Júlia Váradi: What happened that memorable New Year’s Eve?

Anett Varró-Turóczi: I studied marketing in Szeged. I have always been strongly drawn to beauty, to making things beautiful and good, and to making beautiful things enticing. To that end, it was important that I always enjoyed talking with people and explaining why something was good. Even when I was still in high school, I never needed to be told twice to give a presentation or a speech. I was always happily on board. As a marketing professional, I felt I had found my place in life working at an IT company. But then we came to this special New Year’s Eve.

Lóránt Varró: What happened before was that I was working downtown, as a member of a family business in the hotel sector. My older sister and I founded the company together, hoping to offer something new to young people seeking to explore Budapest. This was back in 2005, and Budapest was very different then. The city was far less vibrant then than it is today. Tourism was not as developed, and we came up with something that was really unheard of at the time: trying to provide novel experiences to our guests. We were helping them discover a city unfamiliar to them, so that they could get to know its best and most interesting sides. We wanted to show them the hidden streets, the secret things and the little-known treasures. That way they could see more than just what people see on postcards. I think we landed on something which did not really exist at the time. We were helping people find things that would be special experiences for them. The same thing happened, by the way, in the sparkling wine business, but that all came later.

J. V.: Had you met one another before this all-important New Year’s Eve, Anett and Lóránt?

L.V.: This all happened not long after we met. I had to work on December 31, 2011. Because of work we had not planned anything particularly fun. So I stopped by a wineshop, and I wanted to buy just a single 0.2 liter bottle of Hungarian sparkling wine so that Anett and I could share a toast.

But what happened is that they had a major sale – and to this day I remain grateful to that store – and were offering a discount of 20% when you bought two large bottles of French champagne. I felt this could not be by chance. I was extremely curious what real French champagne could be like, so I bought two bottles and called the desk at work to ask if everything was all right – perhaps I wouldn’t be going back after all. I knew we had to try this French champagne. And that’s what we did. We opened the bottle and tasted it: it took our breath away. There is an expression in our profession: “apparition wine.” This really was it.

J. V.: Apparition wine? What is that?

L.V.: When you drink a wine that changes your life. Apparition is a term used in the Bible, and perhaps this is where the expression comes from. The particular experience, the feeling, the flavor or the fragrance sets off an internal process in the person which results in a special pleasure they have never known before. For many people, this brings about a radical change in their life.

J. V.: So this was the turning point?

A.V-T.: This was the beginning of something which we both felt brought something incredibly special to our lives. Real, very high quality French sparkling wine – champagne.

J. V.: That’s the sparkling wine which is produced in one single specific region of France.

L.V.: That’s right. The only product which may be called champagne is the French sparkling wine produced using a traditional process in the Champagne region of France, in the north. The French themselves have several different traditional sparkling wines, but those are not champagnes; they all have different names, such as the crémant in Burgundy or the petitlant in the Loire Valley. But there is only one champagne. And so from that moment on we both thought this was fantastic, that we should focus on this, and that we should do it together.

A.V-T.: In 2012-2013, we were also part of a fabulous revolution in food and drink. Things were advancing so fast in the culinary world, and this also marked major changes in the sparkling wine industry too. This was also when we acted on a long-time desire for the selection to include more than just one kind of French sparkling wine: we wanted more types and, above all, quality products. Up to that time, there were very few quality sparkling wines to choose from.

J. V.: Perhaps social changes also played a part in all of this, since this was the time when a very wealthy segment was emerging in society – those who could afford to purchase even the most expensive drinks.

A.V-T.: What I would say is that there was always demand, but there was not always money. And we should also note that this was a time when a lot of foreigners were moving to Hungary. And along with the major investments came employees for whom it was natural to be drinking champagne.

L.V.: I would think traveling has more to do with it. People began traveling more and more, and saw that in the more high-end restaurants abroad, they would be offered champagne even as a welcome drink.

J. V.: Is champagne something that is unaffordable for the average person?
A.V-T.: It is not. I would say that it’s possible to find champagne that fits one’s expectations and pocketbook. One need not pay 50,000 forints for a bottle of these sparkling wines.

J. V.: What is the difference between the very expensive and the less expensive kind?

A.V-T.: How they did the grapes, how long they aged it for, what knowledge and history is behind the production process, what areas the winery was sourcing its grapes from. These are all connected.

J. V.: So you had the idea to distribute champagne – but what did you know about how to get started?

A.V-T.: I would say that we had a sense of the direction, but we set off primarily fueled by a passion and led by our own intuition. We tried to enter the market with a product which we ourselves enjoyed representing. Very early on, we sold champagne primarily to private consumers. We started working with so-called small champagne houses.

J. V.: Can you give a quick explanation for non-professionals about the essence of producing champagne? How is it different from other sparkling wines?

