A milestone

In 2019 Csaba Koch won the Winemaker of the Year Award of the Hungarian Wine Academy. By now the former hobby-winemaker has built a wine empire in the Hajós-Baja wine region!

We have been waiting for this result for years! Did winning the award reassure you in anything?

– It is a great honour and a real pleasure to be Winemaker of the Year. At the same time, it is also great responsibility: I feel that I now must work even harder and better.

Where do you place yourself in Hungarian winemaking? How important was your own grape-growing technology in winning?

– I think that my job is making good wines, and based on them the consumers will put me in the right place on the Hungarian wine map. Scientific research has proved that my ‘happy grapes’ technique results in better-quality grapes than those grown using the traditional method.

What will Koch winery be like in 10 years’ time?

– I will be 60 years old by then, but I can promise that I will work just as hard as I do now. Hopefully, my daughter Pálma, who has graduated as a winemaker, will also be working in our winery. I would like to try biodynamic winemaking too. //