⭐️December 10, Tokaji Aszú world day. The drink, which is mostly made from furmint, attracts attention with its natural sweetness and its countervailing high acid content. There are many records about this more than 400-year-old miracle, one of the earliest of which is from 1630, according to which Máté Szepsy Lackó, the pastor of the Rákóczi family, made the first aszu in the vineyard called Oremus.
🏆Unfortunately, the reputation and quality of aszú was damaged by communism, but today it is experiencing a renaissance again. This rebirth was also recognized by UNESCO in 2002, when it declared the Tokaj region a world heritage site.
🐣 Aszú was the first wine that was consciously made from botrytized or "nobly rotten" grapes, Rhine and Sauternes were born one or two hundred years later.
🍑Its characteristic aroma and flavor notes include quince, apricot, honey, ginger and marzipan. It is worth consuming well chilled, up to around 10 degrees.
☀️There are many first-class vineyards in Tokaj, such as Nyulászó, Szent Tamás, Király, Úrágya or Betsek.
🚜The aszu grains harvested for aszu are left to let the unconscious sweet juice, i.e. the essence, flow out by itself. Before pressing, they are soaked for one to five days in fresh must or partially fermented base wine. The ratio is approx. one kilogram to one liter before pressing. Fermentation begins, the speed of which is controlled by the sugar content and the temperature of the cellar. The richest and finest wines retain the highest proportion of their natural sugar content, so their alcohol level will be 9-10% depending on the vintage.
🍯The degree of sweetness is traditionally expressed by the number of puttonys: that is, how many 20-kilo puttony assúzmes were added to a barrel (136 liters) of Gönczi base wine; although nowadays it is mostly calculated based on the residual sugar measured in the wine. Today's wines are 5- or 6-proof aszus, whose sugar content can be from 120 grams/liter to more than 200 g/liter.
🥂Unfortunately, it is not common enough to drink aszú or szamorodni in Hungary today, changing this is the undisclosed goal of Vinum Voyage. If not at any other time for the time being, at least during the holidays it is worth taking out and immersing yourself in a bottle of aszu. We wish you a pleasant tasting!
Source: World Atlas of Wine - Hugh Johnson & Jancis Robinson