József Váradi believes the key to any business success is integrity and innovation. Here he explains how he hopes to bring those values to both his own Juliet Victor Winery, and the overall Hungarian wine sector.
Tell us about the winery and its brief history?
Our journey started in 2015 when the idea was born to establish Juliet Victor Vineyards in Mád with the highest quality terroir of the Tokaj wine region. Juliet Victor is committed to producing the best quality Tokaj wines and market those to wine lovers and high end restaurants all over the world.
Juliet Victor is a premium wine brand that has been created on the basis of uncompromised vine growing, strictly selective harvesting and uncompromised winemaking from grapes of the most premium terroir in Mád. Juliet Victor is the essence of Hungary’s most prestigious and exceptional wines. Hailing from the Váradi family’s vineyards nestled within the boundaries of Mád, within the historical Tokaj wine region, a protected UNESCO world heritage site – an exceptionally rich terroir featuring a patchwork of different soils.
The Juliet Victor winery specialises in Tokaj and Furmint
Where does the name come from?
The name ‘Juliet Victor’ is a symbol of the essence of elegance and a commitment to the highest level of quality. As the founder and leader of Wizz Air, ‘Juliet Victor’ is a moniker from my own initials using the international phonetic alphabet used in aviation: ‘J’ for Juliet and ‘V’ for Victor.
Juliet Victor is my way of “giving back”. We used to say with friends: life is too short to drink bad wine. I believe Tokaj wine region, especially Mád, has the potential for world class winemaking. Juliet Victor is is exclusive and inclusive at the same time, it is an experience that makes life better. Flying makes the world better by creating a condition for happiness. Juliet Victor was born to help us enjoy happiness – this makes my personal story round and complete.
How many vineyards do you have, the varieties and average production?
Currently our family owns 25 hectares of land on nine vineyards (eight in the village of Mád and one vineyard in the village of Tállya) and our wine is exclusively made from grapes harvested on our own vineyards. Our philosophy is to make wine from lower yields, for higher quality and greater concentration.
Our average production is around 1,500 to 2,000 bottle per hectares a year, which is even below Chateau Lafite.
We do the harvest by hands, not with machines, and with our own people, who know the vines. Our golden rule is to always wait until the grapes are in a perfect condition in terms of ripeness.
We use the same handpicked Furmint grape to produce both our dry and sweet wines. Grapes for our sweet wines, which is a blend of dominant Furmint (70%), Yellow Muscat (15%) and Hárslevelű (15%), are harvested later than the dry. They are selected depending on ripeness and picked individually after experiencing botrytis, which comes down to our invaluable knowledge of Tokaj wines.
The vineyards of Juliet Victor
Botrytis, also know as the ‘Noble Rot’, only occurs in unique micro-climates like our own. It dries and shrivels the over-ripe grapes, turning them into raisin-like “Aszú Berries”. This concentrates the flavours giving the wine a distinct, complex, honeyed character that is high in both sugar and acidity.
We also can’t make Tokaj and Aszú wine with every vintage. Our most recent vintages are 2016 and 2018.
What styles of Tokaj do you produce?
Our wines are able to show the power of Furmint thanks to the terroir of our volcanic soils. Although the Tokaj wine region is very much part of the Old World, Juliet Victor represents New Old-world wines with a focus on elegance, clarity and pureness. Thanks also to our use of new oaks and spontaneous fermentation.
With our wines we want to showcase the complex balance between history and modern winemaking: where we are combining our historical terroir with high-technology production.
How do you age your wines?
Our wines are aged in oak barrels from the Northern Carpathian Mountains, Zemplén. They are then stored in a 400 year old network of underground cellars called Cicvár which span several hundred metres and provide the ideal conditions to perfect our Tokaj wines. The most expensive wines are still aged in oak.
Dry Furmints are aged for nine months with 50% new or once-used oak barrels and our sweet wines have a minimum 18 months in used oak barrels.
How important is export to you?
It is becoming increasingly important and if our growth is maintained then should be the dominant part of our business by 2022. We need a couple more years to invest in developing the right markets. Currently export makes up 24% of our business.
What are your keyexport markets and why?
