TN: 1968 Tokaji Aszu Essencia (a truly GREAT wine)

[Baby Chickpea]

<b>1968 Tokaji Aszu Essencia (Monimpex)</b>
Golden brown meniscus. In the glass, dark brown and almost translucent. Bouquet is an astonishing array of rich toffee, coffee, honey, fragrant sweet pea flower, tokay/muscat. Truly brilliant. I could smell this 2 metres away! The palate contains extraordinary intensity, viscosity and concentration. Arguably the most layered wine I have tasted. Reams of honeysuckle, mellifluous-like maple syrup, ripe apricots and almost on the precipice of “too much of a good thing” but the residual acidity provides clarity and devastating balance. After one minute, the wine still coats the mouth with profound length (the longest I have tasted). Simply amazing, as layer upon layer and wave after wave of concentrated fruit cascade among the taste buds. Even now (6 days later) just the thought of the wine delivers a stunning olfactory memory of this superb wine like I am drinking it again as it’s aromas replenish my senses anew, like Proust’s madeleine cakes and nightly kiss from his mother merging the past and present. Treads the finest line between cloying and perfection. I don’t know if this is a great vintage or not for Essencia but if it isn’t I cannot imagine an ever more unctuous and concentrated wine. My first ever Essencia and what an experience. One of the greatest wines (red or white) I have had the pleasure of drinking. The nectar of Bacchus.
<b>Grand Vin! 19.5 / 20</b>

[Attila]

A very interesting tasting note Danny, especially considering that at the end of this month I'll be conducting a great Tokaji tasting in Sydney for the estates of Pajzos and Megyer. Aszú Esszencia is a remarkable wine in any vintage as this is the second best wine Tokaj can produce. However, should you come along to the Pajzos-Megyer tasting, you'll have the chance to try the pinnacle of Tokaji winemaking, the Esszencia. We'll be tasting the 1993 vintage, the first ever Esszencia produced since the fall of communism in Hungary. I had the good fortune to try it some time ago, I was floored, so was the Wine Spectator, awarding it 99 points.
More details about this upcoming tasting soon.
Cheers,
Attila

[Adam]

A very interesting tasting note Danny, especially considering that at the end of this month I'll be conducting a great Tokaji tasting in Sydney for the estates of Pajzos and Megyer. Aszú Esszencia is a remarkable wine in any vintage as this is the second best wine Tokaj can produce. However, should you come along to the Pajzos-Megyer tasting, you'll have the chance to try the pinnacle of Tokaji winemaking, the Esszencia. We'll be tasting the 1993 vintage, the first ever Esszencia produced since the fall of communism in Hungary. I had the good fortune to try it some time ago, I was floored, so was the Wine Spectator, awarding it 99 points.
More details about this upcoming tasting soon.
Cheers,
Attila

Attila, could you describe the how they are made differently?? is esszencia the free run juice that is immediately bottle and essencia just a aszu on steriods??

[Baby Chickpea]

Attila - could you also please explain the difference between the two and the role of Monimpex (distributor?) pls?

TIA.

[markg]

Thanks for the great note Danny, poetry in a glass

[n4sir]

Sounds like an incredible wine from your description Danny.

Have you rated any wine 20.0/20.0? Surely there couldn't be much better!

Cheers
Ian

[Adair]

Hello Friends,

In order to give you a better appreciation of how these great wines of Tokaj are made, as I understand it, simplistically, this is how it "works":

1) Late harvest grapes are picked to make a sweet base wine (Wine A).

2) Individually selected (that is one by one) botrytis affected grapes are picked to make a botrytis affected sweet wine (Wine B).

3) Before the individually selected botrytis affected grapes are pressed at all to make Wine B, the free run juice is collected and made into Wine C. Please note that these individually selected botrytis affected grapes are nearly totally dry and this the wine that is made from the free run juice of these grapes is extraordinarily rare, rich and has an amazingly long and labour intensive winemaking process. This Wine C is the Esszencia or Essencia - both spellings are correct.

These wines can be at extraordinary prices and rightly so given their above-mentioned grape selection and process, their intensity, longevity and the experience they provide the taster. I understand that an Esszencia is still the oldest wine James Halliday has ever tasted.

4) Aszu is the wine made by adding Wine B to Wine A. Aszu is classified by the amount of Wine B that is added to Wine A. The gradings are between 3 to 6 puttonyos. One puttonyos is equal to a hod. So, for example, when 5 hods/puttonyos of Wine B is added to Wine A, the resultant wine is a 5 Puttonyos Aszu. I do not know how much liquid is in a puttonyo or hod (except that by standard definition a hod is a trough carried over the shoulder for transporting loads), but a 6 puttonyos Aszu definitely has more Wine B than Wine A and a 5 puttonyos wine has about equal amounts of Wine A and Wine B.

