New rules in Tokaj: puttonyos no more

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An era is gone in the Hungarian wine region of Tokaj. Many of you probably remember Tokaj Aszú with its different number of puttonyos. It could be 3, 4, 5 or even 6. The more puttonyos, the higher the sugar content in the wine. Now Tokaj has simplified the classification of its wines and has, without further ado, removed the puttonyos indication.

The sweetest Tokaj wine is Eszencia. It is sweeter than most in the wine world with at least 450 grams of residual sugar per litre. The alcohol content is a minimum of 1.2% and a maximum of 8%. It would not even be considered wine under normal rules but they have no doubt a derogation.

Under the new rules, the second sweetest wine is Aszú with at least 120 grams of residual sugar and at least 9% alcohol. The very special Tokaj wines called szamorodni, fordítás and máslás all remain in both dry and sweet versions. The dry has more than 9 grams of residual sugar and the sweet at least 45 grams. In Tokaj you can also make late harvest wine and dry white wines.

If you get the chance, try the wines from Tokaj, sweet or dry, they are superb and unusual. We thank Attila Bors who made us aware of these new rules. Attila imports Hungarian wines to Sweden through Bors & Bor Trading.

Chateau Cloche Tokaji Aszu 6 puttonyos
Chateau Cloche Tokaji Aszu 6 puttonyos, copyright BKWine Photography
The Kiralyudvar wine cellar, Tokaj
The Kiralyudvar wine cellar, Tokaj, copyright BKWine Photography
Snowy vineyards on a mountain side
Snowy vineyards on a mountain side, copyright BKWine Photography

 

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2 Responses

  1. Tokay is in general going towards dry wines. I’m personally not being fancy about dry Tokay at all, but it seems to be what the market demands.

    1. I quite like them personally.

      It’s generally rather difficult to sell sweet wines today so perhaps you can get along with it since it helps producers to survive? ;-)

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