Community Tasting Note
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Badfish wrote: 98 points
November 11, 2010 - Cos d'Estournel & Tokaj-Hétszőlő With Jean-Guillaume Prats (Wine Exchange - Orange, CA): Wow I am having a hard time wrapping my head around this wine. The nose is simply stunning and endlessly complex, it is hard to describe the power and detail present here. There seems to be a central and purely novel aroma of black tea which just radiates out of the glass and is buttressed by fig, raisin paste, brown sugar, pear, apple, apricot, and a myriad of other stone fruits. This elixir reveals an instant epiphany moment as soon as it hits your tongue and explodes with weightless texture. The flavors are remarkable in their uniqueness and include fig, stone fruits, spices, glue, agave nectar, and minerals. The acidity must be the source of the effortless impression and I cannot imagine how beaming it must be to balance the essence infused sugar of this wine. This is a staggering concoction that seems too profound to be considered a mere wine, maybe liquid rapture is a more apt designation.
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1 Comment
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Champagneinhand commented:
2/9/15, 8:56 PM - Essencia is amazing stuff. If you didn't know that legend held that all czars had to have Essencia rubbed on their lips and gums if the czar was thought to have died. The story goes that this was done one time and the czar popped back up into life, with nothing else being done to them. It makes sense if they were actually in a diabetic coma, with very low heart rate and no visible breathing. It would get the glucose right through the buccal areas of the gums and inner mouth. I think Hetszolo is tops, but Royal Tokaji co. charges insane amounts, but luckily I bought the 1995, before insanity sets in. I need to locate this as JJ Buckley sold out, but this is on my list as I already have Pajzos from 1993.
I have 6 x 2001 Tokaji 5 puttonyos still in the cellar and have gone through a case. Its the best with bread pudding.
Essencia is truly a wine experience every time. so rare. Only wine comparable is Zind Humbrecht Clos Jebsal SGN Trie Speciale, which is almost as impossible to find. I had one from 1994 and sourced 2009 a decade later. Made from Pinot Gris but really low alcohol content too, and ageless.
FYI after WWII a case of Essencia was found in a Polish wine cellar from 1616. It somehow disappeared, but Russia had been sending Cossacks to Hungary annually to secure Essencia for the Royal Court with similar paranoid OCD like was done with Roederer Cristal champagne. Fun stuff.