Tokaji: The sweet wine from Hungary which could be the perfect Christmas present

Every winter, this upmarket restaurant held gastronomic dinners with chefs travelling from various famous establishments across Europe to present their speciality food and wines.

These were very grand affairs with smartly dressed waiters parading into the restaurant carrying large silver dishes while a bunch of students, including myself, scurried behind them with the veg.

However, before service, we were allowed a taste of the dishes, and occasionally, also allowed small sips of the wine. And that was the first taste of wine that I can remember.

At home, on high days and holidays we had wine, but it was neither nice nor memorable. The wine at the restaurant was magnificent. It went with a complicated peach dessert, decorated with spun sugar, and it was Hungarian Tokaji.

At the time I didn’t know enough about wine to ask exactly what it was, but it was fabulous, and I nearly got the sack for taking too many sips of this wine.

Tokaji is a wine steeped in history. It comes from the north-eastern region of Hungary, on the borders of the Ukraine and Slovakia. Vines have been cultivated here since Roman times but the first sweet wines of Tokaji date back to around 1630.

Unlike the apocryphal story about marauding troops and the harvest left on the vines, its development was a careful experiment that worked.

Once ‘invented’ this sweet wine of Tokaji became famous and in demand by every crowned head of Europe. Prices for Tokaji wines exceeded those for all other wines and the Russian Tsar kept a garrison of soldiers here just to protect the ‘wine with the price and colour of gold’.

But the Soviet era changed everything with collectivised vineyards and wineries concentrating on quantity not quality. Now, over 30 years since independence, the focus is truly back on quality.

This was very evident on a zoom call with Zoltán Kovács the winemaker of Royal Tokaji when he told me about the vineyard names that are now appearing on bottles.

These names were always known but were not allowed to be used. “Now we can identify the particular vineyards and their terroir and give customers the chance to discover the different flavours from each of the vineyards”.

Sweet wine is difficult to make, and these days, quite difficult to sell, unless it is the absolute best.

In Tokaji the grapes are Furmint, is a thin-skinned, late-ripening, acidic grape which is highly susceptible to the special mould called botrytis; Hărslevelu provides good aromas and sugar levels while an ancient grape variety Kövérszolo that likes to grow on volcanic soils is being reintroduced since it nearly was lost to the region.

The first thing to remember is that sweet wine gets its sweetness from the grapes and only from the grapes. There are no teaspoonfuls of granulated sugar stirred in the wine.

All the flavours in the grapes including sugars and acids are concentrated during the period the grapes are hanging on the vines, and while this is a common practice in many regions to make sweet wines, in Tokaji they go one step further.

The grapes are affected by botrytis – which in some places would be a disaster, but in Tokaji, it is the factor that makes the wines so special.

This is all down to the mist that gathers across the vineyards in the morning. Two rivers, the Bodrog and the Tisza meet at the town of Tokaj and create a mist that spreads over the surrounding vineyards. This encourages botrytis which dries out the grapes, concentrating them into tiny berries.

Picked one by one, over several weeks, they make the most unctuous wines that are balanced by glorious acidity. Just think how a ripe peach is sweet, yet there is bright, clear acidity. Tokaji is the same – sweet and balanced.

Now with a focus on individual terroir, in the best vineyards of the region, Royal Tokaji have produced a set of the top wines for the 2018 vintage.

I tasted through all six and was amazed at the different characters of these wines.

Betsek, planted on clay with volcanic rock below produces deep-flavoured wine with spice notes while south-facing Nyulászó produces wines with vibrancy and delicious fruit.

Mézes Mály overlooks the Great Plain of Hungary, its volcanic soil is overlaid with lighter soil producing wines with floral notes. The name of this vineyard translates as ‘Field of flowers. The most surprising wine comes from Birsalmás, a name that means quince orchard, replanted with Kövérszolo and Furmint, making wines with precision and elegance.

Royal Tokaji have produced a selection box of all six wines, at 6 puttonyos quality grade, the highest grade before Essencia. Quantities are very limited and will be available from merchants such as Berry Bros, Farr Vintners and Jeroboams.

Each box contains six 50cl bottles, and prices will be high – around £75 a bottle, but this could be the best kind of present for a lover of top-notch sweet wines.

Not everyone likes sweet wines, or at least, many people claim not to like them, which is a shame. A sweet wine such as this can partner a fruit-based dessert perfectly, but it can also act as a dessert in itself, which is why the tiny bottles of just 25 cl Royal Tokaji Aszú 5 Puttonyos 2018 (Waitrose £14.99) come in so handy.

With flavours of lime marmalade, peaches and quince, a small glass of this will finish a dinner party in style and if there is any left-over it could re-energise even the most exhausted chef over the festive season.

Waitrose also has 50cl of 2017 Royal Tokaji Aszú 6 Puttonyos from the first growth vineyard of Betsek, at £57.99.

While expensive, it is worth considering the tales that have been told about the life-giving properties of Tokaji. This Hungarian elixir has many ancient stories attached to it, most of them involving aged emperors climbing off their death beds and ruling for decades longer.

Myths they may be – but why take the chance? Tokaji might be the perfect wine to give to granny for Christmas.