Royal Tokaji releases single vineyard aszú

The Royal Tokaji Wine Company has launched the latest vintage of its single vineyard aszú wine from the Szent Tamás site.

The vineyard is one of Tokaj’s original first growths, recognised for its quality by Prince Rákóczi II, who created the world’s first vineyard classification in 1700.

As previously reported by the drinks business, The Royal Tokaji Wine Company is keen to further Tokaj’s fine wine reputation through a focus on single vineyard offerings, which the company calls first growths, and include Szt Tamás and Mézes Mály.

The latest release from the south facing Szt Tamás vineyard is a six puttonyos Tokaji Aszú from the 2007 vintage, a year which favoured the development of berry-shrivelling botrytis.

According to The Royal Tokaji Wine Company, a cold and wet autumn with alternating wet and dry days and a fair wind provided the perfect conditions for the development of botrytis allowing the producer to harvest a good quantity of very high quality aszú berries.

Nevertheless, just 2,552 500ml bottles have been produced from the company’s 11 hectare holding in Szt Tamás.

The resulting wine has 10% abv, 7.7g/l total acidity and just over 213 g/l of residual sugar.

Speaking to the drinks business back in August 2011, Ben Howkins, managing director of the Royal Tokaji Wine Company, pointed out that Tokaj’s top aszu wines have double the acidity and a higher residual sugar level than Sauternes, as well as 3-4% less alcohol.

Nevertheless, Tokaj’s top producers fail to attract the same following as those making botrytised sweet wines in Bordeaux.

To read more about The Royal Tokaji Wine Company and the Tokaj region, click here.