The Beautiful Ageability of Oremus Tokaji Aszú
The Budapest airport forever confuses me, regardless of how many times I’ve been through. Duty free is before immigration which I continuously forget meaning I’m always almost going to miss my flight by the time I’ve browsed the couple shops I like then get in the loooong, slow line for immigration. It was on one of these “I forgot passport control was yet to come” trips that I found this Oremus Tokaji Aszú in Duty Free. Selling me a Tokaji Aszú is probably the easiest thing anyone could do. I did hesitate over the price, it was I think the single most expensive bottle of wine I’d ever bought. But. The chance to have a 50-year old sweet wine? Yes.
I actually visited Oremus a couple years ago on a wine tour of Tokaj with Taste Hungary which you can read about here! This wine was definitely not in the tasting though! While well-known for its production of sweet and dry Tokaji wines, Oremus is actually owned by Spanish winery, Vega Sicilia.
In 1993, the Alvarez family behind Vega Sicilia turned its sights to Hungary and founded Tokaj-Oremus Viñedos y Bodegas. They built the winery in 1999 in Tolcsva. Here they produce several dry Furmint-based wines as well as a late harvest, an Aszú, and an Eszencia. The winery is connected to the maze of cellars that have been there since the 13th century, and where the winery ages its precious sweet wines.
Aszú wine production
The production of the Aszú wine is a meticulous process, which requires great patience and extensive know-how. Wineries that toil to make them have no guarantee that they can make them every year. Aszú (and Eszencia) wines depend on grape infected with noble rot which happens only at the whim of nature. So, how is it made?
Let’s start with the grapes. If you know Tokaji wines even a little, likely you’ve heard of Furmint and Hárslevelű. While they’re the main varieties, they’re not the only ones allowed in Aszú production which can also include Sárga Muskotály, Kövérszölö, Zéta, and Kabar.
We have the grapes; what happens next? The aszú grapes (i.e. those infected with noble rot/botrytis) macerate in a base wine or fermenting must for 12 to 60 hours. The winemaker then fishes out those grapes (sometimes called the aszú dough) and presses them for any juice they’re willing to give up and that juice is fermented separately. The wine then goes in barrels typically made from oak from the nearby Zemplén forest where it continues to ferment. This process can take several months until the yeast finally gives up, leaving behind a highly sweet wine which is then aged for several more years before bottling (and often then more ageing).
What’s with the ‘puttonyos‘ thing though? A puttony (puttonyos plural) is a 25-liter wooden tub historically used for harvesting the aszú grapes. If you see a wine that says it is a 3 puttonyos, 5 puttonyos, or 6 puttonyos, that indicates how many of these tubs of botrytised grapes were added to the base wine.
Oremus Tokaji Aszú 5 Puttonyos, 1972
To begin, let me just again say…1972!!!! That might not seem like a big deal to a lot of people, but I felt pretty thrilled. Not to mention, according to Oremus’s website, 1972 was a premium year:
Vintage 1972 is considered by most to be one of the best vintages for Aszú in the twentieth century. The ideal weather conditions for the development of Botrytis took place this year. Harvest, thanks to a warm, sunny October and cool nights, lead to an extraordinary vintage which had not been replicated until the following century in harvest of 2000.
Oremus created this wine from Furmint, Hárslevelü, Zéta, and Sárgamuskotály grapes coming from vineyards averaging (at the time) 25 years in age. The final wine had an alcohol content of 12% with 129 g/l of residual sugar, and 8.4 g/l of acidity.
By the time I got to the wine, what was surely a golden color had deepened into a toffee brown. As sweet wine ages, it actually becomes less sweet, something that still twists my brain in knots. The wine displayed a very savory character, with oxidation, brown sugar, walnut, and buttery notes framing a core of sundried apricot, pineapple, and bruised golden apple skin flavors. A streak of coffee along with cinnamon basil and caramel framed by searing acidity on the beautiful lingering finish.
Wow. I can only hope I age this well!