Tokaj
Continental with autumn mist
A volcanic north-eastern region where autumn mist makes botrytis, the home of Furmint and of the sweet Tokaji Aszú.
Overview
About Tokaj
Tokaj lies at the meeting of the Bodrog and Tisza rivers, in the volcanic Zemplén hills, and its landscape was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2002. Autumn mists from the rivers encourage noble rot on the thin-skinned Furmint and Hárslevelű grapes, which are the base of Tokaji Aszú.
Aszú wines are made by adding hand-picked, botrytised berries, traditionally measured in puttonyos, baskets, to base wine, and are aged in long, cold cellars cut into volcanic tuff. Dry Furmint, made since the 1990s, has become just as important as the sweet wines.
Tokaj is marked on the map.
Hungary
Shaded: Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén. Map units are states, provinces or départements, so a smaller place appears as the larger area that contains it.
The land
Climate & terroir
Climate
Continental with autumn mist
Warm summers, cold winters, and long, dry autumns with river mist in the mornings that spreads noble rot, followed by sunny afternoons.
Terroir & soils
What the vines grow in
Volcanic rhyolite and andesite hills under loess and clay, with cellars dug into the soft volcanic tuff.
Go deeper
Rules, years & producers
Tokaj wines are classified by style and, for the sweet Aszú, by how much botrytised fruit and sugar they contain.
Tokaji Eszencia
The free-run juice of botrytised grapes, extremely sweet and low in alcohol; it can age for decades.
Tokaji Aszú
Sweet wine made with botrytised berries; sweetness was traditionally shown in puttonyos. Since 2013 the scale is no longer official and all Aszú needs at least 120 g/l of sugar, though 5 or 6 puttonyos may still appear on labels.
Szamorodni
Made from whole bunches, either dry or sweet depending on how much noble rot the vintage brought.
Dry Furmint
A newer style, showing the volcanic soil and acidity of the grape.
What's grown here
Grapes
Each grape's page links back here.