The sky scrapers on the left back did not exist in 1993. Such has been the pace of change in China
The UK is the most important. It is a vibrant, ever-changing, and competitively challenging environment. It’s also a key market for the global wine trade, particularly in terms of sales value. Premium price points are growing, as consumers drink less but better. Sweet wines are also increasing in prominence from all over the world, including Hungary and Tokaj.
Brexit has shown how important the UK is to the international wine industry. It’s a showcase for wines, with a professional, trade structure. London, of course, is also host to world’s largest and most influential wine competitions. We were delighted to win with our sweet Szamorodni 2016 and receive a Decanter Platinum 97 points and IWC Gold with 95 points and several outstanding medals with our dry Furmints.
We are currently looking closer at the UK market, the opportunities and long term cooperation partnerships with whom we can build our unique and niche brand. We are focusing on the premium on-trade, fine dining, Michelin star restaurants and 5 star hotels and private members wine clubs.
China is also an important market. China is still in so many ways very different from any Western country, as is the Chinese consumer and the whole process of choosing and purchasing wine is a new challenge for us. But the Chinese are drinking more wine than previous generations and we are targeting this young generation with education and ways we can build loyalty with them.
Juliet Victor also sees Japan as one of the most prominent international markets thanks to its strong gastronomic and wine culture.
Of the three, China is growing the fastest thanks to the power and energy of Shanghai.
Furmint grapes that will also be the focus for the Furmint February tasting taking place in London on January 29
What is the best way for you to increase sales in a key export market?
Local presence, education and tailor made activation plan. The ‘one hat fits all’ approach will never work since every market is very diverse. We need to define what is the most effective and efficient distribution path to get Juliet Victor wines in front of the right target customer group worldwide.
What role do you think Juliet Victor can play in changing the perception of Hungary and its wines?
We believe our wines have the capacity to redefine the perception of Hungary’s Tokaj wines and reach out to the high end of the world’s wine market to compete with the best dry white and sweet wines globally. Our family is known as for bringing ground-breaking innovations to the products, services and experiences we create. We believe in living by a code of values that include innovation, quality, integrity, dedication.
- Integrity: I created one of the most successful and rapidly growing aviation enterprises in Europe – Wizz Air. Professionalism and integrity are cornerstones of our winery.
- Innovation and quality: We control the whole winemaking process, so can maintain our high standards. We achieve this through hand-picking our grapes and limiting volumes.
- Dedication: Our family has made a long term commitment to the Mád region and intends to continue the tradition from one generation tot he next.
- The Juliet Victor wines have limited availability in the UK by Novel Wines.
You can taste Juliet Victor wines for yourself and other styles of Furmint at the special Furmint February tasting to be held on January 29 2020 at Merchant Taylors’ Hall, 30 Threadneedle Street in London. Click here to register: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/furmint-february-20-trade-event-tickets-85400638609. For more information go to: http://winehungary.co.uk/furmint-february-2020/
The range of activities will begin with a media and trade tasting of over 150 Furmint wines from 35 producers, including sparkling, dry and sweet Furmint wines from Tokaj, Somlo, Eger, Badacsony and Csopak. There will be two two masterclasses – Caroline Gilby MW will host a ‘20 years of Furmint’ masterclass and vertical tasting with iconic wines; and Hungarian winemaker, Laszlo Balint will host a session on ‘The many faces of Furmint’. It runs from 1pm to 5pm.
Throughout February, importers and retailers will have the opportunity to win a trip to Tokaj. They will be encouraged to showcase Furmint with a series of tastings, dinners and special offers, all designed to help wine lovers to taste and learn more about Hungary’s flagship grape variety.
Those who demonstrate increased listings and promotional activities organised by their partners, will win a three-day trip to Hungary for three people. Participants need to send their application demonstrating the number of new listings, by the glass or any other promotional offers executed during February. The winner will be announced in mid-March by Wines of Hungary UK.
Zsuzsa Toronyi, Wines of Hungary UK said: “We brought Furmint February to the UK for the first time in 2019 and the wines and the initiative were both incredibly well received by the wine enthusiasts here. Everyone was excited to try something new and we were overwhelmed by the response. This year we’re doing even more and can’t wait to shine a light on Furmint once again.”
