New president appointed at Tokaj Reneszánsz Association
2020.11.20. 0
With the stepping down of the previous president Sarolta Bárdos the Association has chosen a new leader Hajnalka Szabó. Mrs. Szabó is the Sales Manager of Füleky Winery.
Tokaj Reneszánsz was founded in 1995 and it was the first winemaking trade association in the region after 1945. The Association has been actively representing Tokaj wines both home and abroad ever since.
Hajnalka Szabó is the tenth president and this is what she said about her plans: „I want to restart the annual vintage presentations and the first such event is going to be the 2019 Tokaj Dry Show at the Zemplén Festival on August 15. During this weekend members of the Tokaj Reneszánsz Association await visitors with open cellars and guided tastings. One of our main goals is to propagate local quality wine tourism as our members can offer wonderful cellars, tasting rooms, excellent wines and spectacular buildings to welcome visitors. In the coming years I want to bring back events like this to the wine region from the capital because I believe that once you have seen the World Heritage sights of our wine region you’ll fall in love with Tokaj. Besides local tastings I want to organize as many online tastings as possible for wine experts all over the world.”
Hajnalka Szabó started working in the Tokaj wine region in 1995 at the French owned Pajzos és Megyer Ltd. as chief accountant. Two years later she was promoted to the position of managing director of the 200 ha estate. Mrs. Szabó holds a degree in agricultural engineering having completed her studies at the Keszthely University. During her university years she spent 18 months studying in France and Belgium. The love of gastronomy has always played an important role in her life but after her time in France, where she also studied oenology, she decided to actively educate herself in this field. Her great-grandfather had brought a small vineyard at Lake Balaton in 1905 and this piece of land has been cultivated by the family ever since, so her acquaintance with white winemaking goes back to her childhood.
From 2004 she worked at Hilltop Neszmély winery and then in Somló as a foreign trader. She took an active part in the founding of the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tokaj and also in the organization of the first two Great Tokaj Wine Auction. Since 2010 she has been working at Füleky Winery at the sales and marketing department, she also contributes to wine exports, organizing events, participates in projects and works as a financial consultant. She lectures on wine marketing at the Viticulture and Oenology Department of Pannon University. She is passionate about Tokaj-Hegyalja and has hosted numerous Tokaj tastings all over the world, mainly in Europe and Asia.
In 2017 she received her MBA degree at Cranfield University School of Management in the UK where she managed to expand her foreign connections by another 15 countries.