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"Winery Overview: Modern day Szigeti (pronounced ZIG-it-ee) was born in 1990, when brothers Norbert and Peter Szigeti returned to their hometown of Gols, to take over the family business. Past generation family members had produced small quantities of wine in their village in a traditional mixed agriculture system. Norbert trained in enology and worked in a large sparkling wine firm in Vienna, while Peter completed hotel management school and worked both in Austria and abroad. The brothers combined their skills and increased knowledge of the market beyond their village, to open the Sektkellerei ("Sparkling Cellar"). The winery's philosophy is succinctly noted at the top of their letterhead: "Traditional bottle fermentation * Unmistakable fizz * Unique character."

"Location of Vineyard: Instead of a family owned vineyard, the Szigeti's produce wine from a number of small farms on both sides of Lake Neusiedl (Burgenland). They work closely with the growers to ensure they produce reliable, quality wines from grapes that have been grown without chemical interventions, as the residues of these products interrupt the delicate fermentations with the champagne yeasts.

"Winemaking Philosophy: Theirs is a deceptively simple approach to the production of high-quality, affordable sparkling wine. First, they insist on using only the finest grapes from carefully tended vineyards. Next, they generate a firm bubble using the Methode Traditionnelle (a highly labor-intensive bottle-fermentation process). The wines acquire a distinctive mousseux due to the use of yeasts indigenous to the classical Champagne region in France. The dosages are typically prepared with local sweet wines. For Szigeti, the process of Methode Traditionnelle must not trump the integrity of the fruit. In other words, the dominant perfumes and flavors of the wines should be of the varietal, and should not be masked at all by the yeasty, fermentative flavors of secondary fermentation in bottle. Though such a goal is often in place in the production of still wines, it is surprisingly unusual in the production of sparkling wine. As a test of this philosophy, Szigeti crafts sparkling wine from a dozen different varietals and the hallmark of each is varietal expression. There is no better example of the strength of this philosophy than the Gruner Veltliner Brut." - Importer