The ingredients of the brand new wine terrace, Skrabski Fröccsterasz; Vinotéka in Aszófő: an empty building, a phone call, many bottles of wine and love. And lots of work of course and tiring bureaucratic procedures, but this article should be all about the wine and the view of Tihany.
The managers of Skrabski Fröccsterasz, Márti Rummel and Gábor Sümegi are a couple: Márti is responsible for the guests, while Gábor takes care of the finances, because he is the general manager of Skrabski Borászat.
'I worked in different restaurants and bars in Vienna', says Márti. 'I have always had many ties to Lake Balaton since I come from Balatonfüred and Gábor was living here, but I didn’t want to work for someone else in my home country. I wanted to have a place on my own.' 'In the middle of May, Márti gave me a call about opening this place' says Gábor.
'At the winery we had to reschedule many things, because according to our plans it was supposed to be a calm year. We were not planning any kind of investment or marketing, because we wanted to set aside a small fund for the next year by selling our wines on the market. We are still in the early phase of becoming a profitable wine company, which means we’re trying to get to a level where the owner’s money is not needed anymore' - says Gábor. By the way, the location of the terrace is just perfect. There’s a huge open space, and we have a great view of Balaton and the western part of Tihanyi-félsziget.
'Skrabski Borászat had its first harvest in the fall of 2007. The wine cellar and the bungalow used to be a hiding spot for the Skrabski family: Árpád Skrabski and Mária Knopp. The winery was reopened thanks to Fruzsina Skrabski and her husband, Dávid Mészáros. Right now we’re producing wine from 3 acres of vineyard, and we planted another 2 acres in 2011. We mostly make white wine: Welschriesling, Pinot gris and Riesling. We have some Blaufränkisch too. The Riesling and the Furmint from the Szepsy vineyard are newly planted. Next year we’re planning on making rosé wine as well, from grapes we purchase. We produce Betyár--originally a Welschriesling, now a Riesling coupage--in the largest amount. Skrabski Nemrosé is an interesting kind of white wine: after the grape was harvested, we let it rest for a day on its skin and this process gives a special colour to the wine. We produce 15 000 bottles altogether, but this is not a big number, really. It divides into smaller types which means 1500 bottles were made from certain kinds, or we have only 500 bottles left from other types... We want to go step by step with waiting for these bottles to be sold out. We are not rushing anything, because first we want to become known. You can buy Skrabski wines at a couple of places around Balaton.We offer them here at this wine bar, Ádám Mohos has them in Bor és Szóda and Kredenc Borbisztró sells them in Balatonfüred. Since we’re an artisan winery we use environmentally friendly methods, for example we don’t use selected yeast. The wine is fermentated in a cooled steel tank, the next step is the barrel and bottling is the last part of the process.'
'This is a perfect place for a wine bar, but we have to be patient, because these are only our first days', says Márti. 'We didn’t want to invest much money, because this is a test year. We did everything we could on our own. I’m the one standing behind the bar every day, but of course Gábor helps me when he is not working for Skrabski- or Jásdi Pincészet. When we opened at Pentecost we saw hundreds of cyclists riding past the wine bar. Knowing this, we put a bicycle and a barrel out there with a couple of signs for bikers and car-drivers.
We would make good profit if a small percentage of the 500 bikers visited us during the weekends.
Biobalaton provides fresh food for Skrabski, the offers are displayed on the blackboard every day: cold soups, mangalitza fat, crackling cream, vegetables, hams, sausages, pesto, goat cheese, and goat milk cottage cheese with pumpkin seed oil. The fascinating view of the less-known part of Tihany comes for free here. They even offer a bicycle pump and service tips to help the bikers.
