Winelingo
Sweet Tokaji Aszú is golden and honeyed, with dried apricot, orange marmalade, quince and spice, yet kept lively by racing acidity so it never feels cloying. Dry Furmint is crisp and mineral, with green apple, citrus and a stony, smoky edge.
How Tokaj wine tastes
Tokaj is most famous for one of the world’s great sweet wines, Tokaji Aszú. It is deep gold in the glass and gloriously honeyed (think dried apricot, orange marmalade, quince and warm spice), but the thing that makes it special is its acidity: a bright, zesty freshness runs right through the sweetness, so the wine feels lively and lifted rather than thick or cloying.
Increasingly, Tokaj also makes excellent dry white wine, mostly from the Furmint grape. Dry Furmint is crisp and mineral, with green apple, pear and citrus, sometimes a smoky, stony edge, and enough structure to age.
Whether sweet or dry, the common thread is that racy acidity. It is the signature of the region.
Signature styles & what to look for
The legendary style is Tokaji Aszú, made from grapes shrivelled by noble rot (see below). Its sweetness was traditionally measured in puttonyos, and you’ll still see, for example, ‘5 puttonyos’ or ‘6 puttonyos’ on a label, with the higher number meaning a sweeter, more concentrated wine; today most Aszú is made at these top levels. Rarer and sweeter still is Eszencia, the intensely concentrated free-run nectar of the shrivelled grapes.
At the other end, dry Furmint (sometimes labelled ‘Száraz’) is the region’s fast-rising star and a brilliant food wine. Late Harvest and Szamorodni sit in between, offering gently sweet styles.
If you’re buying, the grape and the sweetness level are your main guides, and single-vineyard (‘dűlő’) bottlings from the best sites are where to look for extra character.
The grapes & the land
The heart of Tokaj is Furmint, high in natural acidity and the grape behind both the great sweet wines and the new wave of dry whites, supported by the softer, more floral Hárslevelű and the aromatic Sárgamuskotály (Yellow Muscat).
The region sits where two rivers, the Bodrog and the Tisza, meet, and that is no accident. Their moisture brings autumn mists that encourage noble rot (Botrytis cinerea), a friendly mould that pierces the grape skins and lets water evaporate, shrivelling the berries and concentrating their sugar, acid and flavour. The soils are largely volcanic with patches of loess, and together with Furmint’s naturally firm acidity they keep even the sweetest wines balanced and fresh. It is a combination found in very few places on earth.