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Tokaji
Tokaji Aszu - Wine of Kings, King of Wines"The legendary 'Tokaj Eszencia' a precious and mysteriously sweet wine that has been credited with semi magical properties (including that of being an elixir of life), is made from the juice that flows from the aszu grapes through the pressure of their own weight. The production of Tokaj is complex and lengthy and any visitor to the strange cellars underground in the region will be astounded by the thick blanket of mould that covers the walls and must obviously have a marked effect on the wines that mature many years in the small casks known as gonci." -(www.tokaj.com)
Tokaji (Hungarian: of Tokaj) is used to label wines from the wine region of Tokaj-Hegyalja in Hungary. This region is noted for its sweet wines made from grapes affected by noble rot, a style of wine which has a long history in this region.
The Tokaji name
Tokaji wines have a long pedigree and history, and have been famous for a long time, which has resulted in the name being "adopted" by other ares to indicate good wines:- Historically Tokaji was wine from the region of Tokaj in the Kingdom of Hungary. In English and French the spelling Tokay was commonly used. Prior to the phylloxera epidemic in the 1880s, wine was grown in Tokaj from various types of mainly white grape varieties. However, many historical mentions of Tokaji wine as early as 1635 refer to the sweet dessert Aszú (botrytised) wine.
- The name Tokay came to be used in the Alsace region of France for wines made with the Pinot Gris grape. In Italy the name Tocai came to refer to a variety of grape from the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region. In Slovenia, the EU prohibion of the historical name tokaj for this traditional wine of Gorika Brda and Vipava regions and its replacement with the foreign-sounding Sauvignonasse led to great confusion among consumers.
- There has also been a long-running dispute between Hungary and Czechoslovakia (since 1993 Slovakia) over the right of a neighbouring Slovakian wine region to use the name Tokaj. Negotiations between the two governments resulted in an agreement being signed in June 2004. Under this agreement, wine produced on 5.65 km2 of land in Slovakia will be able to use the Tokaj name. However, a number of practical issues remain. Slovakia has pledged to introduce the same standards enshrined in Hungarian wine laws since 1990, but it has not yet been decided who will monitor or enforce those laws.
- Under Hungary's and Slovakia's accession treaty to the European Union, the Tokaj name (including other forms of spelling) is being given Protected Designation of Origin status. This means that, since March 2007, wine producers in France and Italy are no longer allowed to use the terms Tokay or Tocai (which was applied to a different grape, Pinot gris, in French Alsace and to a different grape in Italy more commonly named Sauvignonasse).
Cultivation
Only six grape varieties are officially approved for use in wines bearing the Tokaji name: Furmint, Hárslevelű (Slovak: Lipovina), Yellow Muscat (Hungarian: Sárgamuskotály), Zéta (previously called Oremus), Kövérszőlő and Kabar. Of these, Furmint accounts for 60% of the area under vine and is by far the most important grape in the production of aszú wines. Hárslevelű makes up a further 30%. Nevertheless, an impressive range of different types and styles of wine is produced in the region, ranging from dry whites to the world's sweetest wine.
The area in which Tokaji wine is traditionally grown is a small plateau, 457m (1500 ft) above sea level, near the Carpathian Mountains. The soil there is of volcanic origin, with a high concentration of iron and smaller amounts of lime. The location of the region experiences a unique climate which is beneficial to this particular viniculture, due largely to the protection of the nearby mountains. Winters are bitterly cold and windy; spring tends to be cool and dry, and summers noticeably hot. Usually, autumn brings rain early on, followed by an extended Indian summer, allowing a very long ripening period.
The dominant Furmint grapes begin maturation with thick skins, but as they ripen the skins become thinner, and transparent. This allows the sun to penetrate the grape and evaporate much of the water inside, producing a higher proportion of sugar. Other grapes mature to the point of bursting, and some juice escapes; however, unlike with most other grapes, Furmint grow a second skin after this which seals it from rot. This also has the effect of concentrating the grapes' natural sugars. The grapes are left on the vine long enough to develop a "noble rot" (aka Botrytis cinerea) mold, harvested as late as December (and in the case of true Ezencia, occasionally into January).
Typical yearly production in the region runs to a relatively small 10,028,000 liters (2,650,000 gallons).
Types of Tokaji wine
A bottle of Tokaji Aszú 4 Puttonyos, vintage 1990, in a 500 ml bottle of the style that is typical for Tokaji wine. The capsule label with the colours of the Hungarian flag is also characteristic.A bottle of Tokaji Aszú 4 Puttonyos, vintage 1990, in a 500 ml bottle of the style that is typical for Tokaji wine. The capsule label with the colours of the Hungarian flag is also characteristic.
A bottle of Slovak Tokajsky. Notice the different spelling from the Hungarian Tokaji bottle, and the absence of the Hungarian colours.
A bottle of Slovak Tokajsky. Notice the different spelling from the Hungarian Tokaji bottle, and the absence of the Hungarian colours.
