‘WINE OF KINGS, KING OF WINES’ A look at winemaking in Tokaj, Hungary

(NVR) - No one is certain how long vines have grown in the volcanic soil of the fork of the Bodrog and Tisza Rivers. Surely, long before the Magyar tribes settled here.

Ask around this friendly village and you’ll learn the first “aszu” wine was methodically produced by Laczko Szepsy in 1630 for the ruling Rakoczi family. You might also hear that in the early 1700s a Transylvanian prince used the special wine from this region to woo Louis XIV to drum up support against his Habsburg overlords.

Legendary for more than four centuries, Tokaji wine was the focus of the world’s first appellation control, established several decades before Port wine, and well over a century before the classification of Bordeaux.

And, without a doubt, it’s the only wine that’s referenced in a national anthem.

Tokaji, the golden, seductive, sweet wine of Hungary, was the first to be made from botrytised grapes, the wizened fruit of the vine blessed by Mother Nature’s “noble rot.” Hungarians call the fruit “aszu” — and although that translates as “dried” the term was applied to the wines of the region produced from shriveled botrytised grapes.

More than a century before the late harvest wines of the Rhine were introduced — and perhaps two before Sauternes — Tokaji Aszu wines were receiving accolades from heads of state to heads of religious orders. Over the years, renowned composers and writers like Haydn, Beethoven, Liszt, Schubert, Goethe, Heine, Schiller and Voltaire celebrated with the wines of Tokaj. Louis XV and Frederick the Great tried to outdo one another when they treated guests with this very special wine. It was the French king who referred to Tokaji Aszu as “wine of kings, king of wines.”

The wine was so well received in neighboring Poland that it serves as foundation of a centuries-old friendship between Poland and Hungary.

Tokaji wines were prized throughout the world for centuries. But after World War II — when Hungary came under the influence of the Soviet Union — things changed. Tokaji production continued with as many as 6,000 small producers but the bottling and distribution were monopolized by a government-owned organization.

Locals complain about the Communist takeover of the industry. For example, they point to prized hillside vineyards that were abandoned in favor of planting vines on the flatlands, sites that were easier to farm but did not produce the quality fruit that had gone into treasured wines of the past.

Since the collapse of Communist regimes throughout eastern Europe in the late 1980s and early ’90s, a number of independent wine companies have sprung up in the region. In addition, the government-owned producer has shaken off its bolshevik mantle and is now actively pursuing a quality regimen aimed at bringing prized Tokaji back to its rightful place in the world of wine.