Tokaj cellar

Tokaji, meaning "of Tokaj" in Hungarian, is used to label wines from the wine region of Tokaj-Hegyalja in Hungary. A small quantity of wines from the Slovak wine region of Tokaj also use the Tokaj label, and are referred to as Tokajský/-á/-é, meaning "of Tokaj" in Slovak. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (802x600, 722 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Tokaji ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (802x600, 722 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Tokaji ... Tokaj is a historic wine region located in present-day Northeastern Hungary and Southeastern Slovakia (see Tokaj). ... The Tokaj wine region in Slovakia comprises 22 communities and about 1,000 hectares of vineyards. ...

The Tokaji name

Tokaji wines have a long pedigree and history, which has unfortunately resulted in some abuse of the name:

• Historically Tokaji was wine from the region of Tokaj in the Kingdom of Hungary. In English and French the spelling Tokay was commonly used. Prior to the phylloxera epidemic, wine was grown in Tokaj from various types of mainly white grape varieties. However many historical mentions of Tokaji wine referred to the sweet aszú dessert wine.
• The name Tokay came to be used in the Alsace region of France for wines made with the Pinot Gris grape. In Italy the name Tocai came to refer to a variety of grape from the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region.
• In 1920, a small portion of the Tokaj wine region (approx. 1.75 km²) became part of the newly-created state of Czechoslovakia, the remaining much bigger part became part of the newly-created Republic of Hungary.
• Under Hungary's and Slovakia's accession treaty to the European Union, the Tokaj name (including other forms of spelling) is being given Protected Designation of Origin status. This means that wine producers in France and Italy will no longer be allowed to use the terms Tokay or Tocai after March 2007.
• Non-EU nations, notably the Ukraine, Australia and the U.S., produce liqueurs or dessert wines which they label "Tokay".
• There has also been a long-running dispute between Hungary and Czechoslovakia (since 1993 Slovakia) over the right of the Slovakian wine region to use the name Tokaj. Negotiations between the two governments resulted in an agreement being signed in June 2004. Under this agreement, wine produced on 5.65 km² of land in Slovakia will be able to use the Tokaj name. However, a number of practical issues remain. Slovakia has pledged to introduce the same standards enshrined in Hungarian wine laws since 1990, but it has not yet been decided who will monitor or enforce those laws.

The Kingdom of Hungary (Hungarian: Magyar Királyság) is the name of a multiethnic kingdom that existed in Central Europe from 1000 to 1918. ... Tokay has several meanings: Originally, it was the Anglicized name for the famed wines of the Tokaj region in Hungary and Slovakia. ... Grape Phylloxera (Daktulosphaira vitifoliae, family Phylloxeridae, superfamily Aphidoidea) is a serious pest of commercial grapevines worldwide, originally native to eastern North America. ... Tokay has several meanings: Originally, it was the Anglicized name for the famed wines of the Tokaj region in Hungary and Slovakia. ... Alsatian wine has a long history. ... Pinot Gris (or Tokay Pinot Gris) is a white wine grape of species Vitis vinifera related to Pinot noir which goes by a lot of other names: Pinot Grigio (Italy) Pinot Beurot (Loire Valley, France) Ruländer (Austria and Germany, Romania, sweet) Grauburgunder or Grauer burgunder (Austria and Germany, dry... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... 1920 (MCMXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January January 3 - Babe Ruth is traded by the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees for $125,000, the largest sum ever paid for a player at that time. ... Protected designation of origin (PDO), protected geographical indication (PGI) and Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (TSG) are geographical indications defined in European Union Law to protect regional foods. ...

