Zsofia Kovacs and Tamas Hernyak

Zsófia Kovács co-owner, small producer, Family Estate in Tekeresvölgy

Our family estate was formulated in 2008 by my parents. The area and building that we are in at the moment have already been available, due to our history in horsing sports. I was happy to help at the estate even when I was a child, and with the progression of time, more and more specific and more responsible tasks were entrusted on me. So, after completion of the university, it was out of question for me that I would like to continue working in our family business and at our cheese workshop, as a full-time job.

We consider it important to help people to get to know the benefits of quality food consumption and to look at this as a lifestyle in the long run. In addition to the continuous quality development of our cheeses and dairy products, our important goal is to educate our customers to get broader knowledge of the manufacturing dairy products in small workshops. I think that in a family business it is indispensable to exit the parent-child roles and see each other as equal "corporate" partners. We can handle each other only in this case as full-time partners, hearing everyone's point of views and ideas. And this attitude is also one of the key elements for the successful operation of our estate. There are many plans and developments ahead for our business for the future. I hope that the harmony and success of the recent years will continue to characterize the work with my parents and siblings as business partners in the coming decades too.

Tamás Hernyák, owner, wine-grower, winemaker, champagne producer, Hernyák Vineyard, Etyek

I believe that Etyek is the cradle of Hungarian champagne production. My goal is to care and partly revive the traditions of the centuries-old wine region. The winery and vineyard that was founded slowly for 30 years by my family is a perfect medium for realizing my plans. The long ripening of the base wines of Etyek, the traditional fermentation and long maturation on wine lees will put the unborn champagne of Etyek to the peak of our product pyramid. For doing this, we have all the conditions given. And my faith is strong in it.

In the beginning, in our winery and in our vineyards, I was working together with my father, I studied the secrets of our breeds and areas with him. In the last 6-7 years, I took over the full management and physical conduct of the viticulture and wine making processes. In the meantime, old cultivation modes were transformed into modern, quality cultivation and our grape-cultivation technology was changed to organic. Our wines are made from year to year with greater awareness and more and more sophisticated styling markers. I am very lucky to say that my father's opinion about wines and vineyards is the same as mine, therefore we can work together easily and that is also important, in a good mood for our goals and dreams.