As the IKON Winery of the Blatonboglár wine region was named Winery of the Year 2013, it is unnecessary to search for convincing adjectives to describe the quality they offer - let it suffice that our hands-on experiences completely justify the recognition. Of course we must also note that the winery carries outstanding values in terms of architecture and function, it is in excellent state and produces renowned wines.
IKON Winery has three wine-loving owners, but the tasks of the managing director are fulfilled by Borbála Konyári. These tasks demand various levels of concentration depending on the time of year and the subsequent stage of life of the 38 acres of grapevines that were planted in 2007. The upcoming harvest, for example requires full stretch or rather 120% of efforts. All signs suggest, however, that Borbála does a splendid job while also fulfilling his motherly tasks. We believe that the view one sees from the terrace of the fort-like building in Rádpuszta could be one one of the top inspiring Balaton-scenes, but there is more to see here beyond that.
The vineyards are not only beautiful, but yield particularly healthy crop. 'The plantation feels fine here,' explains Borbála. There is hardly any grape disease here, and the annual turnout reaches 350 000 bottles. The building was constructed specifically to accommodate gravity-flow winemaking. This means that the stages of the winemaking process follow a top to bottom sequence in terms of spatial arrangements. This means that the first steps of winemaking take place on the top floor and the process end with barrels on the ground floor. This technique saves a copious amount of energy and the intermediary products remain significantly more intact as compared to practices in which they have to be dragged around buildings.
The bottles are filled with both basic and high-end wines with prices ranging from 1000 HUF to 6000 HUF. The volume of sales through Chinese export and the Bortársaság chain is outstanding, but local demand in also high. 80% of the wines produced here is red, but the winery also has excellent white and rosé items. Borbála casts her vote for Evangelista and Tulipán, before introducing us to the reinterpreted democracy of label design processes. His dad, János Konyári has a special place in his heart for this task.
As for hospitality in this idyllic scenery, well, for the time being IKON Winery only accommodates wine tastings. They serve bites and cheese with the wines of various categories; their plans for hot food are put momentarily on hold due to the lack of human resource capacities. We probably don't have to wait long though, as Borbála is enthusiastic about charting a stronghold onto the map of south shore gastronomy.
