Bodrog Borműhely, Tokaji Aszú 6 Puttonyos
Tokaj, Hungary 2013
Regular price$68.00
/
Your cart is empty.
- In stock, ready to ship
- Inventory on the way
Bodrog Borműhely, Tokaji Aszú 6 Puttonyos
If you’ve never tasted the legendary golden nectar that is Tokaji Aszú, welcome to one of the rarest and most singular experiences in all of wine. In fact, I’ll go you one better: If you lined up every top-performing sweet wine imaginable—including 1er Cru Sauternes priced in the hundreds—today’s 2013 creation would wind up near or at the vertex. It is a confounding liquid treasure that over- and out-performs many of the world’s luxury labels with such ease, it may leave many of you asking how the small team of Bodrog Borműhely managed to pull it off. The answer is simple: they just followed centuries of tradition.
In the historic region of Tokaj, harvest workers comb through the vine rows hawk-eyed, searching for the richest, most concentrated berries from each cluster of grapes. Of the prized few that are chosen, their nectar is gently extracted and sent into local Hungarian oak for years of quiet maturation. This is fabled Tokaji Aszú, “paradoxically legendary yet little known” says Eric Asimov of the New York Times,” and a must-try experience for anyone who wants a harmonious melding of honeyed richness, powerful minerality, and the mind-bending fusion of high acidity and enveloping sweetness. Unfortunately, their importer could only wrangle 156 bottles for the entire country—a handful already went to some choice restaurants and we savored one all to ourselves. So, if you’re able to emerge with a bottle or two of the few that remain, heed these words: It would be a grave injustice to solely designate this as “dessert wine!” Can it be savored after dinner? Yes, and it certainly should, but it’s just as great, if not more, as an aperitif, mid-meal libation, or main-course companion. These rare beauties are the pinnacle of liquid luxury! Don’t miss out!
First, a bit of history on Tokaj and it’s sweet wines: As Medieval Europe transitioned into the Renaissance and the early modern era, sugar remained a rare commodity, alchemy was wildly popular, and people were anxious for alcohol. Imagine being able to drink sweet golden wine at a time like this—Tokaji Aszú was considered a legendary elixir and, as such, had quite the following.
It was ‘medicine’ (available by prescription until the early 1900s) for popes, the choice drink of tsars, and a muse for Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Franz Liszt, Bram Stoker, Leo Tolstoy, and Voltaire, who said “this wine invigorates every fibre of my brain and, deep in my soul, produces a charming glint of intelligence and good humour.” Swiss-born alchemist Paracelsus spent years trying to extract actual gold from it, and Thomas Jefferson imported it for presidential banquets. Clearly, the allure and mystique of Tokaji wines reached far and wide.
Still, Tokaj is largely undiscovered in the US market despite being having the first-ever vineyard classification system and being the oldest region for botrytized wine production. That said, the region has enjoyed an exciting renaissance over the last quarter-century: After the fall of communism, the government’s stranglehold on winemaking and trade was relinquished and the new generation began a complete overhaul. Without these shackles, independent wine labels began popping up and quality soared. Enter János Hajduz and Krisztián Farkas, the proprietors of Bodrog Borműhely. Their goal is simple: to restore the region’s time-honored traditions and put its wines back into the discussion for the world’s finest.
So what is Aszú? The word itself means “dried,” and refers to late-harvested grapes that have been affected by botrytis cinerea known as ‘noble rot.’ Grapes for Tokaji Aszú are laboriously hand-picked berry by berry. Originally, they were placed into puttonyos, small wooden baskets that could hold about 55 pounds, and it could take a skilled worker two full days to fill a single basket! In the past, the number of puttony added to a single barrel defined the puttonyos scale, but nowadays Aszú is measured by residual sugar (grams/liter). A grade of 6 puttonyos translates to a minimum of 150 grams per liter—today’s golden nectar contains 184!
For Bodrog’s Borműhely 2013 Tokaji Aszú “6 Puttonyos,” shriveled, highly concentrated Furmint and Hárslevelű berries were mashed into a chutney-like consistency and macerated into a dry base wine for one month. Then, it was pressed into neutral Hungarian oak barrels, followed by 24 months of aging before bottling. After a few years of additional bottle aging in their cellar, the wines were shipped off to America. This tiny parcel has just arrived stateside.
In the glass, this flashes a deep gold core with amber hues and instantly funnels out luxuriously intoxicating aromas: dried quince, yellow mango, apricot liqueur, orange peel, candied nuts, citrus blossoms, fig, raw honey, peach, yellow flowers, baking spice. It may sound absurd, but the best Aszú bottlings hide their sugar content extraordinarily well. Yes, this is a sweet wine, but its ripping acidity achieves perfect balance which is why I urge you to sip on this well outside the confines of dessert. The palate is bursting with succulent tropical and orchard fruits that are sprinkled with crushed minerals and a fine layer of savoriness that lingers for 60+ seconds. But what stands out most here is the wine’s breathtaking energy and finesse—that’s what puts it into rarefied territory. Keep in mind that a little goes a long way: savor a few ounces around 50-55 degrees and enjoy your bottle throughout the course of a week for a constantly evolving, meditative experience. As for your unopened bottles? Stash those in a dark cool place and they’ll keep for decades upon decades. Cheers!