Cultivation

Nowadays, only four grape varieties are officially approved for use in wines bearing the Tokaj name: Furmint, Hárslevelű (Slovak: Lipovina), Yellow Muscat (Hungarian: Sárgamuskotály, Slovak: Žltý muškát) and Zéta, a crossing of Furmint and Bouvier. Of these, Furmint accounts for 70% of the area under vine and is by far the most important grape in the production of aszú wines. Nevertheless, an impressive range of different types and styles of wine is produced in the region, ranging from dry whites to the world's sweetest wine. Furmint is a variety of wine grape from the Pontian Balcanica branch of Vitis vinifera, used for white wines. ... Hárslevelű in Hungarian (Lipovina in Slovak, Lindenblättriger in German, Feuille de Tilleul in French) is a variety of grape from the Pontian Balcanica branch of Vitis vinifera. ... The muscat family of grapes of the species Vitis vinifera are widely grown for wine, raisins and table grapes. ...

The area in which Tokaji wine is traditionally grown is a small plateau, 457m (1500 ft) above sea level, near the Carpathian Mountains. The soil there is of volcanic origin, with a high concentration of iron and smaller amounts of lime. The location of the region experiences a unique climate which is beneficial to this particular viniculture, due largely to the protection of the nearby mountains. Winters are bitterly cold and windy; spring tends to be cool and dry, and summers noticeably hot. Usually autumn brings rain early on, followed by an extended Indian summer, allowing a very long ripening period. Satellite image of the Carpathians. ... General Name, Symbol, Number iron, Fe, 26 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 8, 4, d Appearance lustrous metallic with a grayish tinge Atomic mass 55. ... Lime is a general term for various naturally occurring minerals and materials derived from them in which carbonates, oxides and hydroxides of calcium predominate. ... An Indian summer day Indian summer is a name given to a period of sunny, warm weather in autumn, not long before winter. ...

The dominant Furmint grapes begin maturation with thick skins, but as they ripen the skins become thinner, and transparent. This allows the sun to penetrate the grape and evaporate much of the water inside, producing a higher proportion of sugar. Other grapes mature to the point of bursting, and some juice escapes; however, unlike with most other grapes, Furmint grow a second skin after this which seals it from rot. This also has the effect of concentrating the grapes' natural sugars. The grapes are left on the vine long enough to develop a "noble rot" condition. Noble rot (French: La Pourriture Noble) is the benevolent form of a grey fungus, Botrytis cinerea, affecting wine grapes. ...

At harvest, the grapes are collected into 28-liter (30-quart) wooden containers called puttony (adjective: puttonyos). From there, they are transferred to a gönci hordó (cask of Gönc), which holds 136 liters (36 gallons). Since the grapes are collected overripe, as the gönci hordó is filled, the weight of the grapes on top crushes the bottom grapes. The quality of a particular vintage can therefore be calculated by how many puttonys it takes to fill the gönci hordó. Gönc is a small town in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county, Northern Hungary, 70 kilometers from county capital Miskolc. ...

Typical yearly production in the region runs to a relatively small 10,028,000 liters (2,650,000 gallons).

Types of Tokaji wine

The list below refers to types of wine produced in the Hungarian region of Tokaj-Hegyalja. For Slovakian Tokaj wines see Tokaj. The Tokaj wine region in Slovakia comprises 22 communities and about 1,000 hectares of vineyards. ...

