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Erzsébet, Tokaji Aszú, 5 Puttonyos (500ML)
There’s no substitute for traveling to the world’s great wine regions and experiencing them for oneself, but in the absence of that opportunity, it’s invaluable to have deeply informed, highly articulate importer reps like Eric Danch to help find, and understand, some of wine’s rarest treats.
Eric is the San Francisco Sales Manager for Blue Danube Wine Co., a firm founded in 2002 which specializes in the wines of Central Europe. Through extensive travel, study, and general doggedness, Eric has put under-appreciated wine nations such as Hungary and Croatia—ex-communist areas only now recovering from years of ‘nationalized’ wine production—on sommeliers’ maps. Many of you may know that the Tokaji region of Hungary is the oldest officially delimited wine appellation in the world. Maybe you’ve even tried one of its famous, botrytis-affected sweet wines, which rival French Sauternes in complexity and concentration. But Tokaji Aszú likely exists mostly in the abstract for you, if you’re aware of it at all. Today, with Eric’s help, we’d like to turn you on to one of the most fascinating, mesmerizing wine experiences an oenophile can have. This 1999 Tokaji Aszú from Erzsébet is not merely a “sweet” wine. Listing it in the “dessert” section of a wine list is a disservice, not just because it’s a dessert unto itself but because it’s much more than that—it’s a wine of inimitable aromatic complexity, impeccable balance and profound depth that is also sweet, and its best application may well be with rich, savory foods such as foie gras or crispy pork belly. This ’99 would make an amazing showpiece at your next dinner party—regardless of when you open it—and it isn’t even expensive! What follows is Eric’s hyper-literate presentation of this wine (portions of which have appeared under his name on the GuildSomm website). Read the whole thing and check out this amazing wine. It is so worth it! — The SommSelect Wine Team
Eric is the San Francisco Sales Manager for Blue Danube Wine Co., a firm founded in 2002 which specializes in the wines of Central Europe. Through extensive travel, study, and general doggedness, Eric has put under-appreciated wine nations such as Hungary and Croatia—ex-communist areas only now recovering from years of ‘nationalized’ wine production—on sommeliers’ maps. Many of you may know that the Tokaji region of Hungary is the oldest officially delimited wine appellation in the world. Maybe you’ve even tried one of its famous, botrytis-affected sweet wines, which rival French Sauternes in complexity and concentration. But Tokaji Aszú likely exists mostly in the abstract for you, if you’re aware of it at all. Today, with Eric’s help, we’d like to turn you on to one of the most fascinating, mesmerizing wine experiences an oenophile can have. This 1999 Tokaji Aszú from Erzsébet is not merely a “sweet” wine. Listing it in the “dessert” section of a wine list is a disservice, not just because it’s a dessert unto itself but because it’s much more than that—it’s a wine of inimitable aromatic complexity, impeccable balance and profound depth that is also sweet, and its best application may well be with rich, savory foods such as foie gras or crispy pork belly. This ’99 would make an amazing showpiece at your next dinner party—regardless of when you open it—and it isn’t even expensive! What follows is Eric’s hyper-literate presentation of this wine (portions of which have appeared under his name on the GuildSomm website). Read the whole thing and check out this amazing wine. It is so worth it! — The SommSelect Wine Team
Very few wine regions possess as much unbroken history, so significant a heyday, and such a decided fall into obscurity. As such, the focus of most Tokaj literature is about past greatness and hopes of reclaiming it. Much of what has been written also highlights King Louis XIV’s famous phrase, Vinum Regum, Rex Vinorum (“Wine of Kings, King of Wines”), and ends with a discussion of the collectivized quantity-over-quality industrial production under Communism. While both are true and important in understanding the region, Tokaj is no longer static, looking backwards, or dreaming of an unknown future. Twenty-five years after the first wave of privatization, Tokaj finally has the people and experience needed to reposition itself as one of the world’s classic appellations. Today, the world’s first vineyard classification system and the oldest producer of botrytized wines is once again terroir-driven and presented in a wide range of styles beyond just sweet.
Tokaj, like the other 21 appellations in Hungary, also lacks context in the US market. We might know of the late Zsa Zsa Gabor, goulash, Bull’s Blood, and paprika, but we aren’t exposed to the broader culture of Hungary. One might blame the iron curtain, or how quickly Hungarian immigrants integrated into American culture, but those are no longer excuses for the oversight. Tokaji, so heavily imbued with Hungarian identity, is an iconic and worthy ambassador of its country.
As medieval Europe transitioned into the Renaissance and the early modern era, sugar remained a rare commodity, alchemy was wildly popular, and we can safely assume people enjoyed drinking alcohol. Imagine being able to drink sweet golden wine. Tokaji was medicine for popes and a favorite among the French royal court and Russian tsars. It was also a well-documented muse for Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Catherine the Great, Franz Liszt, Franz Schubert, Bram Stoker, Leo Tolstoy, Pablo Neruda, Honoré de Balzac, Gustave Flaubert, Denis Diderot, and Voltaire—to name just a few. Swiss-born alchemist Paracelsus spent years unsuccessfully trying to extract actual gold from it. In the new world, Thomas Jefferson imported wine from Tokaj for presidential banquets in the early 1800s. As recent as the early 1900s, Tokaji was still available by prescription.
