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| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Drinking window: Drink between 2008 and 2010 (based on 38 user opinions) |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 86.6 pts. and median of 86 pts. in 20 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by James Kim on 11/20/2011 & rated 85 points: Pale gold color. Citrus, baked apples, unripe pears and a hint of yeasty breadiness. Palate with lemon/lime, granny smith apples dominating from beginning to end. Finishes with a grapefruit bitterness intermingling with citrus and apples. A bit hot on the finish. Nice acids with some good weight. But somewhat simple and one note. Nice quaffer that went well with goat cheese mushroom cous cous with sund dried tomatoes. 13% abv. (829 views) | | | Tasted by BrandrB on 1/20/2011 & rated 86 points: My final bottle of what has been a truly remarkable wine over the past 5 years. Brilliant rich golden color. Nose has faded since my last tasting two years ago, but still with honey and wild flower aromas. Palate shows less fruit and is more floral dominated with a significant increase in acidity. Medium-long finish. Definitely showing more of a tokaji character now than ever before. When first released it might have been hard to associate this with tokaji, but now the connection is unmistakable. Still quite good, but unquestionably starting to fade – drink any remaining bottles now. (3218 views) | | | Tasted by Joelene on 12/12/2009 & rated 84 points: Sour apple, lemon peel, honeydew nose, over acidic but tasty. (3501 views) | | | Tasted by balkmr@hotmail.com on 8/27/2009 & rated 87 points: This wine surprised me with it's honeysickle and citrus notes. The sweet tokaji flavors are there without the sweetness. When I had this before there was a lot of grass and lemons to it, but the floral componants have really stepped up. (3763 views) | | | Tasted by ccpost on 1/21/2009 & rated 90 points: Great deep golden color. An exciting floral and citrus nose. Tastes of lime, lemon, and peach. Medium-length finish which concentrates on the citrus acidity. (3672 views) | | | Tasted by John Nezlek on 10/25/2008 & rated 88 points: Very interesting bottle. Dry, but not bone-dry. As noted by another CTer, you can taste (however distantly) a sweet Tokaji -- just the flavors, not the sweetness. I have on left, and just for the hell of it, I am going to let it sit for a while. (3219 views) | | | Tasted by BigTarheel on 8/18/2008 & rated 90 points: An impressive find ... furmint can make outstanding dry wines as well as sweet Tokaji. The color was med. yellow/lemon with a med - nose of apples, flowers and petrol. On the palate, the wine was med-bodied with good viscosity and pure notes of apples, apricot/peach and petrol. The acid and alcohol were perfectly balanced with the juicy core of fruit. Reminded me of a dry Alsace Riesling of Rhone white. Good! (2103 views) | | | Tasted by thirtyoneknots on 8/6/2008: This is some interesting stuff. I served it blind to a friend who had previously expressed doubts about the concept of Dry Tokaji, he guessed so many different grapes and in a way was right every time. It's like mixing White Burg, Sancerre, Pinot Blanc, and Sweet Tokaji without the sweetness (the nose is a dead ringer once it opens. Very grassy/hay, lots of minerals, a creamy Chard-like mouthfeel with even a hint of butter. The fruit is restrained, but present after the wine opens up. This is seriously good juice, I'd love to drink it again. (2136 views) | | | Tasted by navquarter on 5/28/2008 & rated 84 points: Had with ham risotto for dinner.
Nose: Nice hints of apple and pear
Pallet: Tarty apple. Very nice crisp tart. Tarter than a NZ Sauv Blanc without the fruitiness.
Legs: Not much to speak of - maybe 10 seconds of green apple? Sweeter than the pallet - nice!
