Sweet Dreams in Tokaj The Hungarian Wine That Once Enchanted European Royalty Retains Its Allure

The road out of the ancient winemaking village of Mád in northeast Hungary climbs gently, giving way to a dirt track before meandering steeply into the rows of vines planted on the foothills of the Zemplén mountain range. From here, amid the occasional wild cherry tree and Hungarian oak growing on rough ground atop the vineyards, one can see the undulating slopes of the Tokaji hills emerging suddenly from the edge of the vast Great Plain, a flat stretch of land that fans out more than 300 kilometers to the Serbian city of Belgrade. It is a view that takes in the skyline of Mád, a village dominated by its rich spiritual history—from the Baroque synagogue to Roman Catholic and Protestant churches that rise above the assortment of red-roofed houses.
Stepping off the dirt path to inspect an immaculately trained row of Furmint grapes, Hugh Johnson, author of “The World Atlas of Wine” (1971) and part owner and founder of Mád’s Royal Tokaji Company, pauses before puncturing the silence with his own historical reflection.
“We often wondered what had happened to this wonderful old region stranded out here behind the Iron Curtain,” he recalls of the decades the country spent under the communist regime. “Fabulous old bottles kept turning up occasionally at auction. On the rare occasions we tasted them, they seemed to get better and better. So we always knew the potential was there.”
That potential seems to have gone some way toward being realized. The early 1990s saw a renaissance of sorts in the region, with a slew of multinational companies investing, eager to get a foothold in one of Europe’s most magical parcels of vines. These included AXA Millésimes, a subsidiary of insurance company AXA, which bought the Disznoko estate in 1992, and one of Spain’s top wine estates, Vega Sicilia, which refurbished the cellars at Tokaj’s Oremus estate in 1993. These were joined by several other estates such as Grof Degenfeld and Chateau Dereszla.
Now, with two decades of hard work behind it, the wine estate Mr. Johnson helped create in 1989 amid this first revival has recently completed construction of a new winery, puncturing the sky behind one of the main roads that cuts through Mád. In recent years, the quality of winemaking, coupled with the maturity of the newly planted vines, has precipitated a second wave of Tokaji’s renaissance, with some experts arguing that since the fall of communism, the region has never produced such good wine. Meanwhile, investment in Tokaji hasn’t stopped, with Michel Reybier, owner of Bordeaux’s celebrated Château Cos d’Estournel, buying the Tokaj Hétszőlő estate on the southern slopes of the Tokaj mountain in 2009.
Master of Wine Simon Field, buyer for London-based wine merchant Berry Bros. & Rudd, says the region’s winemakers have now ironed out faults and are producing a cleaner, more pure style. “In the past, the styles of wine tended to be a bit tired and oxidative,” he says. “The wines are cleaner and reflect their terroir. You could say we are on the cusp of a renaissance. It is very promising in terms of the quality of the wine. Like Burgundy, the region has a number of different vineyards, such as Mézes Mály, which produce very different styles of wine.”
The overarching style, though, is of a sweet, honeyed wine, known as Tokaji Aszú, whose flickering acidity in turn surprises then enlivens the taste buds.
“There are sumptuous flavors you can try and describe: dried fruit, quince, heavens knows what,” says Mr. Johnson. “But the acidity balances everything.”
Such is the acidity that on a first sip one can be forgiven for not noticing the sweetness and pure fruit concentration. The secret to these wines is in their relatively low alcohol levels, nudging 11% (compared with 12 or 13% in Sauternes), which leave the palate with a whistle-clean finish.
In winemaking terms, the Tokaj-Hegyalja region has a lineage that few others can rival. Only France and Germany can boast a similar viticultural heritage. Long before the world’s elite was seduced by France’s greatest wines and the charms of Italy and Spain, it was to Tokaji that Russian tsars and European royalty like Louis XIV looked to fill their cellars. By 1700, the region’s vineyards had been classified in an order of quality, much in the same way as the vineyards of Burgundy had been ranked with certain sites being deemed better than others at producing wine.
But the 20th century wasn’t kind to this old region, as World War I and the Russian Revolution stripped Tokaji of its export market. By the time the Berlin Wall had come down in 1989, 40 years of communism had left the industry nationalized and the grapes, once prized for producing one of the world’s greatest sweet wines, turned over for mass production.
In April 1990, two men—one a successful British wine writer, Mr. Johnson, the other a Danish winemaker named Peter Vinding-Diers who had earned a reputation in Bordeaux—stepped out of a carriage at Tokaj’s rundown train station. Their aim was to rescue the vineyards and recreate the magical wine that had enchanted Peter and Catherine the Great.
“It is a quality of wine you only find elsewhere in places such as the Mosel, with their trockenbeerenauslese [a rare sweet wine made from dried grapes],” says Mr. Johnson. “But they can only make it as one tiny barrel at a time. In Tokaj, we had the chance to make it in quantity.”
