Press

29th December 2021 by Alföldi Merlot

Our Bati Kereszt Kékfrankos 2019 has won an honourable first place in the test of The Cultivated Alcoholic.

Heimann & Fiai Bati Kereszt Kékfrankos 2019
The public mood really needed a strong finish. Slightly syrah-like character, oregano, violets, blueberries, cherries. Something happening at every level. The palate is concentrated, complex, tart, with real fruit and real acidity. Totally ripe base material, with probably the whole cluster fermentation adding zing. I didn't taste any barrel at all.

2nd vintage so now obvious it's no accident… The most sophisticated, forward-looking red wines I taste from Hungary (finally!): the ethereal single-vineyard Kékfrankos from Heimann.

Both our Kadarkas from 2019 scored above 90 points and were mentioned as Top Value buys in the Falstaff Shortlist June 2021.

H&F Porkoláb-völgy Kadarka 2019
Bright chimney red. Fine fruity scent of griottes. In addition, a hint of caramel and floral tones. In the mouth with supple fullness on the one hand, almost creamy, but on the other hand also with elegant lightness and a lot of juice. Harmonious acidity. In addition, an immensely fine tannin. Very original, delicately mineral playing wine. 92+ points, Falstaff Top Value

H&F Szekszárd Kadarka 2019
Bright chimney red. Fragrant wine, cherry pit and cherry blossom. In the mouth with a lot of juiciness, but also with a grainy tannin in a rather discreet amount matching the light colour. Well-integrated acidity supporting the juiciness, medium aromatic expression. Independent. Needs food, perhaps a goulash. 90 points, Falstaff Top Value

May 25th, 2021, Welt am Sonntag by Manfred Klimek

"One of the few excellent wineries in Hungary that is looking to export and also has German importers is the Heimann & Fiai (Heimann & Sons) winery from the southern Hungarian region of Szekszárd. The young and very likeable Zoltán Heimann presses some single-vineyard Kékfrankos (Blaufränkisch, Lemberger) that are second to none and quickly make it clear that Hungarian Blaufränkisch is better able to convey the Pannonian, warm and spicy character of the variety than Austrian Blaufränkisch."

May 8th, 2021, by Máté Vass sommelier, Wine Ghosts Podcast

"This episode will feature a young Hungarian winemaker who made me proud of Kékfrankos again. Zoltán Heimann Jr., after perfecting his winemaker toolset in Geisenheim as well as at some of the most reputable estates in Europe (for example Clemens Busch and Franz Weninger), returned to his homeland, Szekszárd Hungary, to kickstart a new project on his already well-established family estate. Although he is only in the beginnings of his 30s, Zoltán already has a clear and tasty idea of what the Southern Hungarian Szekszárd terroir is capable of with the help of two historical al Carpathian Basin red grapes: Kadarka and Kékfrankos. We’ve tasted three brilliant Heimann&Fiai wine ghosts (2 Kékfrankos & 1 Kadarka) together, while talking about the potential and likings of these varieties, the Southern Hungarian wine landscape, biodynamic viticulture, Hungarian kitchen, low-intervention winemaking and what the future holds for him. A particularly encouraging and delightful conversation with someone to watch out for!"

April 20th, 2021. Forbes.hu, Bánlaki Stella

Generational change was successful in this family, but it required a half concept change, i.e. a new and boldly innovative product family. One of the country’s best-known winemaker families, Heimann from Szekszárd, recently came up with an sub-brand - and while this is already a clear sign of Heimann Zoli Jr. in the family business, the brand name is all about the family and newer and newer generations.

April 13th, 2021, by Paul Kern, Weinkenner.de

The young Zoltán Heimann is a rising star in Hungary. His red wines inspire and polarize at the same time.

His red wines should be “gentler and lighter”, says Zoltán Heimann. The 33-year-old has traveled widely and after studying oenology in Geisenheim and years of traveling in France, Italy and Australia, he returned home to his parents' winery in Szekszárd - to start one of the country's most exciting wine-growing projects here in southern Hungary on the edge of the Danube floodplains. (...)

April 8th, 2021. by Piotr Wdowiak

Heimann & Fiai
Szekszárd Kadarka 2019
The nose brings a delightful blend of raspberry and sour cherry with a touch of forest litter. The mouth is spacious, hedonistically sour, bursting with fresh fruit (again raspberry and cherry) with a subtle stone bitterness. Fruit eruption in the service of refreshment. Despite its airy character, it performed well with the rib eye steak.
***** very good

April 2021, the british Decanter Magazine

Heimann & Fiai
Porkoláb-völgy Kadarka 2019 Szekszárd 
91 points. This wine has a very pale delicate ruby colour, but there is great fruit intensity on the nose. Bursting with sweet red berry fruits, almost like sugar-coated cherry and cranberry with over-ripe raspberry. The fruit aromas are uplifted by a fresh floral character, while there is a silky texture with focused acidity carrying the flavours through to the finish. TC Drink 2021-2025 Alc 12%

March 25th 2021. by Pécsi Borozó & WineSofa

Two of our Kékfrankos' have finished in the Top 20!

