Tokaji Decanter Tasting

Decanter Tokaji Tasting
Vintners Hall
2 Nov 2009

This was an interesting tasting. There were 12 Tokaji producers here this evening, and probably more different Tokajis than I've seen before in my life. However, there are apparently 588 wineries in Tokaji, so there is still plenty for me to get my teeth into in the future.

As well as being an excellent opportunity to taste Tokaji from a wide range of producers, the tasting really brought home the wide range of styles made in the region.

Grapes
The main grape variety of Tokaji is Furmint, but two other grapes are frequently used as well: Harslevelu and Sarga Muskotaly (aka Muscat de Lunel, one of the many grapes in the Muscat family). There are also relatively trivial amounts of Koverszolo, Kabar and Goher planted.

Wine Styles
Dry
As you would expect really. Tokaji Aszu manages to be refreshing despite often diabetic coma-inducing levels of sugar because of the very high acidity. The dry tokaji is often too acidic.

Late Harvest
Again, no surprises here.

Szamorodni
These are wines made from bunches of grapes where bunches of grapes are pressed and fermented together. That is, the grapes which are particularly botrytized are not separated from the ones which have not been infected. The word means something along the lines of "the way it was grown".

Aged under flor
Many of the producers took umbrage at these being called sherry-like, but they are massively reminiscent of a fino sherry on the nose. The wines have to be dry otherwise the flor-like yeast will not form. They are weird and interesting.

Botrytized
These are the wines which Tokaji is rightly famous for - the Tojaki Aszu, Eszencia and Forditas, Maslas... the last two of which I'd never heard of before and (annoyingly) did not get to try this evening. These sweet wines are made in an interesting way. Grapes which are unaffected by botrytis are made into a base wine. Then, grapes which are incredibly botrytized are made into a paste and added to the wine. The wine is then racked off into casks where it undergoes a slow fermentation. Depending on the how strongly botrytized the wine is, this fermentation can take many years.

At first this appears to be a very odd thing to do. However, one of the stalls had a plate with some of the botrytis-affected grapes which we were allowed to taste. The grapes were so dried that they were almost raisined. The amount of juice which would result from pressing these grapes is absolutely negligible so this vinification method kind of makes sense.

The sweetness of the wine is classified in "puttonyos". This is the name of the baskets used in the region to collect grapes when harvesting. So a 6-puttonyos wine is one where 6 baskets of nobly rotten grape-paste is added to one barrel's worth of base wine. In present time, the number of puttonyos is calibrated to the usual measurement of grams of residual sugar per litre of wine. Speaking of sweetness, these wines can be incredibly sweet. I think the sweetest of the night was Pendits Tokaji Aszu Essencia 2003 which had over 330g of residual sugar per litre of wine. The wine did not feel cloying either as a result of the very high acid. However, at the end of the evening I had my first sugar rush since I was a child. A genuinely strange feeling.

The Wines
It's always hard to make sensible notes at one of these walk-around events since there's not enough time to get round everything as it is. So I'll just write about some of the highlights of the evening.

Beres
Beres Tokaji Furmint Locse (dry) 2007. High acid, ripe peach. Salty, almost manzanilla character. Good length.

The best szamorodni of the evening was the Beres Tokaji Szamorodni (dry) 2003. Ripe apricots and peach. Dry, acidic and refreshing. Intense flavour and great length.

Bodvin
The Tokaji Furmint Betsek (dry) 2007 was almost like a manzanilla sherry on the nose. More like ripe peach on the palate.

Chateau Dereszla
The Tokaji Imperium 2000 was excellent. Very high sugar at 250g/l but fresh. The feel on the palate is cleansing, despite the high sugar. Great length.

Sauska
Tokaji Aszu Essencia 2003
At 236g of sugar per litre one feels that this should come with an insulin shot. It was a little over the top and needs time but nonetheless was very impressive.

Pendits
Tokaji Aszu Essencia 2003
If the previous wine was sweet then this was in a completely different league at 330g/l! So unctuous that you can see the surface shimmering. The wine was spicy, with great length and enough acid to balance out all the sugar though. Having said that, it was around this point in the evening that I started to get my first "sugar high" since I was a child.

Royal Tokaji
Mezees Maly 6 Puttonyos Tokaji Aszu 1999
This is from a very well regarded single vineyard in Tokaji. The wine was the most complex of the evening and intense flavours on the palate. Very acidic, crisp and refreshing.

Samuel Tinon
Tokaji Szamorodni (dry) 2003
This one has been aged under flor and smells a little like a fino sherry. Some nutty notes. Good length. Very interesting.