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| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Drinking window: Drink between 2017 and 2041 (based on 5 user opinions) |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 90.8 pts. and median of 91 pts. in 23 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by Blacksmith450 on 7/23/2023 & rated 91 points: Il va encore gagner des points avec le temps. Le sucre commence à être bien fondu, équilibre atteint, il va prendre encore en complexité mais on a déjà de l'écorce d'orange et de l'abricot. À attendre. (520 views) | | | Tasted by Marius Cavasdan on 1/13/2023 & rated 89 points: a good dessert wine. was expecting a bit more freshness... (548 views) | | | Tasted by Irish_Wine on 11/1/2022 & rated 92 points: Medium amber.
Pronounced on the nose with ginger, honey, sultana, vanilla, mushroom, caramel, toasted nuts, apricot, peach, orange, marmalade. Developing.
Pronounced and sweet on the palate. High acidty, full body, medium alcohol, long finish.
Drink now or suitable for further aging. (357 views) | | | Tasted by bourgogre on 9/4/2022: Bouche liquoreuse et salivante (acidité) d'abricot, de pêches et de vanille sur un fond discret de vieilles noix.
Encore très jeune, ce vin encore frais n'est pas très complexe en ce moment, on devra lui donner encore du temps...
(***) (1059 views) | | | Tasted by JohnSh on 8/7/2022 & rated 91 points: Hazy notes from a few days ago. A very nice Tokaji, fairly rich in style, with apricots and jam, but enough acidity to keep the fruit fresh. Not a great deal of complexity yet, but quite tasty (A-). (751 views) | | | Tasted by Gerhard3 on 12/24/2021: Seems extremely ypung and does not appear to be heavily influenced by boytritis. More fresh than dry fruit and honey. Very concentrated and sweet, with good acidity to (almost) balance this out. Long finish. (1061 views) | | | Tasted by Rudolph Schmidt on 12/5/2021: Apricot, vanilla ice cream, peaches, honey çovered walnuts, lemon, ripe tropical fruits. (989 views) | | | Tasted by glassofhans on 9/4/2021 & rated 92 points: Tokaji is one of my favourite dessert wine regions, if not my absolute favourite so I’m abit biased. I think this wine offers excellent balance between sweetness and acidity, and the apricot and bright fruit flavours come through clearly. Can age (990 views) | | | Tasted by Mark Bostock on 2/21/2021: Pale golden. Broad, silky and creamy with a wonderful nose of peach & tropical fruits. Apricot notes appear with citrus in the mouth. Very smooth Aszú with a lower acidity than we usually expect.. Lovely lingering finish (1341 views) | | | Tasted by Collector1855 on 3/13/2020 & rated 93 points: Tasted blind. Lots of crisp sweet fruit, quince, apricot, floral. Good acidity too. Medium+ complexity. (2468 views) | | | Tasted by ManhattanBeach on 2/26/2020: A private celebratory dinner, 'bring your own' (28-50 Marylebone, London): From halves. Like drinking pineapple, with dried apricots and peach. Still clean and fresh. Good. (1353 views) | | | Tasted by SimonG on 12/23/2019 & rated 92 points: Very light and pale in colour for a five putts wine. Citrus, honeysuckle and orange blossom. Very light, precise but beautifully balanced sweetness cut through with good acidity. Lovely, and a superb match with the mango millefeuille. Very elegant and with a weightlessness unusual in Tokaji. **** (1345 views) | | | Tasted by hiker_guy on 6/20/2019: Golden colored in the glass
Nose: marmalade, hints of vanilla, very intense and flows from the glass
Palate: sweet and full, yet light as a feather and dances across your tongue to leave you impressed by the long finish that has hints of honey.
very nice.
Would buy again. (1312 views) | | | Tasted by andrewstevenson.com on 6/8/2019 & rated 91 points: Glorious balanced nose. Light fresh apricots & even lighter & fresher honey.
One of Lightest Tokaji I can recall
Super fresh palate. Really light. Very elegant. Sweet but the absolute opposite of cloying. (1085 views) | | | Tasted by MonkeyBiz101 on 1/1/2019 & rated 91 points: Delicious, sweet, but not overly. Perfect with cheese. (764 views) | | | Tasted by CBRwineguy on 2/12/2018 & rated 90 points: WSET Level 2 - Day 1 (Pialligo Estate, Canberra, ACT, Australia): Clear pale gold.
Clean developing nose with a medium(+) intensity. There are well-defined notes of dried apricot, dried pineapple, and marmalade. Swirling reveals a honey aroma.
The wine is sweet with medium(+) acidity, medium(-) alcohol, and medium body. The flavours have a medium intensity and follow the nose with notes of marmalade, apricot, and subtle pineapple. The palate shows notes that were not detected on the nose: peaches, subtle vanilla, and a butter note that develops on the finish as the marmalade fades. The finish has a medium(+) length.
This is a very good quality wine. The flavours are very concentrated and have a great balance with the acidity and the alcohol. The sweetness has an amazing balance with the acidity, and provides an interesting textural dimension that complements the flavour profile. The wine shows complexity with primary, secondary, and tertiary characters. The subtle oak treatment allows the primary and tertiary notes to be fully expressed. The wine is very enjoyable and has a finish with great length.
This wine drinks well now, and is suitable for further ageing. (1221 views) | | | Tasted by maxima on 2/11/2018 & rated 90 points: Un classique. Toujours bon et bien fait.
Bel équilibre, belles saveurs de pêches, de miel, de fleurs blanches et d`épices douces. Finale longue et salivante.
Très bon. (1130 views) |
| By Jancis Robinson, MW
JancisRobinson.com (11/13/2019)
(Royal Tokaji, Blue Label Aszú 5 Puttonyos Tokaj White) Subscribe to see review text. | By Neal Martin
Vinous, Mád Idea: Royal Tokaji 1990-2013 (Jul 2019) (7/1/2019)
(Royal Tokaji Wine Company Tokaji Blue Label 5-puttonyos Sweet White) Subscribe to see review text. | By Tamlyn Currin
JancisRobinson.com (1/30/2019)
(Royal Tokaji, Blue Label Aszú 5 Puttonyos Tokaj White) Subscribe to see review text. | By Richard Hemming, MW
JancisRobinson.com (9/13/2017)
(Royal Tokaji, Blue Label Aszú 5 Puttonyos Tokaj Tokaj-Hegyalja White) Subscribe to see review text. |
NOTE: Scores and reviews are the property of JancisRobinson.com and Vinous. (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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