It is generally agreed that Tokaji Aszú is the first (since the sweetened and flavored wines of the ancient world) of the great sweet wines,
well established as such already by the mid-17th century. The beneficial effects of botrytis were noted here almost a century before they
were accidentally discovered in Germany and France, moreover, the vineyards were the first ever to be formally classified: in 1700 Prince
Rákóczi of Transylvania introduced 1st, 2nd and 3rd class (or cru) quality ratings. Tokaji - especially the rare free-run juice called essencia -
was the most highly regarded and sought after wine by the Russian, Austrian and Polish royalty and nobility. The vineyards, mostly owned
by the Hungarian aristocracy, were by far the country’s most valuable assets. Russia's Catherine the Great can claim to be one of the first
foreign investors; she owned, and protected with her own locally stationed infantry battalion, one of the most prestigious vineyards.)
There is also abundant evidence that the wine appealed to English connoisseurs in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Christie’s archives
reveal that Tokaji appeared in a catalogue dated 1770, only 4 years after James Christie set up his auction business. Another appreciative
connoisseur was that great wine lover Thomas Jefferson who imported and served ‘rich Tokaji’ (‘for which I paid a guinea a bottle’) at his
presidential banquets in the early 1800’s. After a glittering heyday in the late 19th and early twentieth centuries, the onset of the World War I
was to prove disastrous for Tokaji, wiping out most of the Hungarian landowners and trade. Viticultural standards fell and the quality of the
wines dropped precipitously after the war, a process hastened in the 1930's by the extinction of the largely Jewish owned trading houses
that specialized in Tokaji. In 1925 a remarkable cache of old wines was literally unearthed and purchased by the great British wine
merchants Berry Bros. Their 1927 price list includes early 19th century vintages ‘from the princely house of Bretzenheim which became
extinct in 1863’. It seems that the family, concerned that the revolutionary forces of 1848 would seize their property, walled up their valuable
old wines. Some of these bottlings are pictured below. The booklet that Berry Bros produced to accompany the sale of these wines, packed
with anecdotes from grateful customers about the curative and indeed life-giving powers of Tokaji Essencia, is a classic of its kind, and is
reproduced in full here.
The communist era saw wine-making that was competent, if seldom inspired, but all this changed in the early 1990's, with the end of the
communist era and the opening up of the vineyards to foreign investment and expertise. Today great wines are once again being made in
Tokaji.
Historically the wine and the region were called Tokay in English but the wine is more correctly referred to as Tokaji and the region as Tokaj
and these are the generally accepted terms today.
well established as such already by the mid-17th century. The beneficial effects of botrytis were noted here almost a century before they
were accidentally discovered in Germany and France, moreover, the vineyards were the first ever to be formally classified: in 1700 Prince
Rákóczi of Transylvania introduced 1st, 2nd and 3rd class (or cru) quality ratings. Tokaji - especially the rare free-run juice called essencia -
was the most highly regarded and sought after wine by the Russian, Austrian and Polish royalty and nobility. The vineyards, mostly owned
by the Hungarian aristocracy, were by far the country’s most valuable assets. Russia's Catherine the Great can claim to be one of the first
foreign investors; she owned, and protected with her own locally stationed infantry battalion, one of the most prestigious vineyards.)
There is also abundant evidence that the wine appealed to English connoisseurs in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Christie’s archives
reveal that Tokaji appeared in a catalogue dated 1770, only 4 years after James Christie set up his auction business. Another appreciative
connoisseur was that great wine lover Thomas Jefferson who imported and served ‘rich Tokaji’ (‘for which I paid a guinea a bottle’) at his
presidential banquets in the early 1800’s. After a glittering heyday in the late 19th and early twentieth centuries, the onset of the World War I
was to prove disastrous for Tokaji, wiping out most of the Hungarian landowners and trade. Viticultural standards fell and the quality of the
wines dropped precipitously after the war, a process hastened in the 1930's by the extinction of the largely Jewish owned trading houses
that specialized in Tokaji. In 1925 a remarkable cache of old wines was literally unearthed and purchased by the great British wine
merchants Berry Bros. Their 1927 price list includes early 19th century vintages ‘from the princely house of Bretzenheim which became
extinct in 1863’. It seems that the family, concerned that the revolutionary forces of 1848 would seize their property, walled up their valuable
old wines. Some of these bottlings are pictured below. The booklet that Berry Bros produced to accompany the sale of these wines, packed
with anecdotes from grateful customers about the curative and indeed life-giving powers of Tokaji Essencia, is a classic of its kind, and is
reproduced in full here.
The communist era saw wine-making that was competent, if seldom inspired, but all this changed in the early 1990's, with the end of the
communist era and the opening up of the vineyards to foreign investment and expertise. Today great wines are once again being made in
Tokaji.
Historically the wine and the region were called Tokay in English but the wine is more correctly referred to as Tokaji and the region as Tokaj
and these are the generally accepted terms today.
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| TOKAJI ONLINE |
About TOKAJI ONLINE
TOKAJI ONLINE was founded in May 2010 as a joint venture between two life-long aficionados of the remarkable wines of Tokaji. We aim to
make TOKAJI.COM the single primary reference for these wines on the net, with a Virtual Museum providing an unequalled information
resource, a Tokaji forum, and a Webshop with a carefully chosen selection of the very finest Tokajis.
We expect the webshop to open and the site to be fully live by early October 2010.
TOKAJI ONLINE was founded in May 2010 as a joint venture between two life-long aficionados of the remarkable wines of Tokaji. We aim to
make TOKAJI.COM the single primary reference for these wines on the net, with a Virtual Museum providing an unequalled information
resource, a Tokaji forum, and a Webshop with a carefully chosen selection of the very finest Tokajis.
We expect the webshop to open and the site to be fully live by early October 2010.
