KONCZ RÉKA

Koncz Réka is one of the quiet radicals of Hungary’s new natural wine generation. Her wines are unmistakably hers: airy, mineral and precise — sensitive wines with a volcanic backbone, pulled from the old hills of Zemplén in the country’s far northeast.

She didn’t start in the spotlight. She started by chasing forgotten vineyards — small, scattered, half-abandoned parcels that almost everyone else had written off. She believed those old vines still held stories worth telling, and reviving them gave her something rare: access to local Hungarian varieties and micro-terroirs almost nobody else is working. That commitment to heritage vineyards is still the heart of what she does.

Her method is low-intervention to the bone. Réka farms organically, much of it by hand, working to the rhythm of the land instead of a rulebook. In the cellar she keeps her hands off: spontaneous fermentations, long macerations, neutral vessels, and a flat refusal to correct or polish away the natural character of the fruit. The result is raw but refined — expressive, balanced wines that feel alive.

She works vine by vine across a tiny three-hectare estate, so every bottle comes out like a fingerprint: unique, intimate, unrepeatable. The volcanic trio of rhyolite, dacite and tuff underneath the vineyards is the source of her signature clarity. Across the range — from textural Disorder Furmint and Disorder Hárslevelű whites to the skin-contact Óra orange wine and the Change of Heart red — the thread is the same: gentle aromatics, fine texture and quiet power.

Sensitive wines with volcanic precision.

• Vibe: airy, clean, mineral
• Taste: fine-textured, vibrant, quietly powerful
• For people who like: delicate wines with personality
• Try if you’re into: mineral whites, Furmint and Hárslevelű, gentle aromatics, thoughtful low-intervention winemaking