreasing quickly in recent years, according to Dr Róbert Szűcs, the owner of Jammertal Wine Estate. They think the reason for this is simple: the lion’s share of red wines on the market are luxury items that fail to meet the minimum expectations of consumers. For the same price that a consumer would pay for a well-known beer or spirit with a standard flavour, they are often buying a pig in a poke when they purchase a bottle of red wine.

Péter Varga
owner
Varga Winery

According to Péter Varga, the owner of the Varga Winery, the global trend that had made wine the most popular alcoholic beverage came to an end in the early 2020s. Within wine consumption, red wine and rosé were followed by white wine, which is why a significant portion of blue grape plantations became redundant. .

Zalán Szittnyai
wine expert
Zwack Izabella
Wine Shop

The domestic wine industry is going through a difficult period, reports Zalán Szittnyai, wine expert at Zwack Izabella Wine Shop, as alcohol consumption is visibly going down. The company’s experience is that light white wines and sparkling wines, champagnes and proseccos are still doing quite well and account for the majority of sales.

Csányi Pincészet Zrt. makes wines that are popular among young people. They prefer fruit-forward, lighter wines in the case of both Teleki white and Teleki red wines. Low-alcohol wines, wine cocktails and extravagant packaging are currently showing dynamic growth.

New perspectives

Over the past two years the markets have continued to expand and sales figures have improved for Koch Winery, but their production costs kept rising and profitability has declined a little. The effects of global warming can be reduced by planting new Mediterranean grape varieties that prefer dry conditions and higher temperatures, and by installing irrigation systems where necessary.

Some of the new Eszterbauer products have been launched with a youthful look: Szeszély, Ábránd, Mámor, Sisters, Brothers, 113 Éves Kadarka, P.7 Kadarka and Néró 7.4 meet today’s demands not only in appearance, but also in reductive properties and fruitiness. The winery is also very active on social media. Frittman Winery is trying to introduce young people to the taste of wine through wine tasting events and low-alcohol cocktails. They are also using social media to find the communication space and language that can help the winery achieve this goal. The company believes it is important to emphasise: wine has many positive physiological effects.

Hilltop Neszmély Zrt. is working on shaping the tastes of young people. They have an increasing number of university partnerships, where they host wine clubs and tastings. They think they need to educate consumers to enjoy good quality wine in moderation. Hilltop is also developing wine-based, flavoured, carbonated wine cocktails for young people.

Speaking the language of the target audience

At Sauska they consider it one their main tasks to find opportunities for educating consumers through many different points of contact. They want to bring wines closer to all generations: through university lectures, festivals and tasting events, the video content on their new TikTok channel – and even more so through personal experiences. They have three locations for this: cellar tour and tasting in Budafok, the Sauska 48 restaurant in Villány and Padi in Tokaj.

Jammertal Wine Estate’s experience is that people in their 20s are particularly open to wine if it delivers that little extra they rightly expect from a product that wishes to reflect cultural and emotional values.

Zwack Izabella Wine Shop tries to reach young target groups mainly through wine presentations and social media. Among their products, prosecco has been the clear winner in recent years, becoming the most important contributor to their business results.

According to Varga Winery, it is most worrying that from a health perspective, the previously unambiguously positive opinion about wine seems to be changing; many doctors now consider daily alcohol consumption to be detrimental.

The new plague

This year a nationwide campaign was launched to combat Flavescence dorée (FD). Coordinated by the National Council of Wine Communities (HNT), winemakers, authorities and professional organisations have implemented a nationwide inspection programme, during which more than 200 teams worked in the wine regions. In total 3,000 hectares of vineyards were inspected, numerous infected vines were removed in time and around 1,500 professionals received practical training on how to recognise and prevent the disease.