Tokaj – Wine, Culture & Society

Tasted 1^st and 4^th 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.

I had to visit Tokaj recently – primarily for a work-related visit with the University at Sarospatak – but while I was there my hosts arranged some interesting visits to wine producers. One of these was Chateau Dereszla, which was particularly from the socio-historical point of view. I’m grateful to the manager there, Laszlo Kalocsai, for much of the information which follows.

Dereszla is in the village of Bodrogkerestur. The domaine was founded in 1406 by the Hungarian Court as a place to store wines and tithes; wine was provided to the court and the church; later it passed down through various Franco-Austrian-Hungarian aristocratic families. There is a 19^th century cellar – and there is also an 18^th century vinoteka. As the picture below shows, this comes with a cannonball embedded in its wall, dating from the 1848 revolution of Hungarians against Austrian domination; the battle during which it was shot actually took place in early 1849, was a Hungarian victory. As a result the cannon ball is now highlighted in the Hungarian national colours.

What interested me most, however, was a separate wine cellar adjacent to the main site, just up the hill from the vinoteka. This is known as the ‘Jewish cellar’ as it was owned by the Klaber family, Jewish wine merchants based in the town of Sopron, way in the western part of Hungary, who dug it out at the start of the 19^th century. They used it to source and store local wines before selling them elsewhere.

Jews were important in the Tokaj region, arriving around the beginning of the 18^th century, particularly Hasidic Jews from eastern Poland. In the town of Bodrogkerestur there was a synagogue and, during the 19^th century a rabbi who could perform miracles, attracting many visitors to his home, and becoming the most influential Jewish religious leader in the region (indeed, one tourist website suggests that during this period Tokaj was perhaps the most influential centre for the Hasidic Jews outside Ukraine). Rabbi Shaya’la died in 1925 and is buried in the Jewish cemetery on the hillside up about Dereszla. This remains a place of Jewish (mainly Hasidic) pilgrimage to this day. Apparently there were about 40,000 pilgrims per annum in pre-COVID times – making them a substantial part of the tourism business of the region. Some tours even sell themselves with a double focus on the wines and Jewish heritage.

Meanwhile, according to Laszlo, the Jews were very involved with wine in the region starting from the end of the 18th century. They were generally forbidden to grow grapes and own vineyards, but they had a major role in the oenology and commerce of the area and he said it was a ‘catastrophe’ when, in the space of a few months from April 1944, they were all forcibly removed. The Klaber family cellar was seized by the Hungarian state, and appropriated later by the Hungarian regime. Later it was taken on by Dereszla, with a connecting tunnel linking it directly to their other cellars.

Since the Holocaust the Jews of Bodrogkerestur have recreated their synagogue. The village is also home to three churches: Roman Catholic, Luther and Greek Catholic. The link between wine and religion is often strong, and it’s important to remember that it is not just significant for Christian worship, but in Jewish ritual as well, with four cups drunk during the Seder – the Passover meal.

As you can see from the picture, the Jewish cellar now houses a fascinating Dereszla dry szamorodni, which ages there for 18 months. I’ve posted recently about this as an interesting wine.

Tag: Tokaj

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