tokaj

Question 1

What are the climate ?

Answer 1

1) moderate continental
2) best vineyards on hillside slopes with southerly aspects
3) The bodrog and the Tisza rivers and their many tributaries help generate the early morning humidity necessary for the development of nobel rot

Question 2

What are the three important white grape varieties?

Answer 2

1) Furmint: mostly wided planted, makes concentrated high acidic white wines with flavours of green apple when young developping in nuts and honey when ages
- it can make great dry wines
- - but for its late ripening feature, its more used for botrytis

2) Harslevelu: also a late ripener and contributes perfume to a blens
3) Sarga Muskotaly: Muscat blanc a petit grainss, also known for its aromatic qualities

Question 3

thera are for dry wines 50 cl bottles and for sweet 75 cl bottles

Answer 3

False Dry 75 sweet 50

Question 4

dry wines:

Answer 4

1) without botrytis:
- simple unoaked wines to drink young
- more concentrated age worthy blends who often maturated in new oak
- — mostly from furmint

2) Tokaji Szamorodni (trossen deels aangetast door botrytis)
- dry: Szaraz
- sweet: edes
- – the wines must age in cask 1 year and released after 2 y
- —casks for dry are not fully filled so there will form a flor like layer

in the sweet wines these yeasts do not have a role
which consequently can have a oxidative character
although the modern trend is to create a character that

Question 5

Aszu wines:

Answer 5

1) the base wine is made of healthy grapes
2) before during or after the fermentation the aszu berries are macerated in the base wine
3) the maceration usually lasts 12-60hrs
4) usually there was made a paste of the aszu berries, but using uncrushed aszu berries avoids the extraction of bitter flavours
5) pressed
6) matured a period of time in oak
7) the maount of aszu berried will determine the level of sweetness of the final wine
- – puttony (basket)

a classic tokaji is:

• amber
• high acidity
• flavours of orange peel, apricot and honey
• the wines becomes more concentrater as they are more sweetened

Question 6

Tokaji Eszencia (nectar)

Answer 6

1) made of the free run juice of aszu berries
2) extremely rare
3) must is so sweet, it can take years to fermend
4) even after that time the wines remain very low in alc up to 5%abv
5) the legal min of residual sugar is 450 gr/l but always with high acidity as balance

– theyre able to mature and retain their freshness for a century of more

Question 7

what about the modern sweet style of Tokaji?

Answer 7

1) can be made of grapes that have spend an extended time on the vine
- - also from botrytisied grapes
- – but they are mostly vinificate on the way as sauternes or tba…
2) also less mature time
3) typically labelled with the term late harvest

Question 8

sweet wine laws:

Answer 8

1) traditionally:
- 60 g/l and labelled from three to six puttonyos depending on the residual sugar above this min amount
- min ageing of 24 months in oak
- could only be released in january in the fourth year after the harvest
- the sweetest are aszu eszencia and has at least 180 gr/ l

2) 2013 laws:
- now the tokaj aszu sugar level must be on 120g/l similar to 5 puttonyos
- everything under needs to be labelled as tokaji late harvest or Szamorodni dep on the way theyre made
- the label aszu escenzia is abolished
- – but ther is still the term Tokaji Escenzia (free run juice of the aszu berries)
- less ageing: 18 months oak and released after the third year of harvest