5) An Aszu Essencia, like the one Baby Chickpea tasted, is a 5 or 6 puttonyos Aszu that has had a small amount of Essencia added to it.

I hope this answers a few questions and helps people understand/appreciate how and why these wines from Tokaj are considered so great.

Kind regards,
Adair

[Adair]

Sounds like an incredible wine from your description Danny.

Have you rated any wine 20.0/20.0? Surely there couldn't be much better!

Cheers
Ian

Baby Chickpea needs to leave some room to rate the 1963 of the same wine!

Adair

[Attila]

Ah, yes...the 1963 Tokaji Esszencia from the Jeno Vajtho cellar is a complete knockout. Danny's note would fit it, however that wine finishes on an INCREDIBLE note, I couldn't stop thinking about it for 2 years after I had it. Definitely one of the greatest wines I've drunk.
Now to Monimpex...well, under communism, Hungarovin and Monimpex secured some good Aszu Essencia stocks from different growers who were not allowed to sell their wines under their name and were exporting them to the USA and elsewhere. The wines made before 1972 were excellent but after that, a shipment of wine started to re-ferment in transit so they followed the advise of their Soviet importer and began pasteurizing the great wines of Tokaj. A pasteurised wine is basically DEAD so I am very happy that you've tasted a great example, made before that time. Monimpex was the best thing under communism, the connection to the west but they failed to keep the great reputation of Tokaj. Times are different now, Thank God.
Excellent notes on how Tokaji's are made were provided by Adair.
Cheers,
Attila

[Josephine]

Thanks for the clear explanation there Fluffy. Much appreciated.

JP

[Baby Chickpea]

Ian - not yet! I will always find something critical and flawed. I have had some wines that I have given 19.9 and come very close to what I perceive as perfection (the '70 Latour I had at Xmas for example) but just cannot bring myself to do it - there is always a better wine somewhere out there that I have yet to try (eg. 45 Mouton, 61 Latour/Petrus, 47 Cheval, 28 Margaux, etc).

Mind you, I find it easy to rate films full marks though (most recently on the last weekend - Sergio Leone's truly stunning poetic masterpiece "Once Upon A Time In The West" - viewed on DVD and uncut its even better than when i first saw it many years ago). Without sounding wanky or pretentious (I hope) this is probably because I have believe I have seen just about every major film ever made from 1895-current ( a much smaller window and indeed easy access to each) in every category (Hollywood, foreign, independent/avant'garde) this makes it easier to do..

PS - Had another wine on the weekend that floored me and again came close to perfection - will type up notes and post TN 2mrw.

[Gary W]

A pasteurised wine is basically DEAD so I am very happy that you've tasted a great example

All wine is biologically "dead" when it is bottled...or at least it should be. If anything is living inside the wine it is likely to be bacteria which will cause a whole host of problems including aforementioned secondary fermentation. I take it you mean that the pasturisation process is coarse and strips the wine of character like server filtering etc. ?

GW

[Adair]

A pasteurised wine is basically DEAD so I am very happy that you've tasted a great example

All wine is biologically "dead" when it is bottled...or at least it should be. If anything is living inside the wine it is likely to be bacteria which will cause a whole host of problems including aforementioned secondary fermentation. I take it you mean that the pasturisation process is coarse and strips the wine of character like server filtering etc. ?

GW

As I understand it, Louis Pasteur was commissioned by Emperor Napoleon III to investigate diseases afflicting wine and came up with pasteurisation - heating the wine to 55 degrees Celsius for several minutes - which obviously has since been applied to milk and other liquids to make them "safe".

For many years, this "hot" pasteurisation was used to sterilise wine but, due to it being commonly recognised that this destroys wine flavour, different processes to sterilise wine were investigated and now it seems the popular way of achieving this is using sterile wine bottles and filling them with nitrogen so that a nitrogen cushion is created between the wine and the cork.

I personally have never heard of the "nitrogen" method above called "cold" pasteurisation, except when I browsed the Internet to sound knowledgeable and intelligent in this post! Therefore, as such, therewith, I suspect that Attila is much happier with this "nitrogen" method and does not like the "hot" pasteurisation method, and I assume it was the "hot" pasteurisation method used in communist Tokaj.

Adair

[Gary W]

Yes..thanks Fluffy. I am neutral on the topic. I just want to establish that all good wine is "dead" i.e. biologically inactive in the bottle. It is not cheese you know!

GW

[jezza]

Yes..thanks Fluffy. I am neutral on the topic. I just want to establish that all good wine is "dead" i.e. biologically inactive in the bottle. It is not cheese you know!

