History

In 1334, based on a charter of privilege, grapes and wines were free to grow and later the trade started and in 1480, the wine of Gyöngyös was transported to the highlands - based on the charter of Matthias.

In the 16th century, Gyöngyös and its neighborhood have been settled for quality winemaking, with 80% of the city's population living on it. Significant cellar constructions began in 1785 on the stone-covered areas of the andesite tuff in Farkasmály, but in Gyöngyös the cellars were not outside the city but under the residential houses - to this day there is a wine cellar under every building. Some early cellar construction: the cellar St. Bartholomew's Prysil cella was built in the 15th century. In the 18th century, under the Main Square, the cellar at number 11. In the 16th century, the cellar of the building No. 25 under Petőfi Street, and in 1804, significant expansions began in the cellars below Jókai and Kossuth Streets.

Before World War I, the Wine Palace has modern European wine equipment. The incoming grapes were processed in grape mills equipped with machine power and then on grape presses driven by transmission wheels, from where the grape juice passed through enamelled channels into a total of 19 8000 hectoliters of reinforced concrete and glass barrels, which were made by a Zurich company in 1907. After the first fermentation, the wine was further matured in wooden barrels (with a capacity of 12,000 hectoliters), and after the necessary treatments, the wine ready for sale was transported to the bottler by elevator. Based on a price list that has survived from 1910, it is possible to know what wines were sold by the Wine Palace at that time, for which it was already represented in Budapest and Vienna.

After World War I, by the early 1930s, market players had rearranged. Several smaller companies have been acquired by larger, more capital-intensive companies. From 1924, the leading role in the production of wine, brandy and cognac in Gyöngyös belonged to Industria Rt., which had the same ownership as the Wine Palace, but the latter retained its relative independence. At that time, in 1934, György Dubicz and his family changed the ancient Dubicz surname to Dunai in accordance with the social expectations of the time.

There are hardly any available data on the operation and economic results of the 1930s regarding the Wine Palace. The World War II left its mark on the life of the entire economic life, including the wine producers of Gyöngyös and the surrounding area. The building of the Wine Palace remained the property of the Gyöngyös-Visonta Cooperative until 1940, and later it was bought by the Hajdú family, who lost their lives in the war in 1944. Their ownership was abolished in 1946, when the building was returned to private ownership for a short time, then nationalized in 1951 and managed by the Gyöngyös-Egervidék Wine Company.

In the Rákosi- and then the Kádár-era, the Mátra Wine Region may have existed as part of the Eger Wine Region. The former independence, reputation and trade relations have all disappeared, but in Gyöngyös the Wine Traffic Company was the number one wine company for many decades. In 1962, it was transformed into the Eger-Gyöngyös Rural Cellar Economy.