Despite popularity throughout Europe, Tokaj’s success began unraveling with the partition of Poland in the late 1700s. Along with other difficult international relationships dictated by the Habsburgs, Tokaj ran into trade problems with key export markets. This was quickly followed with phylloxera in the 1880s. World War I was next, resulting in the Treaty of Trianon in 1920, through which Hungary lost a staggering 71% of its territory, including seven communities and approximately 910 hectares of Tokaji vineyards that are now in modern-day Slovakia. The loss of land also included essential internal markets. Supply soon began to outweigh demand, and producers began to fortify (add alcohol) for the first time, a practice that wouldn’t be outlawed until 1991. Communist control was the final blow. Collectivized state-controlled mass production took over, and private ownership on a commercial scale came to an end. Steep and terraced vineyards were abandoned for the flatlands. First-class vineyards that had been planted for hundreds of years were quickly consumed by the forest or ripped out altogether. For the next 50 years, until 1989, the loss of key markets, diverse ethnic communities, and knowledge of the land and cellar continued.
Tokaj has always had the nuts and bolts that make it special: a diverse range of volcanic soils, vigorous native grapes, unique winemaking techniques (Aszú especially), local cooperages, and a surplus of characters driving the industry at all levels. 25 years post Communism isn’t a long time in the wine world, but after its wild early successes and a very great fall, Tokaj is finally relevant again and deserving of our attention.
What is ‘Aszú’?
Put simply, this is the first and one of most concentrated (in terms of acidity and sugar) botrytis-affected wines in the world. How exactly is it made? First, grapes that have been affected by the ‘noble’ bunch rot known as botrytis cinerea are hand-picked, berry by berry (the main grape in this wine is Furmint, with smaller percentages of Hárslevel?, Kabar, and Zéta). Originally, these were put into a puttony, a small wooden basket that could carry about 25 kilograms. A skilled worker putting in a full day’s work in a quality vintage would be lucky to pick 10-15 kilograms a day. As for the vineyard, it can take up 5 kilograms of healthy grapes to eventually yield 1 kilogram of healthy Aszú berries. Once the puttony is full, berries are mashed into a chutney-like consistency and then macerated with either a fermenting must or an already fermented base wine. Then, they are pressed and barreled down into Gönci, special 136-liter barrels of Hungarian oak sourced from the forests bordering the appellation. Minimum aging is 18 months in barrel and a year in bottle.
Aszú is essentially a skin-contact sweet wine. The number of puttony added to a single Gönci barrel originally defined the 3-to-6 puttonyos scale. More puttonyos meant a sweeter and more complex wine. Nowadays, Aszú is measured by residual sugar (grams/liter), but the puttony paints an important picture of the labor involved in production.
The 1991 banning of chaptalization (adding sugar) and fortification is generally considered the first step toward reinstating quality Aszú production. This is not to say that good Aszú was not made during Communism—according to Christie’s Auction House, drinkable bottles have purchased from as far back as the 1648 vintage. Quality Aszú today is refreshingly sweet, low in alcohol, oxidative (not oxidized), and balanced.
This Wine
Erzsébet (Elizabeth) and Miklós Prácser have a long history in Tokaj and run a truly family winery. Miklós is one of the only people in the region to work for the State cooperatives during communism, run some of the very first private wineries after the fall of the Iron Curtain, and then establish his own estate. He is the personification of the renaissance of the Tokaj Appellation over the past 25 years. He and his wife, herself one of the first female winemakers in Tokaj, bought a cellar dug in the 1600s in 1989. It was originally rented by the Russian Court in the 1700s, most notably Tzarina Elizabeth, to hold Aszú destined for transport back to Russia. Their logo pays homage to this by the wolf chasing a rose. The rose refers to the cellar’s location in the rose district of the village of Tokaj. The wolf symbolizes the treacherous journey the wines had to make from Tokaj to the Russian Court. The Russians even stationed troops along the way to ensure a safe passage from robbers and wolf packs. There was a saying during the time that “even wolves are after Tokaji Aszú.” They own plots in various villages like Mád (Betsek and Király), Bodrogkerestúr (Saigó), and Tarcal (Szarvas and Zafir). All vineyards are either Grande Cru or Premier Cru dating from the 17th Century classification. Erzsébet’s first bottled vintage was 1993.
The 1999 vintage is widely referred to as a classic in Tokaj, and this bottle shows remarkable freshness for a wine that’s nearly 20 years old. In the glass, it’s the color and consistency of orange blossom honey, with aromatics so complex and powerful they almost defy description. Richly fruity aromas of dried apricot, white peach, poached quince, dried white cherry, and orange peel are met with notes of dried white flowers, warm baking spices, and slight oxidative notes of hazelnut and caramel. For all of its viscosity, the sweetness is actually rather moderate, thanks not only to age but to the high level of balancing acidity. It’s a really remarkable wine, truly perfect—balanced, profoundly flavorful, and lingering forever on the finish.
This is not a ‘fortified’ sweet wine, simply an exceptionally concentrated one: at just 10.5% alcohol, it combines richness and refreshment like few other wines in the world. A little goes a long way here, and once, in a bygone era, this wine might well have been consumed as an apéritif or with an early course in a multi-course feast. I think it would be amazing to break this wine out before, rather than after, a special meal: Serve it in all-purpose white wine stems at about 45-50 degrees with some foie gras on brioche toasts. The ‘wow’ effect will be immeasurable. Cheers!
