Gere Winery: The history of our winery started 7 generations ago and we had to take a long journey which was challenging and required great diligence. We had to respect the traditions but also develop and apply experimental aspect. This way we established the present – in Hungary and abroad well known – GERE brand. Nowadays the estate size of our family reaches 70 hectares and the young generation also takes part in the everyday of the winery. The aim of the family is to implement the old Hungarian traditions of grape growing and oenology that the older generation transmit to the younger ones.
On the GERE family tree we can indicate wine maker ancestors through 7 generations. The process only paused with the grandfather and father. After the second world war the farmers’ plantations were taken away and with the relocations the chains of family traditions were cut. Attila Gere chose the forester profession. He got in contact with wine making through his father in law in 1978. Tasting his traditionally made wines he recognized, that in the red wines of Villány great potential was lurking.
Attila Gere and his wife Katalin farmed only on a few acres of vineyard in Csillagvölgy which they received from the parents as wedding-present in 1978. 1986 vintage was the first, which was sold in bottles.
In 1991 Gere pension was opened. It was the first accommodation in Villány. It was a brave enterprise, since in that time wine-tourism was poor not only in Villány, but in whole Hungary.
In 1991 Attila Gere gave up his profession and established Gere family enterprise, which is nowadays one of the most known wineries in Hungary. The plantation area started to grow during the years. Present days – thanks to the work of long years – the winery farms 70 hectares in the best slopes of the wine region.
Beside to the family plantation Gere-Weninger Winery also does well, which was established in 1992 together with Franz Weninger Austrian wine-maker. Now it farms 10 hectares.
In 1994 Attila Gere was awarded with the honourable title “Wine Maker of the Year” as acknowledgement of his work. After 3 years, with the 1997 vintage a great dream came true: the first vintage of KOPÁR Cuvée was bottled. By this time the new plants on the excellent areas of the winery became productive, which made possible to introduce a great wine.
In 2002 GERE winery’s new ageing cellar and factory was finished. The technological conditions in this facility complies with the most modern requirements.
In October 2008 CROCUS GERE WINE HOTEL**** was opened. This is a four star family wine and wellness hotel. This way we managed to match the level of catering to the quality of Gere wines. The a’la carte Mandula Restaurant and Wine Bar – which can be found in the hotel – offers a regional gourmet kitchen to the fans of gastronomy based on the excellent materials of the wine region. In our CROCUS Wine Spa wellness centre we await our dear guests with vinotherapy treatments based on grape and wine.
In 2010 Attila Gere and Vilmos Schubert established Csillagvölgy winery in Villány, which produces mostly light white and rosé wines and distributes its wines under its own brand and design. The Winery: The new factory of Gere Winery – which was opened in 2002 – alloys the most modern technology with the wine making traditions of Villány. We select the grapes in the plantation, then gather the bunches in a small case by hand. We work with strict yield limitation (in the case of our top wines it is cca. 0,7 – 1 kg/stock), and use only quality, hand-selected grapes.
Before the processing we apply a cluster selection on a conveyor belt. Only the totally ripe, healthy grape is processed. After gathering the berries, the previously cooled down wine-mash goes to tempered steel tanks and wooden tanks. Here happens the alcoholic fermentation on controlled temperature. It takes 1-3 weeks, depending on the varieties.
When making our wines we try hard to introduce the taste and nose characteristics which are typical to Villány wine region. In favor of this during the processing technology we use very gentle methods. We make the fermentation only with local yeasts selected from GERE plantations. Our aim is to produce natural, unique, terroir estate wines.
After the fermentation a gentle pressing follows, which we apply with pneumatic presses.
The spontaneous biological malolactic fermentation happens in the ageing cellar under the factory, in new and used oak barrels. 80% of these are Hungarian, the rest are French. We age our red wines for 14-18 months as average in barrels. After the barrel ageing the different blending methods follows. During bottling the top wines of our winery are mostly bottled unfiltered, then the age further until the day of selling them.
