Wekler Family Winery

The Wekler family’s vineyards fall across three wine districts: the historic regions of Szekszárd and Pécs, and the country’s youngest, Tolna. As unusual as this may be, the differences between these regions are core to the winery’s approach, matching grape to place across eleven varieties, ranging from international cultivars through to indigenous regional varieties and Hungarikums found nowhere else.

The oldest of its sites is the Trieb vineyard at Mecseknádasd, in the Pécs region, on ground where vines have grown continuously since Roman times. Fascinatingly, a medieval land grant of 1235 refers to the countryside around Mecseknádasd as the land of the Britons, tied to a legend that two exiled English princes were given refuge here by King Saint Stephen. One of them, Edward, is said to have fathered a daughter born in the village – Margaret, who would become the patron saint of Scotland. 

Viticulture flourished here until the Ottoman wars. Then in the eighteenth century German settlers from the Rhine and Bavaria were invited in to revive it, and ‘Nádasd’ wines became well-known across the Austro-Hungarian empire.

The three regions share a warm, balanced climate, with over 2100 hours of sunshine in a good year, mild winters, few extremes, and brown forest soils that shift in character from limestone-rich at Mecseknádasd to clay-based further north. The Pécs vineyards, sheltered by the Mecsek hills and reaching elevations of up to 440 metres, give whites a vibrant acidity and expressive aroma. The Szekszárd sites, on deep windblown loess, produce full-bodied reds with rich colour and velvety structure. 

Beyond the cellar: Wekler is one of just two family cellars in Mecseknádasd, the self-styled hidden wine village, and the duo co-host its Bor-Barangoló wine-walk each September. The village keeps a lively Swabian German tradition alive through festivals like the springtime Kretzl’ Fest, with live folk music, cooking contests and open press-houses.