Heimann & Fiai
Szívem Kékfrankos 2018 Szekszárd
93 points. Exciting nose, not explosively intense but with exotic, oriental spice, freshly pressed sour cherry juice and ripe plum all mixed together. Lively on the palate, it has buzz and life, coffee-like fruit acidity, lots of spice and plenty of sour cherry. A little brusque and crunchy on the one hand, a little fruit punch syrup on the other. It is young and clearly on its way up.

Heimann & Fiai
Szekszárd Kékfrankos 2018
90 points. Purple in colour with restrained aromas, lively acidity, a very fresh wine with lots of fruit. Violet, cherry and minerality, easy- going and deep at the same time. It’s not your classic easily understandable Kékfrankos, yet it has a natural, peculiar purity.

Effilee #56. Frühjahr 2021, by Ursula Heinzelmann

H&F Szekszárd Kadarka 2019

One word is enough: enjoyable. Okay, maybe two: very enjoyable. A balance of fine fruit and round acidity, unpretentious and anything but banal due to discreet tart tannins. The transparent, bright red wine reminds of raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, a few currants, maybe even a lingonberry... Like a dessert called Fruits rouges, red fruits, on the terrace the Café Marly in the Louvre: instead of pâtisserie-tinkering only fresh berries from some raspberry coulis.

Heimann & Fiai (sons), that's Zoli Heimann, who is developing a new style in his parents' winery in Szekszárd in southern Hungary, with Kékfrankos and Kadarka. "Vinified without tools" he says in his wonderful Hungarian German, "Nichtsmacherweine." This is of course modest, such simple things require care in the vineyard, manual selection, the conversion to organic and Zoli's parents have already worked on better vine material, especially for the Kadarka. It ripens irregularly and is susceptible to botrytis, the wines are light and acidic - "It doesn't matter," says Zoli, "I just like it." It is an incredibly skillful balancing act to venture so little. The single-vineyard version, Porkoláb-völgy, will soon be launched, vinified in clay amphorae for the first time in 2019, which takes the balancing act even more to the extreme.

I like that. It's easy.

February 11th, 2021, by Bert Gamerschlag

„Zu welcher Speise trinken Sie das?“, fragte ich ihn. Antwort: „Zu unserer Fisch­suppe Halászlé.“

January 29th, 2021, by Wojciech Bonkowski

Heimann Bati Kereszt Kékfrankos, Szekszárd 2018
Outstanding kékfrankos - perhaps (along with mates Baranya-völgy and Szívem) the best Hungarian red wine I have ever drank. And it is also because it completely rejects the "Hungarian disease" of excessive barrels, extracts and alcohol, and without any complexes throws itself into the vortex of the new world modernity: low alcohol, minimal extraction, thanks to which tannins are precisely and wonderfully digestible, and so far overwhelmed with makeup the true character of kékfrankos - cherries, cranberries, even rose petals - can finally be fully expressed. Let's face it, making such a "different" wine in the womb of conservative Hungarian winemaking is an act of courage - an additional point, but the wine is outstanding and will convince everyone (Rafa-Wino, 93.99 PLN). ♥♥♥♥♡

November 25th, 2020, by Jamie Goode

"I asked him how his interest in the indigenous varieties started. ‘There are two answers, he replid. ‘First, taste: I started appreciating Kadarka first. It is a lightly coloured big-bunch variety. The wines are never big or bombastic, it has always been a drinking wine.’ He cited deliciacy and charm as its hallmarks.

And second, he wanted to do something that better showed off what Kekfrankos was capable of. ‘Kékfrankos is completely different. ‘There are 8000 hectares in Hungary,’ he says, ‘but it doesn’t have good reference points: the wines are either simple reds fermented in stainless steel, and at the high end it was made in a Bordeaux or international style with overripe berries and some new barrels.’ He adds that, ‘after tasting our wines for some years, I saw that whenever we age Kekfrankos for longer it loses some of its primary character.’"

August 5th, 2020, by Tamlyn Currin

"'The last 30–50 years have all been about international varieties, but I’ve realised that now we must move to indigenous varieties’, says Zoltán senior. He turns thoughtful as we stand among his experimental Kadarka vines. ‘I trained as an economist, worked as one’, he grins and rubs his fingers together in a mock Scrooge gesture. ‘My job was quantitative: to take the vineyard from 0.5 ha to 25 ha; the cellar from 10 square metres to 100, from using chemicals to being organic. But things have changed. Now you have to learn everything from scratch again and re-learn. Zoli will bring finesse. His job is qualitative. He is now introducing green cover crops and learning what works best for their vineyards.’"

July 14th, 2020, by Elizabeth Schneider

Zoltán Heimann of Heimann & Fiai Winery helps present the wines of Hungary.

He keeps me on task with the proper pronunciations (very hard and the reason it’s taken me so long to cover this country, honestly!), and gives us an overview of what we can expect from Hungary and its wines, before focusing in more on his beloved region of Szekszárd (sex-ARD), known mostly for its famous Kadarka red wine. The Heimanns have a long history of farming in Hungary, and Zoltán has a global view from his education at Geisenheim in the Rheingau Region of Germany (one of the best wine schools in the world). He has a lot to teach us about Hungarian wine – its history, its geography, its grapes, its wines, and its future, which he is helping drive.