- Dry Wines: These wines, once referred to as ordinárium, are now named after their respective grape varieties: Tokaji Furmint, Tokaji Hárslevelű (Slovak: Lipovina), Tokaji Sárgamuskotály and Tokaji Kövérszőlő.
- Szamorodni (Slovak: Samorodné): This type of wine was initially known as főbor ("prime wine"), but from the 1820s onwards Polish merchants popularised the name samorodny ("the way it was grown"). What sets Szamorodni apart from ordinary wine is that it is made from bunches which contain a considerable proportion of botrytised grapes. Because of this, szamorodni is typically higher in alcohol and extract than ordinary wine. Szamorodni often contains up to 100-120 g of residual sugar and thus is termed édes ("sweet"). However, when the bunches contain fewer botrytised grapes, the residual sugar content is much lower, resulting in a száraz ("dry") wine. Its alcohol content is typically 14%.
- Aszú: This is the wine which made Tokaj world famous and is proudly cited in the Hungarian national anthem. The original meaning of the Hungarian word aszú was "dried", but it came to be associated with a type of wine made with botrytised (i.e. "nobly" rotten) grapes. The process of making Aszú wine is as follows:
- Aszú berries (Slovak: cibeby) are individually picked out of the bunches, collected in huge vats and trampled into the consistency of paste (known as aszú dough).
- Must is poured on the aszú dough and left for 24-48 hours, stirred occasionally.
- After the aszú dough has soaked, the wine is racked off into wooden casks or vats where fermentation is completed and the aszú wine will be kept to mature. These containers are stored in a cool environment, and are not tightly closed, so a slow fermentation process continues in the wine, usually for several years.
- Eszencia: Also called nectar, this is often described as the most precious wine in the world, although technically it cannot even be called a wine because its enormous concentration of sugar means that its alcohol level never rises above 5-6 degrees. Eszencia is the juice of aszú berries which runs off naturally from the vats in which they are collected during harvesting. The sugar concentration of eszencia is typically between 500 g and 700 g per litre, although the year 2000 vintage produced eszencia exceeding 900 g per litre. Eszencia is traditionally added to aszú wines, but may be allowed to ferment (a process that takes at least 4 years to complete) and then bottled pure. The resulting wine has a concentration and intensity of flavour that is unequalled, but is so sweet that it can only be drunk in tiny quantities. Storage of Eszencia is facilitated by the fact that, unlike virtually all other wines, it maintains its quality and drinkability for 200 years or more.[citation needed]
- Fordítás: Meaning "turning over" in Hungarian, this wine is made by pouring must on aszú dough which has already been used to make aszú wine.
- Máslás: Derived from the word "copy" in Hungarian, this wine is made by pouring must on the lees of aszú.
- Other sweet wines: In the past few years reductive sweet wines have begun to appear in Tokaj. These are ready for release in a year to 18 months are harvest. They typically contain 50-180 g/l of residual sugar and a ratio of botrytised berries comparable to Aszú wines. They are usually labelled as késői szüretelésű ("late harvest") wines. Innovative producers have also marketed tokaji wine that does not fit the appellation laws of the above categories but is often of high quality and price, and in many ways comparable to aszú. These wines are often labelled as tokaji cuvée. In 1999, Chateau Pajzos became the first winery to produce a Tokaji ice wine.
History
It is unknown how long vines have grown in the volcanic soil of the fork of the rivers Bodrog and Hernád, as this predates the arrival of of the Magyar tribes to the region.[1] Serbian prince Durad Brankovic, the founder of the Serbian city Smederevo, planted vines from Smederevo on his estates in Hungary after he became the lord of Tokaj, in the 15th century. According to legend the first aszú was made by Laczkó Máté Szepsi in 1630. However, mention of wine made from aszú grapes had already appeared in the Nomenklatura of Fabricius Balázs Sziksai which was completed in 1576. A recently discovered inventory of aszú predates this reference by five years.Tokaji wine became the subject of the world's first appellation control, established several decades before Port wine, and over 120 years before the classification of Bordeaux. Vineyard classification began in 1730 with vineyards being classified into 3 categories depending on the soil, sun exposure and potential to develop botritys cinerea. The subdvisions were: first class, second class and third class wines. A royal decree in 1757 established a closed production district in Tokaj. The classification system was completed by the national censuses of 1765 and 1772.
In 1920, following the break-up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a small portion of the Tokaj wine region (approx. 1.75 km˛) became part of the newly-created state of Czechoslovakia, while the rest became part of the Republic of Hungary. After World War II, when Hungary became a Soviet-influenced state with a Communist, central-planning regime, Tokaji production continued with as many as 6000 small producers, but the bottling and distribution were monopolized by a state-owned organization; under this regime, quality plummeted.[citation needed]
Since the collapse of the communist regime in 1990, a number of independent wineries have been established in the Tokaj-Hegyalja region. A state-owned producer continues to exist and handles approximately 20% of all production.
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