Why is St. Andrea St. Andrea?

I was seventeen when I met the love of my life. My brothers and I always had lunch at our mom’s workplace during the summer vacation. Andrea’s dad worked at the same place as my mother, so our eyes met one day. Unlike me, she was already very bright. I was the winner in blushing, though (or rather turning red).

She came to our table and asked if she could join us. What an excitement! Thinking back, I wasn’t able to push a more complex communication out of myself than a nod and a ”yes.” Luckily my brothers were there, so it came together very well. Somehow we evaluated our situation. Who was who and what we were doing there, etc.

She was a very nice young woman and I really liked her. No wonder I couldn’t focus on anything else but the lunches all summer. Though I did little progress: I could walk with her at the end of the summer.

So this is how it started, and she, Andrea became my wife and she has followed our families’ tradition as the mother of our four children. In the meantime I graduated from the Horticultural University and worked as an oenologist.

The Birth of St. Andrea

The name St. Andrea came about in 1999. I frequently made wine at home for family consumption, especially for my parents, and I consider myself a quite inquiring person within my profession. During those days, I experimented with exciting technologies, such as ageing in new barrels and making champagne. I also studied certain grape varieties.

One of the wines happened to be Cabernet Sauvignon (I wouldn’t think of producing this kind anymore) that I liked. I wanted to have it evaluated by experienced wine experts in Eger, so I submitted the wine to the Eger Borvidéki Verseny (The Eger Vineyard Competition). Since I worked at one of the biggest vineyards of Eger, I didn’t dare use my family name, so I decided to apply as the St. Andrea Wine House. I chose this name first because –as it is quite obvious- Andrea is the most important person to me in the world. Secondly, I chose this name because I realized the St. (Saint, Santa, etc.) prefix absolutely matches the emotional, historical and intellectual values of the wine, as in a vineyard site (St. Emilion), variety (St. Lauren), vineyard (St. Jean) and wine (Santa Julia).

We received the Big Golden Medal at the competition. It felt good. Especially because nobody knew who was that new vineyard participant—who was St. Andrea? It was I. I got so enthusiastic that I applied for the National Wine Competition in 1999 and I ended up with a gold medal. My family was really happy about it, and they finally thought I could make wine. They got so enthusiastic that I established a company with my mother-in-law, my father-in-law and with my brother-in-law called Lőrincz és Társai Kft. Based on the results of the competitions, we thought that if we named our wine the St. Andrea Selection, it would be familiar. Of course, nobody recognized it.

Gyuri, what is your dream?

During this time, a wine lover and generous gentleman tasted a wine from our little vineyard. As it turned out, I could thank him for the biggest change of my life. The first time I met him, he asked me this question: Gyuri, what is your dream? I told him, and afterwards, he decided to establish a vineyard with me.

It took a while for me to agree on it. The situation wasn’t that simple for me, since I couldn’t change things easily then. We already had three kids, and I had a good job, so as the head of a family, I was a little afraid of the change.

But as fate would have it, I made the most important decision in my life! So we established our vineyard together and it couldn’t have another name except St. Andrea. This is how we put down the foundation for the vineyard of my dreams, and this is how the name of our homemade wine became the name of our ambitious vineyard. I love you, St. Andi!

Dr. György Lőrincz