Hungary – All about sweet wines

Tokaj’s Late Harvest from yellow muscat

26. January 202321. January 2023 by Karl-Heinz Datum

Yellow Muscat © CIVR Jean-Marie Goheynex

Sárga Muskotály, also known in this country as Yellow Muscat, is a grape variety permitted for production in Tokaji. It gives the wine a strong aroma and a balanced acidity.
Most sweet Tokaji wines are aged for at least two years. Since the 1990s, there has been an increasing number of Tokaji wines that have been matured reductively, i.e. wines that are matured largely without contact with atmospheric oxygen. These wines are already 12 – 18 months after the harvest on sale and are mostly offered as Late Harvest (in Hungarian: Késői Szüretelésű).

Esszencia – Top category of the Tokaji wines

9. September 20223. August 2022 by Karl-Heinz Datum

Vineyards in Tokaj © Pecold – Fotolia.com

It was a very generous birthday present from Hans, Szepsy’s Tokaji Esszencia 1999, which we tasted together with other friends a few weeks ago. Esszencia, not Aszú Escenzia, is the top category of sweet Tokaji wine. You can see that from the fact that it is made from the so-called flow must of the grapes, which is created by the own weight of the grapes, which are in steel

Semi-sweets for Budapest day trippers

4. July 202120. June 2021 by Karl-Heinz Datum

To the west and south-west of the Hungarian capital, Budapest, lies the Etyek-Buda wine-growing region, a popular excursion destination for the Budapesters. The appellation, called in the Hungarian OEM, which is comparable to area with a protected designation of origin, covers almost 1,800 hectares of vineyards. The white varieties are mainly found on mostly loess-like deposits on limestone and sandstone.

Szamorodni èdes – the “small Ausbruch”

21. January 201927. September 2018 by Karl-Heinz Datum

Wineyards in Tokaj © Pecold – Fotolia.com

Szamorodni, a word of the Polish language means “as grown”, which means in this case, that for these wines, the grapes are harvested as they are currently on the vine, so not only the berries infested by noble rot are selected, as it is the case with the harvest for the Tokaji aszú. Whether the so-harvested bunch of grapes produce the dry Szaomordni száraz or the sweet Szamorodni édes depends largely on the percentage of grapes infested by Botrytis (noble rot), because those have a higher sugar content than ripe grapes. The main part of the harvested grapes

Tokaji – Hungary’s sweet miracles

22. January 201916. October 2017 by Karl-Heinz Datum

Zoltan Sánta, member of the board of the Weinakademiker had brought with him mainly dry Hungarian wines to the tasting beginning of October in the Munich cork wine bar, but at least four sweet wines from Tokaj. There are 134 grape varieties in Hungary, but only six of them are approved for the production of sweet Tokaji: Furmint, Hárslevelû, Sárga Muskotály, Zéta, Kövérszőlõ and Kabar.

The vineyards in the Tokaj are predominantly on mineral soils of volcanic … Read more ...