Because of its central European location, Hungary has a continental climate with long warm summers and extremely cold winters. It is home to Europe's largest lake, Balaton with the river Danube serving as a dividing line from North to South. It is also home to one of the world's oldest and most famous sweet wines - Tokay (Tokaji) - a wine revered by the Russian Tsars and said to last upwards of 300 years (see below).Almost half of the country's vineyards are cultivated on 'The Great Plain' - a massive expanse of land east of the Danube and south of Budapest where the sandy soil was found to be phylloxera* resistant. From the 'Northern Massif' with its clay and volcanic rock comes the famous 'Bull's Blood' of Eger and, of course, Tokay. Indigenous grape varieties are widely cultivated and promoted including, Furmint, Kadarka and Hárslevelú together with the big western imports of Chardonnay, Riesling, Sauvignon, Muscat etc. Wine styles vary from dry through to intensely sweet with many off-dry styles produced.
Tokay (Tokaji) - Aszú, Hungary's famous sweet dessert wine, is made by an interesting and unique process. The Tokay varietals of Furmint and Hárslevelú are subjected to the rising warm moist air from the plains and rivers below the 'Northern Massif' giving rise to the 'noble' fungus 'botrytis'*, causing the grapes to shrivel on the vines and concentrating the grape sugars. These shrivelled grapes, known as 'Aszú', are collected and put into wooden hods known as puttonyos where they are crushed into a paste. The extremely sweet juice, which runs, off is known as 'essencia'.
The 'Aszú' grapes
'Puttonyos' holding 30 litres of pulp each, are added to a still base wine in 140 litre casks known as 'gónci'. The number of 'puttonyos' added, usually 3, 4 or 5 will determine the sweetness of the finished wine. Air is permitted into the 'gónci' to permit the slightly oxidized style of Tokay to evolve. The wine is then left in barrel for a minimum of three years. The pure 'essencia' juice with its extreme sugar concentration is vinified separately, using a special strain of yeast, to produce the ultimate 'nectar' of wines known as Tokay Essencia. The fermentation process of this latter wine can take years.
