Eric Danch - All Comments

RE: Tokaj Part 2: Quality Over Quantity

Sergey Smolin — Fri, 15 Apr 2022 12:46:16 GMT

Unfortunately, Fanni Kertje does not exist anymore :(

RE: Tokaj Part 1: Sweet Relevance

Eric Danch — Tue, 15 Aug 2017 00:25:44 GMT

Great question Jesse Guillen. I can't speak for Royal Tokaj, but this looks like an appraisal of the overall quality, not the RS level on its own. 2009 was a tricky vintage and not wildly regarded as anything exceptional. For some, the sweeter the wine, the better the dessert wine. For many in Tokaj (I hope most), there must be balance. Sometimes and elegant 5P can be more expensive than a flabby 6P for instance. My guess is that Royal Tokaj made something special out of 2009, but it didn't have what they consider the full 6P balance. A slightly educated guess unless we ring up Royal Tokaji:)

RE: Tokaj Part 1: Sweet Relevance

Jesse Guillen — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 22:04:53 GMT

[mention:ea7a538b88864d1bab2cea96f4fe46b6:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05], or anyone else, when looking at RS requirements for pre-2013 aszu wines, I'm a bit confused about one my restaurant has. 5 puttonyos wines needed a minimum of 9% alcohol and 120g/l sugar and 6 puttonyos wines needed a minimum of 150g/l sugar. Why then is the 2009 Royal Tokaji labeled as 5 puttonyos when it has 174g/l and easily qualifies for 6 puttonyos? Thank you in advance!

RE: Tokaj Part 2: Quality Over Quantity

Jessica Waugh — Fri, 28 Jul 2017 03:06:18 GMT

Can anyone expand upon the Essencia aging only being in glass - what is the reason for this?

RE: Tokaj Part 2: Quality Over Quantity

Carol Andrews — Sat, 21 Jan 2017 00:06:44 GMT

Two really informative articles — I' m going to my local haunts and see whether they have anything in stock.

RE: Tokaj Part 1: Sweet Relevance

Wanda Cole-Nicholson — Wed, 18 Jan 2017 07:15:21 GMT

Very informative. Great read. Thanks a bunch :-)

RE: Tokaj Part 2: Quality Over Quantity

Eric Danch — Mon, 16 Jan 2017 17:14:24 GMT

Thank you for the question Richard King. Aszú Essencia did in fact exist as early as the beginning of the 1800s. The minimum residual sugar level was 180 g/l, but no longer used the Puttonyos system. These were supposedly just exceptionally sweet vintages. The method for making Aszú Essencia was however exactly the same for Aszú, not Essencia. I'm not sure why it took until the 1970s to become an official quality level other than to create another style to sell. So yes, that 1920s bottle you found could be something special. Did you drink it?

RE: Tokaj Part 2: Quality Over Quantity

Richard King — Fri, 13 Jan 2017 07:45:12 GMT

Eric, as you mentioned in the article, Aszúeszencia was conceived as an official category in the 1970s, however I have found a bottle of 1920's Tokaji under Aszú eszencia. Does that mean thats a fake wine or the catagory was already there before 1970's?

RE: Tokaj Part 2: Quality Over Quantity

Juan Sebastian Girado Makovej — Fri, 06 Jan 2017 22:48:25 GMT

Excelent work! As half-hungarian (hungarian mother) i have to thank you for such a great resumee of one of the most amazing and unknown regions of the world! i recently visited the region. I wish i could have read this before going! Chrees from Bogotá!

RE: Tokaj Part 1: Sweet Relevance

Gloria Chang — Mon, 02 Jan 2017 23:54:04 GMT

Excellent excellent article!

RE: Tokaj Part 2: Quality Over Quantity

Eric Danch — Thu, 29 Dec 2016 20:29:02 GMT

As I had hoped, albeit somewhat nervously, a few producers from Tokaj have already contacted me with some small corrections and additions we should take note of. Since very little has been written from an American perspective, there is plenty of room (and need!) for more dialogue. This is especially the case for a region as in flux as Tokaj. In no particular order:

>I had written that the 3 and 4 Puttonyos categories are now effectively gone. Technically, the use of 3 and 4 Puttonyos is still permitted as long as they meet the minimum 120 g/l of residual sugar. However, with this sugar level you could label the same wine as a 5 Puttonyos. From a market perspective, most consumers and trade want a higher number of Puttonyos. Is sweeter better for an Aszú is another question, but the 120 g/l is firm.

>Máslás is still authorized, but nobody can point to any currently being produced. I had said it was being phased out as a category.

>One thing I did not mention was wine law before Hungary joined the EU in 2004. Tokaj fell under three categories: Table Wine (Tokaj name not used), Quality Wine (Tokaj name used, sugar correction allowed), and High Quality Wine (500 ml bottles, no sugar or alcohol corrections allowed).

>I had mentioned that there are currently 389 single vineyards (Dűlő). Over this past summer, this has been upped to 429 although work is not finished. Drones, satellite imaging and historians are hard at work in concert with new registrations. The single vineyard map included above only covers roughly 100, but these are more established names you’re likely to encounter in the US market.

Overall, there is no doubt that articles like this will be either dated or in need of revisions sooner than later. This is good news!

RE: Tokaj Part 2: Quality Over Quantity

Ludovic Anacleto — Thu, 29 Dec 2016 15:54:37 GMT

This does help [mention:ea7a538b88864d1bab2cea96f4fe46b6:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05] . Thank you very much. And thank you for posting about Tokaji. I am thrilled by Tokaji´s "revival" and cannot be excited enough to see more and more of them in wine lists.

RE: Tokaj Part 2: Quality Over Quantity

Eric Danch — Wed, 28 Dec 2016 21:40:15 GMT

Good question. 19% is the potential alcohol at harvest assuming all of the sugar is fermented to alcohol. This is not the final ABV % after fermentation. For instance, you if you harvested at 33 Brix and fermented to total dryness, you might end up with something like 19% ABV. Since Aszú must be minimum 120 g/l residual sugar, most final ABVs end up around 11-13%. You're correct that the finished alcohol cannot be lower than 9% for Aszú. Does this help clarify?

RE: Tokaj Part 2: Quality Over Quantity

Ludovic Anacleto — Wed, 28 Dec 2016 01:00:19 GMT

"The 3 and 4 Puttonyos categories are now effectively gone. Minimum total potential alcohol level is also raised to 19% for Aszú wines."

is 19% correct? or it is 9%?

cheers!

RE: Tokaj Part 1: Sweet Relevance

Peter Weltman — Mon, 26 Dec 2016 23:04:50 GMT

The only thing positively more knowledgeable and entertaining than reading this is listening to Eric Danch talk about this live! This was absolutely exquisite, filled with high level anecdotal knowledge, historic facts, while also offering key points on how to take it all to the sales floor. Eric, thank you!