Tasted 1st and 4th September 2024
A recent trip to Hungary inevitably featured Tokaj, with a number of great wines from many producers. However, the most historically interesting selection was a series from Grand Tokaj. Grand Tokaj is the largest wine producer in the region, and is essentially the inheritor of the old Communist ‘Cooperative’ system (it remained owned by the state until recently); however, this history also means that it has a great library of old wines.
Grand Tokaji 5 puttonyos Tokaji Aszu 2019
Like the 1988 aszu wine below, this is unusually blended from all six approved varieties available in the region – not just the three main ones of furmint, harslevelu and muscat. Pale gold appearance. Rather fresh and light for an aszu wine. Elegant, well balanced; quite intense apricot jam, some citrus and honey though the most complex example of the style on the mid-palate – yet with an evident very attractive floral tone on the finish. Fine balance. A wine made by a winery in good form.
Grand Tokaji Museum Collection 5 puttonyos Tokaji Aszu 1988
Amber colour. A quite lifted, honeyed, dusty nose, with hints of apricot jam and toasty caramel. Sweet but not luscious (only 133 g/l residual sugar, which is not at all high by contemporary standards). Neatly textured, and quite savoury on the palate (even some hints of marmite and nuts), and again toast and honey. Long, a lovely wine which is trying hard but never quite reaches the stars. This wine was made during the communist era, in the dying days of the old regime (the Iron Curtain came up the following year). It would have appealed to the masses at the time – but was probably reserved for apparatchiks only. The wine certainly gives the lie to the idea that all the ancien régime wines were of poor quality – but we could also see it as a harbinger of the better times which were to come soon after.
Grand Tokaji Museum Collection 5 puttonyos Tokaji Aszu 1964
Attractive hazelnut brown colour. Fairly intense nose; caramel and caramelised sugar, coffee, savoury – like the 1988 some marmite hints – along with classic bitter marmalade and honey. Well balanced, quite a clear, cleansing bitterness on the finish. Despite the age it’s still a lovely wine in its own right. A flash of colour from the height of the drab days of Communist oppression.
Grand Tokaji Museum Collection 5 puttonyos Tokaji Aszu 1956
Less overt on the nose but with a bit of volatile acidity. Quite meaty, with a little dried soft yellow fruit like Mirabelle. Very obvious acidity, nice texture but the fruit is dying rather. Now a sad wine from a sad time. This was made at the peak of the Hungarian uprising against Soviet domination, and as the Russians and allies were moving in to crush the population. A wine which wants to forget where it came from.
Grand Tokaji Museum Collection 6 puttonyos Tokaji Aszu 1940
An awful year for Europe but Hungary was sill not officially at war. Nevertheless, the dictator, Admiral Horthy, was increasingly fawning on Hitler, with a series of anti-Jewish laws (the Jews had been very significant the Tokaji region and in the local wine business). This wine, maybe, is the last hurrah of an old regime and a place which had previously been comparatively open and tolerant. Amber-nut brown, not apparently oxidised; savoury like the previous wines but with some lemon-meringue and pasty tones, as well as a little smoky and cedary. Complex on both nose and palate. Tastes dryish, very bright with racy but not excessive acidity. They could really make wines then, before the catastrophe.
The star of Tokaj dimmed during the Communist era – but as this tasting made clear – it was never completely extinguished, allowing it to spring back into life after the Iron Curtain was drawn back. Grand Tokaj itself has been modernised, and makes some very good wines today.
Wine, Culture & Society 