TOKAJ IN THREE DAYS

August 25-27

Tokaj

Unless you want to pay $250 US for a four hour tour that takes you to wineries plus a lunch, you are on your own when it comes to finding places to taste wine.  There is only one van that takes people round to wineries at a reasonable cost but it is booked for a couple of weeks in advance (duh).

It is interesting to note that one of my inquiries in a wine shop about transportation to wineries outside the town was met with the remark that it is not safe to arrange for transport on ones’ own.  Interesting. 

It turns out that there are a number of places to sample wine within the city.  They are not well publicized and are contradictory in the prices (and wine quality) charged for tastings.  It took a day and a half to sort all this out. It began with happening on a place that advertised wine tastings.  He had a foldout paper with a map that listed himself and three other locations.  As I followed the map I found a number of other places advertising tastings as well.

I wish I had more time here.  I would spend it documenting places to taste in Tokaj and produce a map showing locations noting which ones I recommend.  Alas, I have non refundable hotel reservations in Eger tomorrow.  I hope some ambitious soul will read this blog and undertake that task.

I ultimately decided upon tasting at four wineries.  There were two more I wanted to try, but they were closed at the time.  By the way walking is the primary mode of transportation here.  I wish I had a pedometer.  

You can typically taste 8-10 wines at each place.  See photo below for an example

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Tasting starts with dry and work it way up the 'sweetness scale'   Tokaj wines are noted for their sweetness.  There is a numbering system 1-6.  Six is the sweetest.

The wine is a blend of three grapes – furmint, muscatel, and harslevelu.

What makes the wine so sweet?  The sweetest wines are made from grapes left on the vine until they shrivel and are covered by a fungus.  The nickname for the fungus is the ‘noble rot’.  These grapes become so desiccated that they have to be ground up and mixed with the must of other grape to have enough moisture to ferment.

Less sweet wines are made from grapes harvested when only some of the grapes in the cluster are shriveled.

Much of the wine is sold in one, two liter plastic bottles and jugs.  A lot of it is cheap and seen commonly being consumed in the evening.  Check out my bottle of  sweet tokaj.  Two liters for $4.40.

Plastic jugs in the doorway of a wine shop.  Dry Tokaj is straw colored.  The sweeter the wine, the darker in color it is.

Somehow they remind me of what urine samples might look like at a veterinary school.  

But, enough crude levity.  On to tasting notes.

You can sample Tokaj wine (the blend of three varieties of grapes) going from dry to very sweet.  You can also sample wines made from 100% of each of the three grapes blended to make Tokaj.  There are a number of other varieties such as forditas as well to sample.

You can't beat a well made sweet Tokaj for a dessert wine, accompanied by some nuts or cheese to nibble on.  Much sweeter than sauterne.

The furmint grape is supposed to be king of the vine in Tokaj.  My tasting notes go from insipid to quite good.

The muscatel tasting ranged from ordinary to one with a nose so heavenly I sniffed the glass for a couple of minutes before I sipped.

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Recommended places to taste - Hands down best one is Benko Borhaz.  Just make sure no trains are coming when you cross the tracks in front of the train station.  His cellar and tasting room are located just down on the left a couple hundred feet.  That was the site of the heavenly muscatel.

The other one is Himesudvar Pinceszet located at Bem u 2.  Their bread and cheese plate is quite a nice addition to the wines.

Finally here is a photo I couldn't resist taking.

Here is a closer look.