Italiano
Sweet Wines (10): Tokaji
Our long tour dedicated to the world’s best sweet wines is nearing the end and here we stop in Hungary, home of the formidable Tokaji.
We start off with Hungarian wines made primarily from Furmint grapes, the celebrated Tokaji with their great capacity to create an emotional experience and offer authentic sensorial explosions. These are ancient wines with hundreds of years of history that have unique and unrepeatable characteristics. The top wines in their category (from Aszu 6 Puttonyos to Eszeniica) have a very high concentration of sugar and a low alcohol content (in some case only a few percentage points) that is held down by the effect the abnormal sugar concentration has on the microorganisms during fermentation. The final result is a ‘syrup’ with bold, explosive and incredible sensorial characteristics.
Editor’s note: The name Tokaji in Hungarian means “from Tokaj”, which is the name of the city that lends its name to the area of production – Tokaj-Hegyalja – in eastern Hungary, at the feet of the Carpathian Mountains. The grapes used to make the wine are Furmint, Hàrslevelu and Sàrgamuskotàly. The wine Aszú – which means dried grapes - is made with grapes that have contracted botrytis and were picked at different times. These grapes are crushed into a mash and then placed in containers called puttonyos that hold some 25kg. The wine made from grapes that have not contracted noble rot can have an addition of up to six puttonyos per 136 liters. The greater the number of puttonyos added, the sweeter the final product is.
