Historic First Class classified area. Kővágó is one of the most famous vineyards on the border of Mád. Its south-south-eastern exposure and favourable microclimate ensure excellent yields and good ripening capacity for the Furmint grape variety. The area was replanted in 1993 with 5,000 vines per hectare. The soil, mixed with riolite and andesite tuff, has created a mineral-rich surface which allows the production of wines with good storage and ageing potential. Thanks to its volcanic soils with very good water retention and its location, our vineyard has an excellent microclimate and produces exciting and unique wines. It is one of our earliest ripening, high quality areas.
Vineyard area: 6,91 hectares
Grape varieties: Furmint
History:
Kővágó is Mád’s historical vineyard. A large part of its area is no longer under cultivation. The name refers to the stony soil. It was first mentioned as a wine-growing area in 1413 in connection with a succession dispute between the Fügedy and Zombory noble families, but in later times it was often referred to as Kővágóalja or just Kőalja. This is supported by records in the Village Book of Mád. In the late Middle Ages, the parishes of Mád and Mezőzombor, as well as the Debrey, Fügedy, Garay, Kapy, Tállay and Zombory families had estates here. From 1425, Kővágó became a royal estate as a dominion vineyard.
The Kővágó vineyard was originally part of the Tokaj-Tállya castle estate in the second half of the 15th century. After King Zsigmond donated it to the Brankovics family, the Hunyadis and from 1459 onwards the Szapolyais became the lords of the Kővágó. Due to the political anarchy following the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the Szapolyai family lost this area as well. King Habsburg Ferdinand I (1526-1564) confiscated the Tokaj-Tállya dominion with all its vineyards from the family, and in 1541 he donated the Tállya and Tokaj dominions to his followers Gáspár and György Serédy, together with the associated vineyards of the dominions. Until their extinction, the Serédy family, and later the Alaghy and Mágóchy families had significant holdings in the Kővágó vineyard, and in 1635 the Rákóczi family became the most important owners of the Kővágó vineyard through inheritance.
Until the middle of the 16th century the Kővágó vineyard was silent, mainly due to the lack of written sources. However, in this period we meet a large number of wealthy urban landowners, mainly from Eperje, Kassa and Szepsi, and wealthy noblemen from Abaúj-Torna and Zemplén counties.
At the beginning of the 17th century, the Aszalós and Koros families’ estate on Kővágó became independent, retaining their own name, and was sold in the 1620s to the Alaghy noble family, which became the so-called “lord vineyards”, thus entering the history of the Aszalós-Kővágó and Koros-Kővágó vineyards. In addition, from 1610 onwards, a distinction was made between Small and Great Kővágó. The aristocratic families cultivated their vineyards there for money almost all the time. The Count branch of the Rákóczi family also bought vineyards from the inhabitants of Mád for a considerable sum of money in order to obtain as much well-positioned land as possible on the vineyard. After the fall of the anti-Habsburg Wesselényi conspiracy (1664-1670), the princely branch of the Rákóczi family mortgaged the Kővágó vineyard to Baró Maholányi János, a lord in the service of the Emperor, which later became the property of the Orczy family. Many of the former owners had their vineyards confiscated by the royal Court.
The vineyards of the minor nobles and townspeople involved in the conspiracy were confiscated by the court and then donated to the families of Erdődy, Kálmánczay, Klobusiczky, Nigrelli, Szemere, Vollay and Zinzendorf, among others, who were loyal to the Court of Vienna, as well as to the Enyicke Castle and the Eger Chapter. After the Rákóczi War of Independence (1703-1711), the Erdődy and Orczy families began to expand in the Kővágó, and they owned vineyards there until the mid-20th century.