Disznókö

Harvest Report 2014

After the news from Bordeaux and Burgundy, here are the reports on 2014 from Quinta do Noval, Disznókő and Mas Belles Eaux.

László Mészarós of Disznókő, Tokaj:

« We finished the harvests on the 30th October. We have never finished so early: we have never finished before in October.

Because of the pressure of humidity, we were not able to wait any longer.

The volume produced was very small. We managed a global yield of only 5 hectolitres per hectare. We will have around 500 hl of wines. Only ten days earlier we would not have thought to have produced so little. It is about half of what I would have estimated at the beginning of the harvest.

Fortunately, the majority of the harvest will be made up of Aszú wines, very good, much more marked by Botrytis than usual, and less passerillés.

We have been working with them above all by maceration in made base wines, wines that have finished their fermentation.

It was a very difficult vintage in Tokaj, with a strong Oidium pressure in the summer, and above all an attack of rot (the wrong kind) from the end of August that gave us a lot of trouble. We have to acknowledge that we had too much rain also this autumn.

We began the maceration of the Aszús on the 29th October. After ten days of maceration, we obtained 14 lots in total.

I think we have after all some lovely Aszú wines this year, not very rich, but with a good acidity and freshness and some lovely aromas.”

First Growth since 1732 and part of the World Heritage Site of Tokaj declared in 2002,  the Disznókő vineyards have always been sought-after due to their supreme quality.  Owned by influential aristocratic families and then nationalised, since 1992 the estate has been under the leadership of AXA Millésimes. With its know-how and experience in Aszú winemaking,  Disznókő is recognized today as being in the forefront of the renaissance of the truly great Tokaji wines.

Disznókő, declared First Growth in 1732, is one of the most favourable sites for aszú grape development in the Tokaj Wine Region. The arrival of the fungus (the Botrytis) and the shrivelling of the fully-ripe grape result in the aszú grape. Several physical factors ensure that the perfect aszú grape develops:

Cold winters, short spring and long hot summers usually stretch into an extended Indian summer. The warm days followed by cool nights in autumn bring morning mists necessary for the Botrytis. The humidity originates from the nearby rivers Bodrog and Tisza, as well as marshy land on the edge of the Great Hungarian Plain.

The Disznókő estate is among the warmest in the region.

-  heated by constant summer warmth rising off the Great Plain to the south,

-  protected from cold winter winds by the Zemplén Mountains to the north,

It benefits from the predominant east-west air movement shrivelling the aszú grapes.

Plenty of sun on the mainly south, south-west, south-east facing plots of the Disznókő estate.

135 to 220m above sea level. Though it may not seem particularly high, the height is gained in a very short distance from the Great Hungarian Plain immediately in front which lies at only around 80m. The vineyards are quite steep and held by terraces.

The characteristic soil within the Disznókő estate is a clay soil, settled on rhyolite and rhyolite tuff, a volcanic rock rich in minerals. It has an excellent structure with an ideal water retaining ability and warms up easily to radiate heat towards the vines. The soil has a neutral pH and a well-balanced nutrition content. The rich mineral content of the volcanic soil adds a unique “fire” to our wines.

We pick the ripe grapes at two stages in the harvest.

First, at the time of full ripening, before the appearance of noble rot
- For Disznókő Tokaji Dry Furmint.

Later we either remove the whole cluster or cut the clusters, separating the ripe grapes from the very ripe berries already affected by Botrytis.     
- For the base must or wine for the vinification of the Tokaji Aszú wine.

Two phenomena form the aszú grape: the fungus Botrytis cinerea and shrivelling on the vinestock. The balance between these two determines the aszú berry and thus the character of the vintage.

All the grapes on the cluster develop at a different rate, so we select the aszú grapes one by one, each by hand. Our skilled harvesters pass through the whole estate two to four times to catch each aszú berry at its optimal state.

This incredibly time-consuming selection method guarantees the best quality for our wines. Aszú harvesting is possibly the most labour-intensive harvest in the world – harvesters can pick a mere 6-10kg a day.

This is a small crop. Only 5-20% of grapes ever become an aszú berry. And plenty of weight is lost before a grape reaches aszú quality: an average of five kilograms of intact grapes becomes one kilogram of aszú grapes. At Disznókő we always choose quality over quantity – and so we wait for the perfect aszú berry.

The carefully selected aszú grapes are put in harvesting crates and transported to the reception yard. Every batch of aszú berries is controlled personally by our winemakers and is tasted, weighed and sorted. The berries of the individual plots are stored in stainless steel vats until the aszú vinification begins.