GW

Unless it is a Ch. Ahnoose, of course, and it is a hive of microbial activity.

[PaulV]

Just for information, the only winemaker i know who pasteurises all their wines prior to bottling is the Burgundy negociant firm of Louis Latour.

[Baby Chickpea]

5) An Aszu Essencia, like the one Baby Chickpea tasted, is a 5 or 6 puttonyos Aszu that has had a small amount of Essencia added to it.

Kind regards,
Adair

Thx Adair - but if this is the case, how does it account for the difference in concentration and intensity between the Aszu Essencia and 6 puttonyas? I have had a couple 6 puttanyos over the years but none has even remotely approached the aforesaid 1968 Essencia tasted. I couldn't posibly think a "small" amount of added Essencia could completely transform the wine?

Finally, given that Essencia (as distinct from Aszu Essencia) is completely free run juice, I'm assuming the resulting wine is incredibly rare. But why bother turbo-charging the 6 puttonyas when producers could make pure Essencia's instead of the bridging Aszu Essencia? Surely it would be more profitable (margin and price wise, as well as brand equity wise) to do the former?

[Adair]

5) An Aszu Essencia, like the one Baby Chickpea tasted, is a 5 or 6 puttonyos Aszu that has had a small amount of Essencia added to it.

Kind regards,
Adair

Thx Adair - but if this is the case, how does it account for the difference in concentration and intensity between the Aszu Essencia and 6 puttonyas? I have had a couple 6 puttanyos over the years but none has even remotely approached the aforesaid 1968 Essencia tasted. I couldn't posibly think a "small" amount of added Essencia could completely transform the wine?

Hello Danny,

I think Attila would be a better person than I to answer this, but I assume that the producer probably would not put Essencia into a 6 puttonyas Aszu unless it a 6 puttonyas Aszu of a very high quality, and Essencia is indeed very intense.

Finally, given that Essencia (as distinct from Aszu Essencia) is completely free run juice, I'm assuming the resulting wine is incredibly rare. But why bother turbo-charging the 6 puttonyas when producers could make pure Essencia's instead of the bridging Aszu Essencia? Surely it would be more profitable (margin and price wise, as well as brand equity wise) to do the former?

I could sarcastically answer this question by saying that Tokaji wine producers are not Americans but I believe the actual reason lies in the fact that commercial quantities of the Essencia simply can not be produced and even selling Essencia at $500 per bottle does not outweigh the benefits received by the Aszu Essencia (by having a small amount of the Essencia in it) and being able to sell the Aszu Essencia in commercial, although small, quantities. Essencia is really mind-blowingly intense stuff!!!

Adair

[Attila]

Wow...so many things to answer here. Let's start with Gary W.-
Yes, all wines are biologically dead.
For me, however they are a LIVING THING that change, age and transform, like human beings do. To be honest, every time I open a new wine, I'm looking for it's SOUL, SPIRIT, something Godly and inspired. Now, to find that experience it does not happen often, BUT IT DOES happen for me every now and then. It's like a miracle, I just sit there and wonder, how the humble grape can be so complex and wonderful.

Now to Mr.Chickpea.- The Tokaji 2,3,4,5 puttonyos wines are fairly common, however, 2 puttonyos is no longer made. Always a good indication of the vintage or the maker, when a 6 puttonyos Aszú is made. When Esszencia is added to the 6 puttonyos, the maker lifts the profile of an outstanding wine by providing more richness and concentration that is BEYOND the taste realm of a botrytis wine. The impact of the Esszencia is immediate on such wine and takes the Tokaji to an other level altogether. Esszencia on it's own is almost too much of the good thing, however it has such qualities that you'll remember of them for many years, some a lifetime. As Esszencia is AU$480-1000 a bottle, this experience will not come to everyone but must be experienced at least once in a lifetime.
It seems to me, that you have many great wines to drink but I must also say that get ready to give 20 points (or 100) for something that you will drink and experience on the 24th.
Cheers,
Attila

[Gary W]

Wow...so many things to answer here. Let's start with Gary W.-
Yes, all wines are biologically dead.
For me, however they are a LIVING THING that change, age and transform, like human beings do. To be honest, every time I open a new wine, I'm looking for it's SOUL, SPIRIT, something Godly and inspired. Now, to find that experience it does not happen often, BUT IT DOES happen for me every now and then. It's like a miracle, I just sit there and wonder, how the humble grape can be so complex and wonderful.
Cheers,
Attila

Thanks for the answer. It is both poetic and romantic and I understand the sentiment behind it. For me, however, it is a load of pseudo-science and voodoo. We all have our opinions though - right or wrong - and I am just a cynical atheist at heart

GW