30 years of the Vylyan winery

One of the most influential wineries in the Villány wine region, Vylyan Winery celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. The winery is one of Vinotek.hu’s most important partners from the region.

The estate’s creator, Pál Debreczeni, set out to build the winery with a vision no smaller than to put the name Vylyan on the world wine map. He was an exceptional man, one of the visionaries who first saw potential in Villány. He brought a fresh, progressive, western approach to the wine region. He established the estate centre in Kisharsány instead of the Villány centre of the wine region, thus demonstrating his attachment to the vineyards. For the first wave of plantings, he brought in an international expert and designed the brand’s image with an artist from Bordeaux.

He built the estate with great vigour. His energy, perseverance and often unconventional decisions were met with astonishment, but the winery’s early successes proved him right. Right away, in 1994, Vylyan’s first great wine, a blue port, came home with a gold medal at a prestigious international wine competition. A year later, in 1995, the winery’s estate wine, the much-loved Montenuovo Cuvée, was born, followed in 1997 by the first bottle of Duennium, Vylyan’s top red wine. One of the winery’s proudest achievements came in 2006, when it won the 2004 Pinot Noir Regional Award at one of the world’s most prestigious international wine competitions, the Decanter World Wine Awards. However, 2004 not only brought Vylyan a beautiful wine, but also a terrible loss. Our founder, Pál Debreczeni, passed away tragically.

The estate was taken over by Mónika Debreczeni, who built the company’s commercial and export markets until her husband’s death. There was never any question that she would continue what Pál Debreczeni had started. Debreczeni Mónika Debreczeni brought a new dimension to the life of the winery, her inner need for art soon became part of the Vylyan ars poetics. It is now accepted that above a certain level, wines, like works of art, have a personality of their own. From the very beginning, we have believed that wine and art go hand in hand and we consciously seek parallels between them. The Devil’s Den Festival, the Bogyólé Wine Label Competition, our Artistic Barrels exhibition and our premium wine range of artist-labelled wines are all manifestations of this endeavour. When you buy one of these, you take home not just a bottle of wine, but a bit of art.

So what is the essence of Vylyan? In addition to the special qualities of the terroir, our founder, Pál Debreczeni, said that it is the faith, knowledge and openness of the strong team behind Vylyan that drives us forward day by day and puts the Vylyan name on the map. Perhaps it is this legacy that has guided us along the bumpy road of the last 30 years and continues to fuel our desire for renewal to this day. Our curiosity leads us into new and unknown territories. The wines of our Variation family are a testament to this, a little different from what we are used to, yet they still bear the hallmark that makes our wines unmistakably Vylyan: elegance and refreshing flavours.

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Vylyan wines on Vinotek.hu