Tiffán’s Winery

iffán’s history dates back to 1746. Originating from Germany, the family settled in Hungary and is growing vines and producing wines since 11 generations. This tradition was handed over by fathers to sons. The winery which can be visited today was founded by Ede Tiffán in 1990. He graduated as a viticulturist and started working at the state farm of Villány – climbing his way up on the ladder – becoming the chief viticulturist and winemaker with thousands of hectares land. After the privatisation of 1989 he started the private business with 0,5 hectares, slowly growing and planting vines in the most famous sites of Villány.

At this time, with fellow Villány winemakers he became one of the pioneers of Hungary’s quality winemaking. He founded the local Villány-Siklós wine route, which became the foundation of today’s wine tourism in the area. Ede with his son Zsolt acquired 20 hectares of vineyards, built a cellar and a tasting room with a small hotel and started to produce top quality red wines with famous brands well known across the country. Export sales developed also mostly to the Benelux states, China, Germany. Our wines are sold in the big retail chains of Hungary. Our premium wines are nowadays distributed mostly in the Hungarian HoReCa sector.

Ede Tiffán was named Winemaker of the Year the first time in Hungary in 1991, was awarded Officer’s Cross Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary in 1999. In 2018, he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award.
The whole family among the 15 person professional team works everyday enthusiastically to produce honest, high quality wines. As of 2018, grandsons Zsolt – MSc in winemaking from France and Germany – and Balázs, both trained abroad in California and New Zealand are taking active part of the production.

Villány is Hungary’s southernmost wine region, located near the Croatian border. The warm continental climate with sub-mediterranean effects from the Adriatic, 2000 sunshine hours, sufficient precipitation, warm limestone and fertile soils atop makes this land the best red wine producing area of the greater region. There is evidence that wine production was present in the area in 500 AD.

Tiffán vineyards are located in the Villány mountain range scattered across the strip of hills from the town of Máriagyűd to Villány. The 20 hectares are usually small, 1-4 hectare plots all with unique microclimate and soil. Well known vineyards are: Kopár, Ördögárok, Sterntal, Jammertal, Várerdő, Kövesföld. These all have unique background stories and long history dating back as far as the Roman times, who farmed these lands as well more than 2000 years ago.

The sites are mostly south facing, with a smaller part north / north-west direction. The majority of them are 130-200 metres above the sea level. For our limited quantity white wine we grow and blend our “Csenge” which consists Riesling and Welschriesling. We do produce rosé every year from our Kékfrankos, and Pinot Noir grapes, although 90% of our production is red wine. We produce the traditional, easy-to-drink and very unique Portugieser.

Other indigineous varieties are Kékfrankos and Kadarka. We grow our Pinot Noir in the special, cooler Várerdő to maintain its crispiness. Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon are grown in our best areas to achieve complete phenolic ripeness and to make great full bodied wines.