{"id":60668,"date":"2025-02-23T21:28:41","date_gmt":"2025-02-23T19:28:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.winesofromania.com\/?p=60668"},"modified":"2025-02-23T22:03:50","modified_gmt":"2025-02-23T20:03:50","slug":"hb-wine-a-story-of-passion-and-friendship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.winesofromania.com\/en\/hb-wine-a-story-of-passion-and-friendship\/","title":{"rendered":"HB Wine, a Story of Passion and Friendship"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Ask anyone about wine \u2013 whether they\u2019re an oenologist, owner, viticulturist, sommelier, or a marketing or sales professional \u2013 and you\u2019ll always hear one key word: passion. So often, in fact, that it sometimes seems to lose its meaning. Yet, ultimately, that\u2019s what it\u2019s all about \u2013 wine is born of passion and inspires passion. And the story of HB Wine<\/strong><\/a> is one about the journey from the very first glass to a passion so deep that you eventually must have your own wine. <\/span><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Mini\u0219, a Land of Stone, Legends, and Wine <\/strong><\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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The Land of Z\u0103rand is full of founding legends, from the tale of the three sisters who built the fortresses of \u0218iria, Dezna, and \u0218oimo\u0219, to the story of the road cleared through snow drifts every winter from Vienna to Mini\u0219, ensuring that wine from this region was never absent from the Austrian royal court. We won\u2019t dwell too much on the stories\u2014it\u2019s better to hear them straight from the locals, especially if you treat yourself to a tasting at a winery, where the narrative is sprinkled with aromas and flavor. <\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps even more important are the warm springs, the Mediterranean breezes, the \u201cnoble rock\u201d subsoil covered by a layer of black soil no more than a meter deep, and the gentle slopes of Z\u0103rand \u2013 all combining to create a wonderful climate for the vine, and especially for red wines.
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The First Glasses Savored with the Thought
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The man behind the story is Horia Ban, a successful entrepreneur who, many years ago, had the chance to meet Professor Dorin Popa, one of the people who left and still leaves a deep mark in the world of wine, throughout Western Romania and beyond. Along with five other friends, he began organizing tastings that eventually evolved into study sessions exploring different regions, grape varieties, and winemaking styles. The six became the core of the \u201cMillesime\u201d Association for the Culture and Civilization of Wine, which today boasts around 200 members. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe learned the craft, we began to understand what happens in the glass, we started to know what to look for in a glass\u2014to truly know wine,\u201d Horia Ban recounts in the<\/span> Wines of Romania podcast episode<\/a><\/strong>.<\/strong> \u201cToday, a lot of beer is consumed throughout Romania. But if you go to Oradea, you\u2019ll see that 70% of restaurant patrons have wine on the table. Because the Association has grown, each member learns and, in turn, teaches their friends. It\u2019s a pyramid structure (of knowledge transfer, note well),\u201d he adds.
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A Friend, a Motorcycle, a Winery<\/strong><\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Horia Ban visited the wineries in Mini\u0219-M\u0103derat, spoke with owners, oenologists, and viticulturists, and also toured other regions, participating in top international fairs – such as the one in Merano. With each wine he tasted, the idea of having his own wine, his own winery, took hold.<\/span><\/p>\n

Initially, he had planned to create, together with another friend, a place where they could ride their motorcycles, have a small wooden house, perhaps with a small cellar to \u201cplay winemaking\u201d as a hobby. He didn\u2019t even want to take on more than half a hectare of vineyard, otherwise it would become too serious for a mere hobby. <\/span><\/p>\n

