Tokaji

The Tokaji is a Hungarian wine which owes its name at the town of Tokaj in the North-East of Budapest. The letter " I " at the end of the word Tokaji means " of " the town of Tokay . This precision is necessary to avoid confusion with the name of an Alsatian wine.

Characteristics

Tokaji can be dry or soft and bears in this last case the name of " aszù". The wealth of Sucre is measured in " puttonyos" , which corresponds to the quantity of noble grains built-in the Vin clearly. The " puttony" was the name of the hood of the vine growers and contained approximately 25 kg of Raisin.

3 puttonyos = min. 60 residual sugar g/liter in the wine
4 puttonyos = min. 90 residual sugar g/liter
5 puttonyos = min. 120 residual sugar g/liter
6 puttonyos = min. 150 residual sugar g/liter
Aszú-Esszencia = min. 180 residual sugar g/liter
Esszencia = mind. 450 residual sugar g/liter

Its vineyard extends in 2006 out of 5.500 hectares, it extended in the past on more than 7.000 hectares.

Best Tokaji are produced with an output from 400 to 600 G per foot. The enormous concreted tanks of the communist period were replaced by stainless tanks with controlled atmosphere and by barrels of oak for maturation. Certain years as in 2001 and 2004, Tokaji is not produced. It is then produced " Szepsy" , of the wines of international reputation. This policy of quality made it possible to obtain prices five times higher in a few years.

The Western Europe and the the United States became the principal outlets with the export of Tokaji.

History

Vineyard among most prestigious, it had been collectivized at the time of the communist dictatorship and had then known a serious fall of quality. The producers were obliged within the framework of Soviet planning to deliver wines of mass without concern of real quality. The government of then exchanged the wine produced (25 million bottles) against gas, electricity and tractors. The production was entirely under the control of the " borkombinat of Tokay" and to hold their obligations, the wine growers were obliged to push the output up to 12 kg per vine, which could give only one bad wine.

At the beginning of the Years 1990, the vineyard was privatisé and the purchases of vineyard were authorized with the foreign investors. An association, " Tokay Renaissance" , gathering the majority of the new investors as of 1995 was created for to give again its noble letters with the wine of Tokay . At the time of this wave of purchase, twenty-eight fields out of the fifty of pre-war period have reformed summers and passed to the hands of foreign investors, the Hungarian government then took a measure of prohibition.

Association " Renaissance" Tokay;

Association, " Renaissance" Tokay; , is a union of vingt-un great wines and was founded in 1995 for to give again its noble letters with the wine of Tokay .

It gathers the majority of the new investors of after communist period. Among them, about fifteen large investors:

: Axa (15O hectares, Disznoko field), GMF (50 hectares, Tokay-Hetszolo field), GAN, agricultural cooperative Cana;
American;
;
German;
Spanish: Vega Sicilia (100 hectares, Oremus field), field Mancebo Purification.

They are often accompanied by some Hungarian investors (politicians, doctors, pharmacists…). Association is chaired by Laszlo Meszaros, director of the Disznoko field.

Today, 4.000 of the 5.500 hectares of the vineyard would be potentially to sell by the current small holders if they found a handsome price of them. The Hungarian government could raise the measurement of prohibition of purchase of field by foreign investors.

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