For many foreigners – and probably no small number of locals – “Egervin” was the first brand they ever saw on a bottle of Hungarian wine. Now the successor to the once-leading Eger winemaker and distributor – which went bust a while back – is for sale, for what appears to be a seriously marked-down price.
According to negyed.hu the administrators of the not-so-atmospherically named Integrált Borgazdaság, are selling off the company’s large (35,000 square meter) winery, other buildings, and lots of equipment.
The “guide price” for the buildings (including 4.5 kilometers of cellars) is just over Ft 500 million, which in turn translates into less than €2 million, with lots of equipment offered for Ft 445 million.
Meanwhile, the liquidators are offering up the winery’s apparently enormous reserves of wine, including old vintages. Just beware that the minimum such purchase is 500 bottles, and what you buy may turn out to be a reminder of why the thing went bust.
The end of a company is always a tragedy. Nevertheless: of all the Egervin wines I have drunk, there were none that were above average, and most were not worth the price on the sticker. Among wine fans, it has a horrible reputation for a good reason.
May whoever buys the combine do something better with it.
It is sad to see the doors closed on the hungarian wine company. In North America when one mentioned hungarian wine, every one knew the “Bulls Blood” and enjoyed the red wine.
I will be especially sad as I come from that region of Hungary and will not see it the next time I go home for a visit… sad. Hopefully another hungarian wine maker will be a household name in north america…
But there are still lots of much better makes of
Egri Bikaver (St. Andrea and Bolyki in the
immediately region). Egervin made very low quality
and undesirable wine that nobody wanted.