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Wine Description
The Story
The 100% Furmint varietals are made in the international style, to showcase the exciting spicy character of this Hungarian grape variety. The Late Harvest Furmint is picked late, with 40 to 50% of the grapes having succumbed to noble rot (Aszu in Hungarian), giving concentrated sugars and a botrytis complexity. Fermentation lasts nearly a month, after which the wine is aged 6-8 months in cask.
Aszu wine production starts with specialised picking of individual botrytis-affected grapes. While the rest of the harvest is fermenting to dryness, these shrivelled grapes are pounded into a paste and stored in 20-25kg tubs, called Puttonyos (normally used for carrying grapes). The contents of these puttonyos are then mixed in with the base wine in fixed proportions ( 3 puttonyos per every 136 litre cask of base wine for Aszu 3 puttonyos, etc), and left to macerate 6 to 8 hours for extraction of sugar and flavour.
After pressing, this sugar-rich mixture slowly continues fermentation, and subsequent long oxidative ageing in the cool, damp, mouldy cellars.
The very rare, but justifiably famous top-of-the-range Tokaji is pure Eszencia, a nectar fermented from the tiny quantities of free run juice that drain out of the puttonyos. The must has such high sugar levels that, even using special yeasts, fermentation progresses at a snail's pace.
Wine Information
2001 Vintage
Ageing
In new oak casks for 2 and a half years. Bottled in July 2004.
Comercialization
500 ml/botella 6 botellas/caja 6 Kg/caja
Fermentation
Cool maceration of aszú berries in Furmint most for 18 hours. Fermentation controlled in new Hungarian oak casks for 60 days.
Climate
WinterLong and cold.SpringHotSummerVery hot and sunny
Variety
100% aszú berries, individually picked in the vineyards. Mainly FURMINT berries but also some HÁRSLEVELÜ and MUSCAT DE LUNEL berries.
Harvest
Long and warm in autumn, optimal for development of Botrytis Cinerea. Top quality aszú berries, big quantity as well, high sugar content. Excellent quality, a year to remember.
The Tokaj wines form part of the grand collection of historic wines. This fertile region, filled with tradition, was the first to produce wines using grapes affected by noble rot. Its Aszú wine, in which the balance between sweetness and the freshness of the acidity reaches the fullness of its expression, was classed as the "wine of kings and king of wines" by Louis XIV, king of France.
Tokaj Oremus aims to produce wines with their own personality, taste and character, whilst respecting the area's tradition, wines which reflect the characteristics of the land and the microclimate in which our vineyards grow, the peculiarities of the local grapes, and the skilful work of man.
The height of the winery's wines is the Tokaj Aszú, the free run wine of Tokaj.The Tokaji Aszú is the noblest sweet wine in the world. Its development involves the benign influence of noble rot. It is the wine for which Tsar Peter the Great of Russia sent legions of Cossacks to watch over the wineries of Tokaj and the roads through which it was transported to St. Petersburg, where it was served at the table of Catherine the Great. Voltaire said of this wine, "This wine invigorates every fibre of my brain and, deep in my soul, produces a charming glint of intelligence and good humour”.