• Dry Wines: These wines, once referred to as ordinárium, are now named after their respective grape varieties: Tokaji Furmint, Tokaji Hárslevelű and Tokaji Sárgamuskotály.
• Szamorodni: (Slovak: samorodné) This type of wine was initially known as főbor ("prime wine"), but since the 19th century the Polish word szamorodni ("the way it was grown") has been used. What sets Szamorodni apart from ordinary wine is that it is made from bunches which contain a considerable proportion of botrytised grapes. Because of this, szamorodni is typically higher in alcohol and extract than ordinary wine. Szamorodni often contains up to 100-120 g of residual sugar and thus is termed édes ("sweet"). However, when the bunches contain fewer botrytised grapes, the residual sugar content is much lower, resulting in a száraz ("dry") wine. Its alcohol content is typically 14%.
• Aszú: (Slovak: výber) This is the wine which made Tokaj world famous and is proudly cited in the Hungarian national anthem. The original meaning of the Hungarian word aszú was "dried", but it came to be associated with a type of wine made with botrytised (i.e. "nobly" rotten) grapes. According to legend the first aszú was made by Laczkó Máté Szepsi in 1630. However, mention of wine made from aszú grapes had already appeared in the Nomenklatura of Fabricius Balázs Sziksai which was completed in 1576. A recently discovered inventory of aszú predates this reference by five years. The process of making Aszú wine is as follows:
  • Aszú berries are individually picked out of the bunches, collected in huge vats and trampled into the consistency of paste (known as aszú dough).
  • Must is poured on the aszú dough and left for 24-48 hours, stirred occasionally.
  • After the aszú dough has soaked, the wine is racked off into wooden casks or vats where fermentation is completed and the aszú wine will be kept to mature. These containers are stored in a cool environment, and are not tightly closed, so a slow fermentation process continues in the wine, usually for several years.

The concentration of aszú was traditionally defined by the number of puttony ("hods", Slovak: putňa) of dough added to a Gönc cask (136 liter barrel) of must. Nowadays the puttony number is based on the content of sugar and sugar-free extract in the mature wine. Aszú ranges from 3 puttonyos to 6 puttonyos, with a further category called Aszú-Eszencia representing wines above 6 puttonyos. Unlike most other wines, alcohol content of aszú typically runs higher than 14%. Annual production of aszú is less than one percent of the region's total output.

• Eszencia: (Slovak: esencia) Also called nectar, this is often described as the most precious wine in the world, although technically it cannot even be called a wine because its enormous concentration of sugar means that its alcohol level never rises above 5-6 degrees. Eszencia is the juice of aszú berries which runs off naturally from the vats in which they are collected during harvesting. The sugar concentration of eszencia is typically between 500 g and 700 g per litre, although the year 2000 vintage produced eszencia exceeding 900 g per litre. Eszencia is traditionally added to aszú wines, but may be allowed to ferment (a process that typically takes at least 4 years to complete) and then bottled pure. The resulting wine has a concentration and intensity of flavour that is unequalled, but is so sweet that it can only be drunk in tiny quantities.

Eszencia is incredibly costly, and generally not available at any price on the open market. The vast majority of it is stored away to be added to azsú of lesser-quality vintages. Storage is facilitated by the fact that, unlike virtually all other wines, it maintains its quality and drinkability for 200 years or more. A newspaper account of the 1933 wedding of Polish president Ignacy Mościcki notes that toasts were made with 250-year-old wine, and goes on to say "The wine, if good, could only have been Essence of Tokay, and the centuries-old friendship between Poland and Hungary would seem to support this conclusion."^{[citation needed]}

• Fordítás: (Slovak: fordítáš) Meaning "turning over" in Hungarian, this wine is made by pouring must on aszú dough which has already been used to make aszú wine.
• Máslás: (Slovak: mášláš) Derived from the word "copy" in Hungarian, this wine is made by pouring must on the lees of aszú.
• Other sweet wines: In the past few years reductive sweet wines have begun to appear in Tokaj. These are ready for release in a year to 18 months are harvest. They typically contain 50-180 g/l of residual sugar and a ratio of botrytised berries comparable to Aszú wines. They are usually labelled as késői szüretelésű ("late harvest") wines. Innovative producers have also marketed tokaji wine, not fitting the prescriptions of the above categories but often of high quality and price, in many ways comparable to aszú, simply labelled tokaji cuvée.