A.V-T.: I’d like to emphasize that the difference is not that it is better or worse, but that it is something else entirely. The familiar sparkling wine made using the tank method is produced in giant vats, in large quantities and with a shorter aging time. These products are characterized by different flavor profiles from the sparkling wines aged over a longer period using traditional methods (and in their own bottles).

One of the special features of champagne is that it is produced using a traditional method, in its own bottle – like the one on the table right here. Of course, there are other factors which all must be present to ensure the unique quality and character of one of the world’s most refined and best-known drinks. The soil, the climate and the topography of the Champagne region is very special. The soil is rich in limestone (chalk and marl), which retains water extremely well and helps the grapes keep their acidity. The northern climate is cool, which results in slow aging and complex flavors. Champagne’s long aging process is when the fine aromas featuring yeast, walnut and toasted flavors develop, and these are the trademarks of quality champagne.

J. V.: I’m sure many people know, but let me still ask you: what makes sparkling wine bubbly?

L.T.: Yeast is added to still wine; it’s a sort of mixture of yeast and sugar, which prompts secondary fermentation. The yeast consumes the sugar, and thereby produces alcohol. And because all of this happens in a closed environment, the carbon dioxide by-product does not disappear, but instead becomes the bubbles in the wine.

Sparkling wine sparkles thanks to the carbon dioxide (CO₂) gas found in it; it is given off during the sparkling wine production phase known as secondary fermentation. As part of the traditional method of champagne production (méthode champenoise or méthode traditionnelle), sugar and yeast are added to the wine, and then the fermentation of the wine continues in the sealed bottle. The yeast transforms the sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide, but because the bottle is airtight, the gas cannot escape, and remains dissolved in the wine. This results in amazing bubbles and a creamy foaminess.

J. V.: But if each bottle has to be handled separately, does that not make the contents of the bottles different, too?

A.V-T.: What I would say is that each bottle is a little bit different, but the goal is the same: to be able to produce the same set of flavors and the same feeling in each and every bottle, in each and every vintage.

In the traditional method of sparkling wine production, the blending of foundation wines is the really exciting part. This is akin to ensuring in a work of music that all the instruments are in tune. They take a little bit from various regions and vineyards, as well as various varietals, to forge the final piece; and each year, the cellar master “tunes” these elements in the same way that a conductor tunes the orchestra before the performance of a piece.

J. V.: I imagine there was a great deal of learning which had to go into acquiring all this knowledge.

A.V-T.: Well, I would say that I have been learning ever since 2012. You can’t just quit this process of learning. In 2014, Lóránt found a scholarship program for me, a six-month internship in Italy, where I really did learn everything about how sparkling wine is made, physically. From that point on, I had a sense at least of what we’ve been putting into action together ever since. To this day we continue to learn and travel the world to places where we can really get to know champagne.

J. V.: It must take a lot of money to set up a business. Were you wealthy when you started out?

A.V-T.: It is not, and we are still not wealthy. We were building one step at a time when we started the business, which, by the way, takes a lot less capital than people might think.

L.V.: But we did make a serious decision. When we decided to go down this road, we invested our savings in the business.

J. V.: What did your parents say?

A.V-T.: They had faith in us, and they knew that we would not be making bad decisions. Because we are both people who do the math, plan and think about our decisions. We of course knew that for a business, it is a good idea to work it out on paper first and make sure it will be viable before getting it up and running. And that was what we did.

J. V.: In people’s minds, sparkling wine is a concept associated with elegance, the elite, affluence, happiness and joy. Was it a matter of being in the right place at the right time when you chose to focus on this product? Was there real demand in Hungary then?

A.V-T.: We could say that we were in the right place at the right time. And this is not just in the past tense, but is still the case. The culinary boom at the time, the revolution, included sparkling wine consumption as one of its key components, and there was specifically an increased demand for traditional sparkling wines. A growing number of excellent Hungarian traditional sparkling wines were coming to market, and Hungarian winemakers did a lot to bring traditional sparkling wine making to the highest level in Hungary. By collaborating with the industry, we reached a consumer segment that did not need an explanation of what true, traditionally crafted sparkling wine is.

J. V.: I understand that it was this relationship which brought the Budapest Festival Orchestra close to the company. Was that the case?

A.V-T.: This amazing relationship started two or three years ago. One of our lovely clients suggested that we join them for a concert, promising an incredible experience. It really was fantastic.
We came away from that concert knowing that if champagne represents the highest quality when it comes to sparkling wines, then the Budapest Festival Orchestra represents the same level in the category of the arts. And right away we knew that these two types of particularly superlative standards would complement one another very well. At last year’s ball we were there with our champagne. It was received fabulously. We felt, and still feel, that our product perfectly pairs with the Budapest Festival Orchestra. Since then, we have taken every possible opportunity to be there at their concerts, premieres and balls. We always love attending any BFO activities, events and concerts. For me, each event is a fantastic experience, and something not everyone gets to be part of, so I really do treasure these opportunities.