Tokaj is the name of an ancient winegrowing region that is currently divided between Hungary and Slovakia. The current Tokaj area used to be part of the greater Tokaj-Hegyalja region within the Kingdom of Hungary but was divided between Hungary and Czechoslovakia at the end of World War I.
The sweet Tokaji wines were known around the world and coveted as high-end dessert wines prior to World WarII. They were mostly made from Furmint grapes.
The Furmint classification happened during the late 18th century when in 1796, a Hungarian politician described Furmint as the “genuine Tokaji Aszú” grape. After World War II, when Hungary fell under the Soviets, Tokaji wines lost their cache and international desirability because their quality varied between indifferent and poor.
Actually, the government at the time confiscated the vineyards that produced the liquid gold, exiling the families who owned the vineyards and encouraging the production of low quality wines so that the bulk of the offerings, which were exported to Russia, remained cheap.
Today, after the fall of the Iron Curtain, a number of grape-growing and wine-making families have returned to Hungary and are starting to again produce very high quality Tokaj. The modern wines are created as both sweet and dry, with the majority being vinified similarly to the better German Rieslings or the top Sauternes.
A recent tasting of the Patricius Tokaj line proved to me that Tokaj is again becoming a force to be reckoned with in the international wine marketplace. Though the production volume of exceptional wines is still very limited, the passion of the top Hungarian producers is such that a demand and a following for both dry and sweet Tokajis has been easily redeveloped.
We started our Tokaji lunch with the 2012 Late Harvest Katinka, a light-bodied, sweet, and aromatic wine made from botrytis-affected grapes with a very distinctive nose of honey, orange, and a hint of apricots. It was paired with Liptauer, a paprika-spiced cheese spread – an Austrian tapa made with fresh, spicy paprika to accompany wines at Viennese wine bars.
The second wine, 2015 Patricius Tokaji Muscat, accompanied the appetizer (small plate) of Duck Spätzle. Muscat is another of the ancient wine grapes that are ubiquitous in the Mediterranean basin.
Phoenician, Greek, and Roman traders had propagated Muscat (mostly the Moscato d’ Alessandria and the Moscato di Candia varieties) throughout Europe, the near-East, and North Africa. This bottle was mildly aromatic, very dry, with a floral nose and crisp minerality-driven acidity. I think it paired better with the other appetizer – a smoked salty salmon – than the Spätzle dish, which was redolent of tarragon and woody mushroom aromas.
Then came the main course – a crispy-fried Mountain Trout. With it was poured the 2014 Patricius Tokaji Dry Furmint, which is another very dry, fresh, minerality-driven wine with a light stone-fruit nose. It’s an exceptionally tasty wine, light golden-colored, pungently aromatic with the minerality and acidity of the better Rieslings.
Very food-friendly, it pairs well with white meats, fish, and strong cheeses but would not feel out of place accompanying fresh fruit or a young, mild, creamy cheese.
My dessert was the Marillen Palatschinken filled with apricot jam. Palatschinken is the middle-European version of crêpes, a very thin pancake filled with preserved fruit.
Sweet crêpes have been made popular by the French, served stuffed with fruit jam or a chocolate/hazelnut spread and sprinkled with confectioner’s sugar. The middle-European version, Palatschinken, is usually simpler without the confectioner’s sugar.
The 2004 Patricius Tokaji 5 Puttonios Aszú was served with the Palatschinken. It’s the closest you can find to the traditional pre-World War II delicate Tokaj wines so beloved by the European cognoscenti. It’s a highly aromatic, well-balanced sweet wine, clean and tangy. It’s a rather youthful wine redolent of tropical fruits with honey, pineapple, lemon, peach, and ginger.
There was a final digestif; the 2000 Tokaj 5 (Puttonios) Eszencia. It’s one of the highest rated dessert wines. We were given a thimbleful of this delicious botrytized wine made from Aszú (shriveled grapes). Please… please… please… can I have some more?
Manos Angelakis is one of the founders, the former Managing Editor for 25 years, the current Managing Editor Emeritus, and Senior Food & Wine Writer of LuxuryWeb Magazine. He is an accomplished travel writer, photographer, and food and wine critic based in Hackensack, New Jersey. As a travel writer, he has written extensively about numerous cities and countries. Manos has also been certified as a Tuscan Wine Master and has traveled to wine-producing areas in order to evaluate firsthand the product of top-rated vineyards. In the past year, he has visited and written multiple articles about Morocco, Turkey, Quebec City, Switzerland, Antarctica, and most recently the South of France. Articles in other publications include Vision Times and Epoch Times.
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