A grey fungus, Botrytis cinerea or Botrytis, that affects wine grapes. ... Himnusz — the song beginning with the words Isten, áldd meg a magyart   listen? (God, bless the Hungarian) — is the official national anthem of Hungary. ... A grey fungus, Botrytis cinerea or Botrytis, that affects wine grapes. ... Events May 5 - Peace of Beaulieu or Peace of Monsieur (after Monsieur, the Duc dAnjou, brother of the King, who negotiated it). ... Must is the juice of freshly pressed grapes, prior to fermentation into wine. ... 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Office Term of office from June 1, 1926, until September 30, 1939 Profession Professor of chemistry Political party none (until 1892, Proletariat) Spouse Maria, née DobrzaÅ„ska Date of birth December 1, 1867 Place of birth Mierzanów, Poland Date of death October 2, 1946 Place of death Versoix... After fermentation has ended in the process of wine making, the residual sugar (or RS) is the measure of the amount of sugars that remain unfermented in the resulting wine. ... Late harvest is a term applied to wines made from grapes left on the vine longer than usual. ...

Famous drinkers of Tokaji

Nothing better illustrates the pedigree of Tokaji wine than an account of some of its famous drinkers. In 1703, Francis Rákóczi II, Prince of Transylvania, gave King Louis XIV of France numerous bottles from his Tokaj estate as a gift. Tokaji was then served at the Versailles Court, where it became known under the name of Tokay. Delighted with the precious beverage, Louis XV of France offering a glass of Tokaj to Madame de Pompadour entitled it the "Wine of Kings, King of Wines" ("Vinum Regum, Rex Vinorum"). This famous refrain is used to this day as a marketing device for Tokaji wines. Statue in Szeged, Hungary Prince Francis II Rákóczi (historically also spelled Rákóczy, in Hungarian: , in Slovak: ) (1676–1735) was a Hungarian noble from the Rákóczi family, duke of Transylvania, then leader of Å ariÅ¡/Sáros county. ... Louis XIV (Louis-Dieudonné) (September 5, 1638 – September 1, 1715) ruled as King of France and of Navarre from May 14, 1643 until his death just prior to his seventy-seventh birthday. ... Louis XV of France (February 15, 1710 – May 10, 1774), the Beloved (French: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1715 until his death. ... Madame de Pompadour, portrait by François Boucher circa 1750 Madame de Pompadour, (1721 – April 15, 1764) was a well known courtesan and the famous mistress of King Louis XV of France. ...

Emperor Franz Josef had a tradition of sending Queen Victoria a gift of Tokaji Aszú every year on her birthday, twelve bottles for each year of her age. By her eighty-first birthday (1900), this totalled an impressive 972 bottles. Franz Joseph I. Francis Joseph I (in German Franz Josef I. (August 18, 1830 – November 21, 1916) of the Habsburg Dynasty was Emperor of Austria and King of Bohemia from 1848 until 1916, and Apostolic King of Hungary from 1867 until 1916. ... Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837, and the first Empress of India from May 1, 1876, until her death on January 22, 1901. ... 1900 (MCM) was an exceptional common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, but a leap year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. ...