Overall - a good cheap white wine alternative. Nowhere near the high end Chardonnays, but then, it's not trying to be either! (2342 views) | | | Tasted by BrandrB on 3/1/2008 & rated 88 points: Excellent! While the Furmint grape is best known for its role in Hungary’s excellent Tokaji dessert wines, it also provides a remarkably drinkable single-varietal dry wine. I fell in love with Furmint during my first trip to Hungary in 2004, and still find it to be one of the boldest dry whites available. Pale yellow color, with a hugely expressive nose of honey and wild flowers. Flavors of pear with a hint of lemon citrus on the palate, but this is not a fruit-dominated wine. Medium-long finish. Tons of acidity and superbly balanced. I enjoyed on its own, but the food pairing seems both more practical and exciting. This heady, full-bodied, white seems to have a character evocative of the Hungarian plight. The 2005 is currently drinking nicely, which is not too surprising as I’ve found Furmints can carry up to five years of age quite well. Fantastic stuff! (2663 views) | | | Tasted by DrT999 on 2/5/2008 & rated 86 points: Brief notes from a twelve wine tasting session. Tight light citrus over pear nose; grapefruit and pear upfront; nice length (grapefruit) (2713 views) | | | Tasted by pgm on 11/8/2007 & rated 88 points: Very pretty nose of flowers and orange and apple blossom. It was nice in the mouth, apples with ripe-toned citrus flavors, but it didn't live up to the nose. Needs a little more structure to show of the distinctive character of the grape. (2818 views) | | | Tasted by John Nezlek on 10/26/2007 & rated 86 points: An interesting bottle. Better chilled, and also (somewhat surprisingly for a white wine such as this), seemed to be a little better the next day. Crisp, not very fruity. I will drink the next two more carefully. (2545 views) | | | Tasted by Tarrant on 10/15/2007 & rated 86 points: Very nice, almost Sauv. Blanc in character, light in colour, notes of gooseberry and spice on the nose, refreshing acidity on the palate with a decent finish (86 Points). (2747 views) | | | Tasted by jsokel on 10/4/2007 & rated 87 points: Acidity and minerals. Interesting and very different. (2717 views) | | | Tasted by buggy on 3/12/2007: roast chicken, lighter fish, pork (2856 views) | | | Tasted by hutch on 2/12/2007 & rated 88 points: Very interesting wine. Very expressive nose, with some lychee, and maybe a touch of honeysuckle. Very lively, unsurprisingly, with loads of acidity. Fairly lean. Not loads of fruit, but almost a slight chalkiness, followed by stones and minerals. It's pretty easy to see how this would make a great sweet wine. It's good, but needs food to really work well. (3345 views) |
| Royal Tokaji Wine Co. Producer website
U.S. Importer (source of add'l info)
The Royal Tokaji Wine Company, founded in Hungary in 1989, has become one of the most defining wineries in Tokaj. From the outset, Royal Tokaji decided to concentrate on producing single-vineyard wines, made from the first growth vineyards of Mezes Maly, Nyulaszo, Szent Tamas and Betsek.
Acknowledged as one of the region’s top winemakers, Karoly Ats, combines traditional techniques with modern technology to create the award-winning Royal Tokaji range of wines. Royal Tokaji is the acknowledged leader of the renaissance of this legendary Hungarian wine, which, in the words of the wine author and company co-founder Hugh Johnson, is “a wine that would make angels sing out loud in praise”.
This perfectly balanced 5 puttonyos wine is the bechmark for Tokaji. As in all aszu wines, the three grape varieties are Furmint, Harslevelu and Muscat de Lunel. The characteristics are a vivid gold color with honeyed apricot and orange peel flavors which are uplifted with dramatic acidity.
Furmint About Furmint
Furmint is a white Hungarian wine grape variety that is most noted widely grown in the Tokaj-Hegyalja wine region where it is used to produce single-varietal dry wines as well as being the principal grape in the better known Tokaji dessert wines. It is also grown in the tiny Hungarian wine region of Somló. Furmint plays a similar role in the Slovakian wine region of Tokaj. It is also grown in Austria where it is known as Mosler. Smaller plantings are found in Slovenia where it is known as Šipon. The grape is also planted in Croatia where it is known as Moslavac. It is also found in Romania and in former republics of the Soviet Union.[1] Furmint is a late ripening variety. For dry wines the harvest starts usually in September, however sweet wine specific harvest can start in the second half of October or even later, and is often inflicted with Botrytis.[2]
The name Furmint may have been taken from the word "froment" for the wheat-gold color of the wine it produces. While it is possible that the grape was brought to Hungary in the 13th century during the reign of King Béla IV,[3][4] ampelographers believe that the grape is likely native to the region.[5]
Dryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweetness_of_wineHungaryHungaryTokaji On weinlagen-infoTokajiThe Tokaj lies 240 kms north-east of Budapest, Hungary, situated in the Zemplen Mountains at the confluence of the Tisza and Bodrog rivers. Currently the border between Hungary and Slovakia runs through the region, so there are Slovakian wines labeled 'Tokai'. The soil is largely clay or loess with a volcanic substratum. Tokaj enjoys long sunny summers, while dry autumns and the early morning mists, created by the meeting of the two rivers, encourage the development of noble rot on aszu berries.
