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Tokaji, Hungary
By Patrick Totty
Before 1976, when California cabernet sauvignons and
chardonnays won a stunning victory in a blind tasting in Paris against the
France’s premier wines, most U.S. wine drinkers looked to Europe for
superlative wines.
Besides the wines of Bordeaux, Burgundy, the Cotes du Rhone
and Graves in France, knowledgeable American oenophiles also looked to
Hungary’s Tokaji region, home to a distinctive white wine that some
thought in its sweeter versions rivaled Bordeaux’s fabled Chateau
d’Yquem.
Tokaji (which Americans pronounce “toe-kay”) is by far
Hungary’s most fabled wine, exceeding the fame of Egri Bikaver, the
country’s best known red wine that became a notable alternative quaff
when the cost of French and Italian reds spiked in the 70s and 80s.
In its sweet forms, Sweet Szamorodni and the world-class
Tokaji Aszú, Tokaji has built an international reputation. Unfortunately,
the name was hijacked years ago by U.S. bulk wine producers. They wanted a
name for cheap fortified wines that would connote sweetness to their
mostly alcoholic customers, usually skid row denizens. “Tokay” on the
bottle told buyers they were getting something sweet that could satisfy
their cravings for real food.
As with many great wines, Tokaji Aszú’s ascent was
something of a combination of accident and fortune. The Romans had grown
grapes in the area, a rolling section of the Hungarian plain about three
hours east of Budapest and only kilometers from Slovakia nd Ukraine.
Viniculture continued through the Middle Ages. When the
Ottoman Turks invaded Hungary in the 16th century, vintners in
the Tokaji region, though not directly under the thumb of the Ottomans,
often abandoned their vineyards whenever they perceived a threat from the
Turks.
On one such occasion they returned and to find that “noble
rot” (botrytis) had afflicted their abandoned grapes and shriveled them.
As they attempted to salvage whatever juice they could from the desiccated
grapes, they realized that they had the basis for an exquisite sweet wine,
loaded, thanks to the botrytis fungus, with the pure essence of the grape.
Tokaji was on the map ever after.
Remarkably, despite the inherent inefficiency and corruption
of Hungary’s post-war Communist dictatorship, the Tokaji region
continued to produce good wines. The vintages of 1947, 1956, 1957 and,
especially, 1972 (the “vintage of the century”) were among the most
notable ever produced. With the collapse of Communism, the region has been
able to modernize its infrastructure methods and attract needed
investment.
Throughout invasions, wars, and the rise and fall of
governments, the region’s human and vinicultural landscape has remained
surprisingly intact, with villages, vineyards and the area’s traditional
deep cellars maintaining their medieval architecture and layouts. The
physical integrity of the area led UNESCO to declare the “Tokaji Wine
Region Cultural Landscape” a World Heritage Site in 2000.
Some useful URLs:
http://whc.unesco.org/nwhc/pages/sites/main.htm