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| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Drinking window: Drink between 2015 and 2034 (based on 4 user opinions) |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 91 pts. and median of 92 pts. in 27 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by Gr8penut on 12/2/2021 & rated 92 points: From my posting on Instagram:
In Vino Veritas (in wine there is truth; [people speak the truth when they are drunk]), another bottle of my cellar sacrifices. This was indeed, one of the times I was glad to have a cellar of wine. We had some last-minute visitors to our recent meal that just happened to be from Hungary, so you know what I chose as a dessert wine. They were very happy to see that I had some 2008 Royal Tokaji to serve them and they shared a brief background on the wine in their broken English - what a treat!! I must say, it was a lot less viscous than I thought it would be (compared to old sauternes), but it still tasted very fruity with just the right amount of sweetness. What special memories for all of us! 🥂🥂🥂👍👍👍 #wine #winelover #winelovers #royaltokaji #aszuwines #aszuwine
#royaltokajizrt (1119 views) | | | Tasted by hsacks on 5/26/2018 & rated 92 points: Bright yellow orange color. Aromas of dried apricots, peach and candied orange rind. Ripe, nicely balanced fruit in the mouth with very good depth and length. Medium viscosity and persistence on the palate. This is always a favorite wine to serve with a fruit-dominated desert and, in this case, was delicious witha lovely strawberry cream cake. (2543 views) | | | Tasted by BouzyRouge on 4/9/2018: Complementing the honey and fruit notes was a tantalizing hint of sandalwood. We loved this. (2492 views) | | | Tasted by Streder on 1/13/2017 & rated 94 points: Was excellent with some Stilton blue and a rustic apple tart sweetened only with honey. (3696 views) | | | Tasted by thalver on 11/28/2016: Pleasant, nice nose, but it took a bit of coaxing, varietally correct on the palate shortish finish. Enough acidity to give it balance. I'm inclined to wait on others to see if it develops more bottle boquet (3662 views) | | | Tasted by winelover1808 on 7/5/2016 & rated 92 points: Yum. Viscous, pretty color. Apple brioche, apricot, honey with a very long finish. Great after dinner drink. (3776 views) | | | Tasted by NorCal1849 on 6/25/2016 & rated 90 points: A gentleman's 90. (2543 views) | | | Tasted by balkmr@hotmail.com on 4/16/2016 & rated 89 points: Apricots, honey, ginger and citrus zest on nose and palate. Acid and sugar are a little unbalanced, but still a nice bottle of wine. (2641 views) | | | Tasted by rjonwine@gmail.com on 12/10/2015 & rated 93 points: From 500 ml - light medium canary yellow color; aromatic, botrytis, peach preserves, dried apricot nose; tasty, medium bodied, apricot, peach preserves palate with good balancing acidity; long finish (11.5% alcohol) (491 views) | | | Tasted by Vinophiliac559 on 12/2/2015 & rated 92 points: Ginger, honey, apricots, and a wonderful spiciness on the palate with great acidity (med plus), cant wait to see how this evolves over the years. (1598 views) | | | Tasted by diggydan on 9/19/2015 & rated 91 points: Mouth watering acid with yellow stone fruit flavors. $12 btg at Corduroy. (1640 views) | | | Tasted by Jseelander on 7/10/2015 & rated 90 points: Tasted wine at Wines that Rock in Park City, UT (1008 views) | | | Tasted by winelover1808 on 3/11/2015 & rated 92 points: yum; great way to end a meal (1833 views) | | | Tasted by bjamesclark on 1/19/2015 & rated 92 points: Aromas of medium-plus intensity, honey, apple cider, cinnamon, saffron, dried apricot and stone fruit, tea, dried golden raisin, peach and orange blossom and kumquat.
On the palate balanced and weighted and loaded with flavor. Apple cider laced with cinnamon, honey, apricot and orange marmalade flavors with juicy nectarine and peach and lingering saffron notes. The acidity is moderate-plus and keeps this lifted and from being overly sweet. Full and dense, absolutely delicious (1839 views) | | | Tasted by winelover1808 on 12/21/2014 & rated 92 points: tart apple with honey and cinnamon and a long long finish. I love how it has enough acidity to balance the sweetness. great for the money. (1712 views) | | | Tasted by bill00 on 8/31/2014 & rated 93 points: Similar notes to bottle from a couple of months ago. Great stuff. (1871 views) | | | Tasted by Vinophiliac559 on 8/10/2014 & rated 90 points: Dried apricots and a hint of honey and a creamy texture. Delicious sweet desert wine. (922 views) | | | Tasted by bill00 on 7/3/2014 & rated 93 points: Beautiful ripe apricot. Lots of acidity really keeps the sweetness in check and this comes across very light and elegant for a sweet wine. Great with peach pie. (1826 views) | | | Tasted by yofog on 3/25/2014 & rated 92 points: Gorgeous apricot, honey, pollen nose, lots of pollen. Some orange rind running through it. Not quite the cut that I remember in this wine, but maybe that's just my palate changing...I used to drink a lot of this about a decade ago. (1620 views) | | | Tasted by budh on 3/10/2014 & rated 91 points: Typical botrytis orange marmalade, apricot and honey. Full bodied, high acidity. The acidity is refreshing and keeps it from being cloying. Long finish, but not as long as the couple Sauternes that I've tried. Very good, but not great... (1431 views) | | | Tasted by winelover1808 on 3/9/2014 & rated 92 points: beautiful. intense viscous, apples, honey, caramel, lively acidity and long finish. (1455 views) | | | Tasted by aagrawal on 10/15/2013 & rated 92 points: Wine & Spirits Top 100 Tasting (City Walk @ Metreon, San Francisco, CA): Fresh nose with apple, caramel; great sweetness and acidity. Med finish, fresh. Good acid. 92 (2296 views) | | | Only displaying the 25 most recent notes - click to see all notes for this wine... |
| By Richard Jennings
RJonWine.com (12/10/2015)
(Royal Tokaji Wine Co. Tokaji Aszú 5 Puttonyos Red Label) From 500 ml - light medium canary yellow color; aromatic, botrytis, peach preserves, dried apricot nose; tasty, medium bodied, apricot, peach preserves palate with good balancing acidity; long finish (11.5% alcohol) 93 points |
NOTE: Scores and reviews are the property of RJonWine.com. (manage subscription channels) |
| 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.
HungaryHungaryTokaji 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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