•
Dry Wines: The fine quality dry Tokaji
Furmint is a relatively new development in the region. For centuries the main product of the area was the sweet wine, mainly the Botrytised selections. The dry Furmint drew the attention of wine connoisseurs and experts of the world when the Úrágya 2000 single vineyard selection had been introduced by István Szepsy. The wine expressed great minerality, complexity and structure, which has been experienced only in the finest white wines of historic regions like Burgundy or the Mosel before. The aging potential was also promising. In 2003 more producers of Mád village produced single vineyard selected dry Furmint wines with great success. Mád village with its almost 1200 ha had the opportunity to produce high quality dry Furmint wine in significant quantity as a commune level wine, which can express the unique volcanic terroir of the region, this wine is named after its appellation Mad and produced by István Szepsy Jr. in the Szent Tamás Winery. These wines, once referred to as common,
ordinárium, are now named after their respective grape varieties: Tokaji Furmint, Tokaji Hárslevelű, Tokaji Sárgamuskotály and Tokaji Kövérszőlő. •
Szamorodni: This type of wine was initially known as
főbor (prime wine), but from the 1820s Polish merchants popularised the name
samorodny, (The word stems from Slovak, the Prekmurje dialect of Slovene, and Kajkavian Croatian, which used to be spoken before the hungarization of the Pannonian Basin. The word is an adjective and means "self-grown", "the way it was grown", or "made by itself"). What sets Szamorodni apart from ordinary wines is that it is made from bunches of grapes which contain a high proportion of
botrytised grapes. Szamorodni is typically higher in alcohol than ordinary wine. Szamorodni often contains up to 100-120 g of residual sugar and thus is termed
édes (sweet). However, when the bunches contain less botrytised grapes, the residual sugar content is much lower, resulting in a
száraz (dry) wine. Its alcohol content is typically 14%. •
Aszú: This is the world-famous sweet, topaz-colored wine known throughout the English-speaking world as
Tokay. The original meaning of the Hungarian word
aszú was "dried", but the term aszú came to be associated with the type of wine made with
botrytised (i.e.
"nobly" rotten) grapes. The process of making Aszú wine is as follows: • Aszú berries are individually picked, then collected in huge vats and trampled into the consistency of paste (known as aszú dough). •
Must or wine is poured on the aszú dough and left for 24–48 hours, stirred occasionally. • The wine is racked off into wooden casks or vats where fermentation is completed and the aszú wine is left to mature. The casks are stored in a cool environment, and are not tightly closed, so a slow fermentation process continues in the cask, usually for several years. : The concentration of aszú was traditionally defined by the number of
puttony (large baskets, holding about 25 kilograms) of dough added to a Gönc cask (136 liter barrel) of must. Eszencia is traditionally added to aszú wines, but may be allowed to ferment (a process that takes at least 4 years to complete) and then bottled pure. The resulting wine has a concentration and intensity of flavor that is unequaled, but is so sweet that it can only be drunk in small quantities. Unlike virtually all other wines, Eszencia maintains its quality and drinkability when stored for 200 years or more. •
Fordítás: (meaning "turning over" in Hungarian), wine made by pouring must on aszú dough which has already been used to make aszú wine. •
Máslás: (derived from the word "copy" in Hungarian), wine made by pouring must on the lees of aszú. •
Other sweet wines: In the past few years reductive sweet wines have begun to appear in Tokaj. These are ready for release a year to 18 months after harvest. They typically contain 50-180 g/L of
residual sugar and a ratio of botrytised berries comparable to Aszú wines. They are usually labeled as
késői szüretelésű (
late harvest) wines. Innovative producers have also marketed tokaji wine that does not fit the appellation laws of the above categories but is often of high quality and price, and in many ways comparable to aszú. These wines are often labeled as
tokaji cuvée. Imperial Tokay Prior to 1918 (the end of
World War I and the fall of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire), the finest eszencia Tokaji was not sold but was reserved for the Imperial cellars of the
Habsburg monarchy. By the mid 18th century these finest eszencia Tokaji originally held by the Habsburgs were called "Imperial Tokay". Cases, barrels, and bottles of it often passed between European monarchs as gifts. In 2008, a bottle of Imperial Tokay bearing the seal of the wine cellar of the
Royal Saxon Court sold at auction at
Christie's for £1,955. ==History==