Sárospatak Castle Tokaji Edes Szamorodni 2021

The Château de Sárospatak is a late-Renaissance architectural monument in Hungary and bears the name of its town. It is part of Hungary's national heritage. The Tokaji bearing its name are produced only in the best years in order to create exceptional cuvées. They come from the Sárospatak and Tolcsva wine-growing areas and the south of the appellation, and are today acclaimed by leading sommeliers. Rich in sugar, aromas and acidity, the so-called "Aszú" berries (meaning “dried” in Hungarian) come from grapes that have shrivelled on the vine or been affected by noble rot. The aszú berries are harvested berry by berry in successive pickings, which represents a colossal amount of work in the vineyards. These berries are then added to a base white wine and macerate for several days until the wine is imbued with their extraordinary flavours.

The word Szamorodni is of Polish origin. It means “as it was born”. It therefore refers to the vinification of whole botrytised bunches, unlike aszú, which requires selected berries to be macerated in fermenting must. This wine is an authentic late harvest of nobly rotten berries with high sugar concentration, picked throughout October 2017 as the bunches became botrytised. After destemming and a short maceration, the grapes are pressed and then fermented in stainless-steel tanks. The wine was then aged for 12 months in 225-litre barrels before bottling in June 2019. The wine is highly aromatic and immediately reveals complex aromas of candied fruit such as roasted pineapple, apricot, pear, orange and nectarine. Around this fruity core come notes of toasted almond, honey, nutmeg, raisins and cinnamon. The flavours are particularly harmonious, with a sugar/acidity balance worthy of the great years. The finish is long and mouth-watering, making it a true sweet wine for the table.

It was the Romans who planted the first vines at a time when the Country was part of a region called Pannonia. It was at the dawn of the 18th century that Hungary, united with Austria, ensured the export of its most famous wine throughout Europe: Tokaj (from the Furmint grape variety). As throughout Europe, in the 19th century, viticulture was destroyed by phylloxera. During the communist period, vineyards were managed in cooperatives which guaranteed a stable income for wine producers. Quite a few small winegrowers were unable to keep up with this growing economy, so the Hungarian vineyard was restructured, losing 30% of its surface area in the process. Nowadays, many family estates have emerged, some of which produce wines of incredible quality. As everywhere in Europe, viticulture is in decline as part of the European restructuring plan for the wine industry. Hungary, which is at the same latitude as Burgundy, has a continental climate with hot summers and cold winters. The rainfall is sufficient for non-irrigated viticulture and the soils are heterogeneous and of high quality depending on the region. With around a hundred indigenous and international grape varieties, the country has good varietal diversity. The fürmint and the hárslevelű from the Tokaj region, vinified dry and at the origin of the great sweet wines of Tokaj, are undoubtedly the best-known varieties today. The most widely planted grape variety is Olaszrizling for whites and Kékfrankos for reds. International grape varieties, mainly Bordeaux grape varieties, flourish in particular in the south of the country where they produce high-class wines.