Winery: Pannon Tokaj Pincészet
Region: Tokaj, Hungary
Vintage: 2014
Bottle: 50 cl
Grape Varieties: 100% Furmint
Type: Sweet wine
Alcohol Content: 10% vol.
Serving Temperature: 10º - 12º
The Pannon Tokaj estate is a 100% Hungarian-owned family winery. Founded in 2000, the estate currently works 22 hectares of vines ranging in age from 5 to 30 years old, The vineyards are located in the most renowned vineyards of Tolesva and on the border with Sarazssasány.
Tokaji is a sweet wine made from grapes affected by noble rot, a style of wine that has a long tradition in this region and is the most famous Hungarian wine. Tokaji was the first wine knowingly to be made from botrytised or nobly rotten grapes, before Rhine wine and perhaps two centuries before Sauternes.
It owes its quality and character to semi-dried, extremely rich grapes: the late-ripening, sharp-tasting, thin-skinned "Furmint" and "Hárslevelü", less susceptible but rich in sugar and aromas.
These selected botrytised grapes that concentrate the sweetness in the grape are called Aszú and are put into a wooden hod called Putton for 6/8 days. A highly concentrated juice collects at the bottom of the containers; this juice is pure Essencia, made for sweetening purposes.
Each Putton, holds 25 kg. of Aszú grapes. Then, its content of sugar depends on the number of puttonyos of grapes added to the dry wine.
Tokaji Aszú is the only wine in the world that is still made using a method more than 400 years old. It ferments in traditional small 136-litre barrels known as "gönci hordó" in Huangarian.
Vinification:
The Aszù berries are harvested and selected by hand, one by one, between the end of September and the end of October. The bothrytised aszú berries are soaked in the must. After pressing, the rich juice is fermented in stainless steel tanks and aged in Hungarian wooden barrels for two years.
Residual sugar: 148.10 g/L.
Tasting Notes:
Amber colour. Complex aromas of tropical and citrus fruits, followed by layers of complex honeyed fruit and aromas of candy twists and orange, leading to a palate of lemon compote, apricot, peach, mango, and pear fruit notes with nuts and spice. Finishing long, with hints of vanilla and cinnamon, firm acidity, and a fabolous, lingering aftertaste.
Notes: It has an ageing potential of 20 years. It will pair beautifully with foie gras, cheeses, fruit-based desserts, and chocolate; it is also ideal as an after-meal wine.
