Tokaji the Hungarian wine of Kings, Emperors and the People

Do you believe in magic elixirs? We do. We are not talking about those magic potions dreamed up by alchemists that appear in books, movies and on TV. What we are referring to is a magic elixir that was reserved for kings and emperors on their death beds or served in gold engraved crystal decanters to the Russian royalty of old. What we are referring to is a wine called Tokaji or as we know it, Tokay.

Tokaji is made in Hungry from a typically Hungarian grape, the Furmint that, for some reason, has never found a home in California. For many years, during the cold war era, we saw very little of these fabled wines as most of them were sent east to the Soviet Union. With the demise of Communism, the vineyards went back into international distribution. Some Tokaji wines take months or even years to ferment and need as long as 6 years of aging in wooden barrel while residing in deep caves. This simply means it can be years before one can sample the current vintage.

Tokay wines can run the gamut from totally dry to super-sweet. The sweetness is determined by the number of buckets of dried grapes that are added to a cask of grape juice that will be fermented to make the Tokaji. The buckets are called puttonyos and the sweetness of the finished wine will be listed by the number of these bucket used in the finished wine. Six puttonyos makes a super sweet, absolutely incredibly unctuous wine. Five puttonyos is just a bit less sweet and so on down to the totally dry wine called Tokaji Szamorodni, which means, “as it comes,” and made without the addition of any dried grapes. If you have never tried a Tokaji wine then you have missed something great. If it is good enough for kings and emperors it is surely good enough for you.

Royal Tokaji 2008 6 Puttonyos Betsek ($135). The Betsek vineyards produce wines that were declared to be among the best in Hungary when the vineyards were classified in 1700. Here is a truly great wine that gives new meaning to the description “sweet velvet.” The wine has the typical dark golden, almost orange color. The aroma is a complex melding of dried fruits mainly concentrating on nectarine. On the palate this wine displays a full spectrum of ripe summer fruit that have been steeped in honey and amplified by a brisk acidity. The finish is about as long as the longest we have ever samples and maybe even a bit more. This is a wine you must visit, just for the experience.

Royal Tokaji 2008 5 Puttonyos Red Label ($45).This wine in just a bit less sweet than the Betsek but is definitely not it’s inferior. It is not just the sweetness but its great depth, finesse, and fragrant character that define this wine. This is a grand wine with an aroma that is laced with honey and fruit. The flavor stresses sweet orange with an underlying smoky oak element derived from its years spent aging in barrels. Here too, a long finish ends a memorable flavor experience.

Royal Tokaji 2013 Oddity ($19). Dry wine lovers, the Hungarians have not forsaken you in favor of their sweet wines. Royal Tokaji 2013 Oddity is an expression of the Furmint grape in an often not seen dry, but definitely enjoyable incarnation. The aroma of this wine slides toward the citrus with lime being the most obvious followed by a background of nuts. The flavor is crisp and clean and ends in a berrylike finish. If you are interested in sampling a new and probably never before seen dry white wine, Oddity is the way to go. As a side note, if you look at the label on the bottle the D’s in the name Oddity are reversed which should indicate that you are headed toward something different and if we may interject, something enjoyably different.