History
Not all wine regions benefit from it – or should even consider it. Single vineyard wines that is. Bourgogne? Yes. Douro? Not sure. Mosel? Yes. Chianti? Maybe. Bordeaux? In rare cases. Tokaj? Yes!
I’m not presenting a remarkable statement in any way. It’s old news. Oldest news in the world actually if we’re sticking to Tokaj. This is the very first regional appellation and vineyard classification in the world going back to 1700 and in the 1730′s the site classification started.
Why was Tokaj first? The answer is probably logical. At the time of the classification, the region were already producing Aszú wines, grapes affected by the noble rot Botrytis Cinerea. This was the stuff to drink back then, if you were someone or wanted to be the cool guy. If you could demand a high price for your wine, you of course wanted to increase the production and make more money. However, you couldn’t expect the noble rot to show up every vintage and thus it was essential to understand and calculate where the potential for Botrytis was highest.
A lot of this knowledge fell into oblivion or wasn’t required anymore, for several reasons; the wines fell out of fashion, better arrived or for political reasons. With the opening up of Hungary again, roughly 20 years ago, it became interesting for investors in Tokaj when buying land for wine production. And if you’re in a region which is located at a northern latitude, single vineyards might be essential in order to understand where a great wine has the potential to see daylight. Might be essential? It is!