The noble rot, known as Botrytis cinerea, makes the berries dry and shrivel, thus concentrating the flavor compounds and developing the Aszu berries. All of these characteristic elements give the Tokaj wineries their own distinctive and unique terroir
* Aszú: This is the formerly world-famous white wine that is proudly cited in the Hungarian national anthem. It is a naturally sweet and topaz-colored that was formerly known throughout the English-speaking world as Tokay (Tow-KAY, rhimes with WAY), which of course is an orthographic variant of the spelling 'Tokaj'('tow-KIE, rhymes with PIE).
The original meaning of the Hungarian word aszú was "dried", but the term came to be associated with the type of wine made with botrytised (i.e. "nobly rotten') grapes, so now it is thought of as meaning 'infected', or similar to the German word "Auslese", meaning 'a selection'. The process of making Aszú wine is as follows.
o Aszú berries are individually picked, then collected in huge vats and crushed into the consistency of paste (known as aszú dough).
o Through-fermented wine or unmanipulated must is poured on the aszú dough and left for 24–48 hours, being stirred occasionally.
o The wine is racked off into wooden casks or vats where fermentation is completed and the aszú wine is 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 puttonyos hods (containing about 30 liters) of dough added to a Gönc cask (136 liter barrel) of must. Nowadays the puttony number is based on the equivalent content of sugar and sugar-free extract in the mature wine. Aszú ranges from 3 puttonyos to 6 puttonyos, with a further category called Aszú Eszencia or Essencia (not to be confused with Tokaji Eszencia or Essencia without the Aszú) representing wines above 6 puttonyos. Unlike most other wines, potential alcohol content of Aszú typically runs quite a bit higher than 14% even though it is not fortified with alcohol or extra sugar. The sugar equivalent remaining in the wine will of course reduce the labeled alcohol content, usually something in between the ripest late-harvest dessert wines of Austria and Germany and that of dry white wines. Annual production of aszú is less than one percent of the region's total output. Tokaji Eszencia or Essencia is a different, richer product made from the pressure of Aszú grapes as they sit in containers after being collected. In this situation very concentrated juice, derived from the ripest layer of the grape fllesh immediately under the skins, collects without being pressed in the bottom of the container. This most concentrated must, often containing well over 50 percent sugars, is collected and allowed to spontaneously ferment, although it does so so reluctantly that it often contains less than the 5 percent minimum alcohol needed to call it wine. It is sold in tiny amounts, usually with a small spoon which allows sipping it in the tiny amounts that render its immense flavors and scents it possesses. This enormously expensive elixir was thought to possess very strong medicinal properties, and was thought to be kept in royal courts to allow revival of a dying monarch who had neglected to name a successor.
Because this dessert-style wine is not popular or easy to sell, is expensive to make, and whose high quality is not understood, it is not easy for producers in the region to remain in business, much less make a profit so that their vineyards and equipment can be kept in good condition. Since that is the case, dry (non-dessert)-style wines are now being made, and also wines that are made more like the simpler late-harvest wines from other areas of Europe. Such experiments are ongoing and their successfulness is unknown as of this point.
The wines of Tokaj are made from severa whitel grapes, individual or as a blend, that are indigenous to Hungary, and rarely or ever found outside this region, plus small amounts of 'tolerated' varieties. These grapes are the Furmint, the Harsevelu (Linden-leaf), and the more widely employed Muscat. edited jht
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