Tokaji wine has received accolades from numerous great writers and composers including Beethoven, Liszt, Schubert and Goethe; Joseph Haydn's favorite wine was a Tokaji. Besides Louis XIV, several other European leaders are known to have been keen consumers of the wine. Louis XV and Frederick the Great tried to outdo one another in the excellence of the vintages they stocked when they treated Voltaire or Dumas to some Tokaji. Napoleon III, the last Emperor of the French, ordered 30–40 barrels of Tokaji for the Court every year. Gustav III, King of Sweden, never had any other wine to drink. In Russia, customers included Peter the Great and Empress Elizabeth of Russia. 1820 portrait by Karl Stieler Ludwig van Beethoven (pronounced ) (baptised December 17, 1770[1] – March 26, 1827) was a German composer and pianist. ... Portrait of Franz Liszt, painted in 1839 by Henri Lehmann. ... Franz Peter Schubert (January 31, 1797 – November 19, 1828) was an Austrian Classical composer. ... Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. ... (Franz) Joseph Haydn (in German, Josef; he never used the Franz) (March 31, 1732 – May 31, 1809) was a leading composer of the classical period. ... Louis XV of France (February 15, 1710 – May 10, 1774), the Beloved (French: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1715 until his death. ... Frederick the Great Frederick II of Prussia (Friedrich der Große, Frederick the Great, January 24, 1712 – August 17, 1786) was the Hohenzollern king of Prussia 1740–86. ... François-Marie Arouet (21 November 1694 – 30 May 1778), better known by the pen name Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, essayist, deist and philosopher. ... Alexandre Dumas redirects here. ... Napoléon III Emperor of the French (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte) (20 April 1808 – 9 January 1873) was President of France from 1849 to 1852, and then Emperor of the French under the name Napoléon III from 1852 to 1870. ... Coronation of Louis VIII and Blanche of Castile at Reims in 1223; a miniature from the Grandes Chroniques de France, painted in the 1450s, kept at the National Library of France The monarchs of France ruled, first as kings and later as emperors, from the Middle Ages to 1848. ... Gustav III (13 January (O.S.) or (24 January (N.S.) 1746 – March 29, 1792) was King of Sweden from 1771 until his death. ... Peter was a tall figure, with an extremely striking build of 2. ... H.I.M. Yelizaveta Petrovna, Empress and Autocrat of all the Russias (1709-62) Yelizaveta (Yelisavet) Petrovna (Елизаве́та (Елисаве́т) Петро́вна) (December 29, 1709 - January 5, 1762), also known as Elizabeth, was an Empress of Russia (1741 - 1762) who took the country into the War of Austrian succession (1740 - 1748) and the Seven Years...

The papal devotion to Tokaji wine is even older. Pope Pius IV, after a sip of sweet wine from Tállya, punned at the Council of Trent, ...patrem sanctum talia vina decent! ( Latin for: Such wine (i.e. of Tállya) is what is worthy of the Holy Father.) When Benedict XIV received a gift of Tokaji from Empress Maria Theresa of Austria he famously punned, Benedicta sit terra, quae te germinavit, benedicta mulier, qui te misit, Benedictus ego, qui te bibi (Latin for: Blessed be the soil that hath grown thee, blessed be the woman who sent thee, and blessed (i.e. Benedict) am I who drink thee.) Pius IV, né Giovanni Angelo Medici (March 31, 1499 – December 9, 1565), pope from 1559 to 1565, was born of humble parentage in Milan, unrelated with the Medicis of Florence. ... Tállya is a village in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county, Northern Hungary, 45 kilometres from county seat Miskolc, in the famous Tokaj-Hegyalja wine district. ... The Council of Trent is the Nineteenth Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church. ... Latin was the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... Benedict XIV, born Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini (Bologna, March 31, 1675 – May 3, 1758 in Rome), was Pope from 17 August 1740 to 3 May 1758. ... Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, Archduchess of Austria The worlds most famous coin, a silver taler of Maria Theresa, dated 1780 Maria Theresa (German: ; May 13, 1717–November 29, 1780) was Archduchess of Austria and Queen of Hungary and Bohemia (1740–80). ...

References and external links

• A number of English language books have been published in recent years about Hungarian wine all of which, naturally, include a section on Tokaj and its wine. However, the most comprehensive English-language text (which was the principal source for this article) is Tokaj - The Wine of Freedom (Laszló Alkonyi, Budapest 2000).
• Harold J. Grossman and Harriet Lembeck, Grossman's Guide to Wines, Beers and Spirits (6th edition). Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1977, pp. 172-4. ISBN 0-684-15033-6

The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

See also

• Terra Benedicta - Tokaj and Beyond (Gábor Rohály, Gabriella Mészáros, András Nagymarosy, Budapest 2003)
• Tradition and Innovation in the Tokaj Region (in PDF format)
• Tokaj Renaissance - Union of the Classified Vineyards of Tokaj