“So we flew to Budapest,” recalls Mr. Johnson, “had a meeting with Peter’s business backers and took the train to Tokaj. It was rather fun in those days, with all those old carriages full of people smoking, singing and drinking.”
Mr. Johnson had first tasted Tokaji on a visit to the country in 1970. Back then, Hungary was “gray and grim,” he says. “One of the things I remember the most was that there was as much horse-drawn traffic as there was motor traffic on the roads. We had to wait to overtake little wagons with a pony and a dog tied on the rear axle.”
Wandering around the little village of Mád in the spring of 1990, he realized that very little had changed. There was one small shop and nowhere to stay. He and Mr. Vinding-Diers ended up in a building off the main high street, which now house the offices and tasting rooms of their Royal Tokaji Wine Company. Behind them lay a subterranean warren of ancient cellars, stretching over several different layers, their walls covered in the region’s distinctive damp, black fungus.
Having hired two interpreters, Messrs. Johnson and Vinding-Diers began a series of meetings with wine growers to sketch out what a joint-venture would look like, before joining up with well-known local winemaker Isztván Szepsy. Together, they created Royal Tokaji, an estate now credited by many in the industry with precipitating the first wave of the Tokaji renaissance.
“It didn’t feel like that then,” says Mr. Johnson. “During that first vintage, there was really nowhere else to stay, so we used to stay in the kitchen of the main house just off the main road in Mád, with our camp beds propped up by the stove; in the winter it was unbelievably cold.
“I could never have imagined how far we have come,” says Mr. Johnson. “If you had told me in 1990 that we would be standing here with a new winery in a region that has received so much investment, I would never have believed you.”
Under communism, production values that had been honed over centuries played second fiddle to quantity and mechanization. Vines were ripped up to make way for large rows that could handle mechanical tractors, while many were replanted on the flat land, where it was easier to harvest, but which was also unsuitable for wine production. Yields were greatly increased to supply state local cooperatives producing bland-tasting sweet wine for the Russian market.
But Mr. Szepsy knew differently. As Mr. Johnson recalls, on weekends, Mr. Szepsy looked after the small plot of vineyards his family was cultivating under the Soviet allowance plan. He kept many of the old practices alive, production methods that have returned today.
These involve handpicking a selection of grapes that have been shriveled by the weather or the botrytized rot, and placing them into large baskets known as puttonyos, which traditionally hold 20 kilograms. The resulting paste is then added to a base wine made from grapes not affected by botrytized grapes, fermented, before being aged in oak barrels for three years in underground cellars. The term puttonyos, relating to how much of the sweet paste is added to the base wine, is still used as a measurement of sweetness, with six being the sweetest, five around the same sweetness as a Sauternes and three the equivalent to a German Auslese.
For those with a phenomenally sweet tooth, there is an even sweeter wine, known as Esszencia, made from the juice of the best Aszú berries. Once picked, the berries are put into a large vat where the free-run juice is collected underneath. This wine is made in tiny quantities and only ever reaches very low alcohol levels. Its high price, around €230 for a half bottle, is a contrast to the relative affordability of Tokaji, which sells for around €25 a bottle.
But there is more to the region than sweet wine. Everyday drinking is fulfilled by the production of dry Furmint, a still white wine with an enticing mineral tang that producers say has found favor with a new generation in Budapest.
It may prove to play an important role in the future of the region, which now comprises around 6,000 hectares planted with vineyards. Despite talk of another Tokaji renaissance, in recent years sweet wines have proved a harder sell. A century and a half ago, when Tokaji was at its most popular in Europe, sweet-tasting wine was something of a novelty. Now, like port, it has to compete with easy-drinking, fruit-driven red and white wines, facing a struggle to regain its once dominant position in the market place.
“The quality of the wine is there,” says Mr. Field, “but increasing sales is another matter. The vineyards were classified a century before Bordeaux, so the history is there and the vineyards are there, but it will be tricky.”
The fact isn’t lost on Mr. Johnson, who wrote in his memoirs “Wine: A Life Uncorked” that Tokaji Aszú was almost as difficult to sell as it was to make.
Indeed, as we leave the hillside, the vines heavy with grapes waiting for another vintage, Mr. Johnson picks a bunch of loose Muscat grapes. It’s been 21 years since he set about the rebirth of this old region. “At last,” he laughs. “A dividend.”
Write to Will Lyons at wsje.weekend@wsj.com
Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204002304576629153553503070.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