Between his visits, he found the piece of land he had always dreamed of – on a west-facing slope overlooking the \u0218iria Fortress. It was the land of an elderly widow who didn\u2019t want to sell just parts of her property but all three hectares as a whole. Horia Ban hesitated; he even proposed a better price per square meter, but only for the parcel that interested him. That was until one weekend, when, while looking for a winery open on Sunday, he arrived at Villa Veche – a place maintained by a woman with two children, her husband was a pilot, so mostly away, and a single helper who came at most twice a week. And he thought, \u201cIf she can do it, and I have helpers, employees, and everything I need, why couldn\u2019t I?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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A Tesla Turned Liquid<\/strong><\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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At Villa Veche, he also vinified his first 6 tons of grapes, and it was there that he (re)encountered Clara Kardos, whom he had met at the Milessime gatherings, then serving as an oenological consultant for Crama Corbu\u021b. Today, Clara is the oenological consultant for HB Wine <\/strong><\/a>– and much more than that. It wouldn\u2019t be an exaggeration to say that she is the heart of the winery, if Horia Ban is the mind. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s how we went from a cellar where we just played at being a winery. Back then, Tesla was launching a model with a 1,000-kilometer range, priced around 180,000 euros, and I wanted to get one. Then I thought, why invest money in a car that immediately starts to depreciate\u2026 wouldn\u2019t it be better to invest it in a winery? Because it doesn\u2019t depreciate\u2014in fact, it appreciates. Sure, now there\u2019s much more than one Tesla there, but it\u2019s an investment whose value increases,\u201d Horia Ban recounts in the Wines of Romania podcast. <\/span>Wines of Romania podcast<\/a><\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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A Sunday Bringing Gold<\/strong><\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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After that Sunday at Villa Veche, it wasn\u2019t long before Horia Ban acquired the three hectares that, at first, seemed too much. \u201cWe were very lucky to find an excellent viticulturist who knows the area and the local vineyards very well. He doesn\u2019t just work with our vineyard, but also with those of friends from whom we buy grapes, ensuring we get high-quality produce (…) And Clara Kardos makes terroir wines that truly capture the mineral character of the place, even in red wines,\u201d says Horia Ban. <\/span><\/p>\n

The vineyard, which is 50 years old today (47 at the time of purchase), was quickly revitalized at the cost of a modest harvest – 5 tons of grapes from 3 hectares. This modest yield translated into a string of medals that started coming in quickly and show no signs of stopping. From BASF and \u201eVin la Munte\u201d to Vinarium or Mundus Vini, HB Wine\u2019s<\/strong><\/a> wines have consistently earned silver, gold, or at least high scores (at international competitions, it sometimes happened that a wine scoring above the silver threshold wasn\u2019t awarded because only the top third of entries receive medals). <\/span><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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A Soul for Small Wineries and a Promise of Patience<\/strong><\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Clara Kardos, without whom these results wouldn\u2019t have been possible, has also worked with large wine producers operating with impressive volumes, yet she loves small wineries. \u201cHere, it\u2019s like family. Here you\u2019re noticed in a different way. In a large winery, it\u2019s more about strategies, targets, sales, and marketing. Decisions are made to bottle several million liters at once… In a boutique winery, we consult with each other, the oenologist plays a different role, and relationships among people form in a different way. It requires involvement, closeness – a connection with the winery and the vineyard. Small wineries are personal projects; that\u2019s what sets them apart from large ones,\u201d says Clara Kardos, whom you can also get to know on an episode of \u201c <\/span>The Winemaker Talks<\/a><\/strong>\u201d, on the Wines of Romania YouTube channel.<\/span><\/p>

Initially in love with Feteasc\u0103 Neagr\u0103, which he discovered in Gabi L\u0103cureanu\u2019s Ancestral, Horia Ban later discovered the potential of Cabernet Sauvignon in Mini\u0219 and is on the verge of having a new favorite grape: \u201cWe need to invest some patience. It was a good thing that our fresh wines were well received, but I want to release the Cabernet after 3\u20135 years in the winery, with at least 6, maybe 12 months of barrel aging. After I see those wines, I\u2019ll ask myself again which is my favorite grape.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

\ud83d\udcf7 Photo source: HB Wine<\/strong><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ask anyone about wine \u2013 whether they\u2019re an oenologist, owner, viticulturist, sommelier, or a marketing or sales professional \u2013 and you\u2019ll always hear one key word: passion. So often, in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":60650,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toate"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.winesofromania.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.winesofromania.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.winesofromania.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.winesofromania.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.winesofromania.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60668"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/staging.winesofromania.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60679,"href":"https:\/\/staging.winesofromania.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60668\/revisions\/60679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.winesofromania.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.winesofromania.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.winesofromania.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.winesofromania.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}