Tokaj
One of the world's earliest delimited wine regions, and a legendary sweet wine.
For centuries Tokaj, in northeast Hungary, made one of Europe's most celebrated wines: Tokaji Aszú, created by soaking shrivelled, nobly rotten aszú berries in a base wine or fermenting must. Autumn mists rising from the rivers encourage the rot, which concentrates the sugar and acidity of Furmint and Hárslevelű. Ranking of Tokaj's vineyards by quality began in 1730, and an 18th-century royal decree fixed the region's boundaries — making it one of the earliest legally delimited wine regions, alongside Chianti and the Douro. After years of state control under communism, the region revived in the 1990s, and today its dry Furmint is as exciting as its sweet wines.
Grapes grown here 3
What the region makes
Sweet wine from nobly rotten berries: apricot, marmalade and honey, held up by searing acidity.
The free-run juice of aszú berries alone — so sweet it barely ferments, and almost indestructible.
Steely, smoky, mineral whites.
Made from whole bunches "as they come" — dry or sweet.
Worth knowing
Tokaj's boundaries were fixed by royal decree in the 18th century (most often dated 1737), placing it among the earliest delimited wine regions with Chianti (1716) and the Douro (1756).
Eszencia can contain several hundred grams of sugar per litre and may take years to ferment to just a few percent alcohol.
Try this region if you like sweet wines with real acidity — or steely dry whites.
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