This wine shop in Manila Philippines makes wine shopping a really rewarding and exciting exercise. Wine shops in Pampanga should always have an element of surprise so that customers and wine lovers can enjoy a little bit of thrill when they go to a wine shop in Manila to look for a good bottle of wine in Clark Pampanga.

Chateau Lafite-Rothschild is the most revered wine in China and many other parts of Asia. The best wine shop in Asia to buy older vintages of Chateau Lafite is Yats Wine Cellars located in Clark Philippines. Aside from Lafite, visitors can buy other fine wines at this wine shop in Clark Pampanga such as Latour, Mouton-Rothschild, Haut-Brion and Margaux. Excellent Burgundy wines like Chambertin, Vougeot, Musigny, Bonnes Mares, Pommard, Meursault, Chambertin, Vosne Romanee, Romanee Conti, La Tache and Romanee St. Vivant can be found here.

Family outings, picnics, company outings and other events for up to 300 can be held in the picnic grounds of this wine shop. Events that have been successfully organized here include family fun days and BBQ picnics. These are some of the things that visitors to Clark Philippines particular look forward. Residents and tourists in Angeles City and Subic also come to Clark Freeport to partake in the fun at this Clark wine shop.

This wine shop’s vast selection of vintage wines makes it possible for Yats Wine Cellars to offer a unique line-up of wines for every private wine party, wine tasting or wine dinners. Guests of these private wine parties are treated to a rare experience of vintage wine not seen in wine shops in major cities in Philippines or even in Asia.

http://www.ClarkWineCenter.com

Getting to this wine shop in Pampanga Angeles City Clark Freeport Zone Philippines from Manila
Getting to the Clark Wine Center wine shop from Manila is quite simple: after entering Clark Freeport from Dau and Angeles City, proceed straight along the main highway M A Roxas. Clark Wine Center is the stand-along white building on the right, at the corner A Bonifacio Ave. From the Clark International Airport DMIA, ask the taxi to drive towards the entrance of Clark going to Angeles City. From Mimosa, just proceed towards the exit of Clark and this wine shop is on the opposite side of the main road M A Roxas.

Best place to buy wine in Clark Pampanga outside Manila near Subic and Angeles City Philippines is Clark Wine Center.

Clark Wine Center
Bldg 6460 Clark Observatory Building
Manuel A. Roxas Highway corner A Bonifacio Ave,
Angeles Clark Freeport Zone, Pampanga 2023
(045) 841 4006 / 0922-870-5173 / 0917-826-8790 (ask for Ana Fe)

Wine@Yats-International.com

YATS Wine Cellars
Manila Sales Office
3003C East Tower, Phil Stock Exchange Center,
Exchange Rd Ortigas Metro Manila, Philippines 1605
(632) 637-5019 0917-520-4393 ask for Rea or Chay

Best place to buy wine in Clark Pampanga outside Manila near Subic and Angeles City Philippines is Clark Wine Center.

Wedding couples looking for wedding reception venues and beach wedding venues can log on to this Philippines Wedding Venue web site for free information and assistance:

http://www.PhilippinesWeddingVenue.com

While in Clark, it might be a good idea to enjoy an evening of wine-and-dine in the fine dining Yats Restaurant and Wine Bar that features an award winning 2700-line wine list. It is located in Mimosa Leisure Estate of Clark Freeport Zone. For more information, visit http://www.YatsRestaurant.com

YATS Leisure Philippines is a developer and operator of clubs, resorts and high-class restaurants and wine shops in Clark Angeles Philippines http://www.yatsleisure.com

Looking for famous tourists spots, places to visit and see, relax and unwind in Clark, Pampanga, Philippines? You may want to check out these sites also:

http://www.LondonPubClark.com

http://www.HotelClarkPhilippines.com

http://www.ClarkPhilippines.com

http://www.YatsWineCellars.com

Yats Restaurant is the best restaurant for special dinner, best restaurant for dinner with friends near Manila, also the best place to celebrate special events.

A Well-known Restaurant in Pampnga, an interesting place to celebrate Birthday Party in Pampnga.
A best place to dine with friends in Pampanga

Are you looking for an attractive restaurant or a nice place to eat with friends in Clark, Angeles City Pampanga? Yats Restaurant and Wine Bar is a restaurant with good food and good wines for dinner located at Clark Angeles City Pampanga. Perfect for exclusive dinner venues for groups, recommended for private dinner in Philippines. A Restaurant in Clark for business dinner meeting. Private dinner place or dinner restaurant in Clark Subic Near Manila Angeles City Pampanga. Yats Restaurant is one of the Good Restaurant in Pampanga Angeles City Clark near Manila. Looking for a restaurant in Clark for a Business meeting? Or a place to eat with friends? Yats Restaurant offers exclusive dinner venue for groups, a good place to celebrate special occasions, it can be a party venue in town. Yats Restaurant is a recommended restaurant for private dinner in Philippines, a well-recognized restaurant that serves good food and good wines for dinner.

www.YatsRestaurant.com
Looking for interesting hotels near Manila Subic Clark Angeles City Pampanga?
Trouble free hotels and well recognized hotels in Subic Clark Angeles City Pampanga
Clearwater Resort and Country Club offers a good place to stay in Subic Clark Angeles City Pampanga. In offers nice place to have rest in Subic Pampanga outside Manila.
One of the Philippines top hotels in north Luzon.

Where to go in Clark? Hotel Clark Philippines is a De Luxe Hotel in Clark and Subic, a risk free place to stay, cozy and nice ambience, a nice function place for special occasion. It is one of North Luzon Philippines’ top hotels that is trouble free, risk free, and a nice place to have rest in Subic. A well-recognized and interesting hotel.

www.HotelClarkPhilippines.com