It’s a milestone to appear on the cover of the Hungarian edition of Forbes, one of the world’s most important business magazines. A cover that has featured such economic and cultural role models as Iván Fischer, Kriszta Máté, Noémi Orvos-Tóth and Szabina Tomán.
“One of the most famous families and brands of the Villány wine region has all the ingredients of a classic Forbes story. It starts with a wine-loving grandfather, continues with the ambitious son-in-law Attila Gere, and ends with the daughter who is a worthy successor in her own right. Andrea Gere did not set out to become a winemaker, but with a love of wine and grapes in her bones, she took up the baton and, almost under the radar, gained recognition as a professional. We are in the final moments of an organic generational change that has been 20 years in the making.
This is how Judit Kis begins her cover interview, published in the June 2023 issue, and we quote three thoughts from the article that are important to us.
That is what brought me home
“In those days, their wines were mostly sold to restaurants, and when her father went to Budapest for wine dinners, Andi often accompanied him. Although she loved the hustle and bustle of the capital, these evenings actually strengthened her bond with Villány. “There, next to the white tablecloth, I saw the kind of places where a bottle of wine opens doors. I saw how we farmers were respected by the managers of the great Budapest restaurants of the time, the Gundel, the Alabárdos or the Fortuna”. She loved the elegance, the presentation, seeing their wines in a new setting and tasting them with the world’s greatest winemakers or even Nobel Prize winners. “It was here that I realised what wonderful things we make at home and the value we give to people. That is what brought me home.
A trusting fatherly attitude
“The renewal of the design was an important step in the generational change that is now well under way. Whichever member of the family I asked – we sat down individually with each of them in the former cigar room of the Crocus Gere Wine Hotel in Villány – the process that began 20 years ago seems to have gone smoothly, and perhaps this ‘if necessary, so be it’, trusting fatherly attitude is one of the keys. Another may be that, as well as bringing fresh impetus, Andi is humbled by the work her parents have done so far. “I came home to learn, I didn’t want to mess things up”.
A leap without a safety net
“A leap without a safety net – that’s how Andi describes the development of her cosmetics brand. The idea for Andrea Gere Skin Care also came from the grapes – they always knew what precious ingredients they had on their hands. “This is not mass production, we work with strict yield control. We leave four to six bunches on the vine, so there’s a much higher concentration of active ingredients in the juice and also in the grape seeds”. Their grape seed extract and oil had been used in the hotel’s spa and massage treatments for years before the brand idea was conceived, as they “wanted to align the house’s message with grapes and wine anyway”.
You know your own story well, but it is moving to see it through someone else’s eyes, to examine which episodes proved to be turning points, when experience became knowledge. We are grateful to the wine lovers who have made this journey possible. For those of you who would like to take a look back, we have uploaded a pdf version of the article in Hungarian HERE.
