From Fungus To Fabulous

One of the world’s icon dessert wines is Hungary’s Tokaji, pronounced Tow-Kye. After over four decades of being stuck politically behind the iron curtain, the Royal Tokaji Wine Company was founded in 1990. Co-founder was the world’s most widely read winewriter, Hugh Johnson. His mission was to resurrect this classic style of wine that had lost its magic under inefficient communist government mass production. Quantity consistently trumped quality.       

A dry table wine made up of a fermented cuvée of local white, indigenous Hungarian grapes is the starting point. A second fermentation is created by adding the desired number of puttonyos (a measure of shriveled aszu grapes affected by the friendly botrytis cinerea fungus). The more puttonyos, the sweeter the resulting wine. Our wine has 5 puttonyos. The fermentation is aided by a friendly cellar-born fungus which covers cellar walls, deep below ground level. It’s a miracle of nature, too, unique to the Tokaji region, where, at the confluence of the Tisza and Bodrog rivers, fall mists promote the formation of noble rot on the grapes. The indigenous fungus does the job with its particular yeasts and bacteria working to assist in giving birth to the unctuous dessert wine the world has come to appreciate and love.

It's a beautiful wine to sip on its own, with the appropriate background music, especially when in a contemplative mood. Think rhapsody rather than rap. It’s also a great partner to fois gras, but we think the perfect match made in heaven, or in the cheese shop, is blue-veined cheese. Then again, it’s the ideal dessert in liquid form. There probably isn’t a dessert this Christmas season that won’t match Tokaji. Spicy, beautifully balanced with a sweet, fresh finish, enjoy it now. But it will age beautifully for years. The 2O24  International Wine & Spirit Competition scored it 96 points.      

2018 Royal Tokaji Blue Label 5 Puttonyos Tokaji Aszu 500 ml, LCBO # 48262, $64.95.