Oremus Eszencia 2013

This cuvée comes from the historic Tokaj-Hegyalja vineyard in north-eastern Hungary, in the Tokaj wine region, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Oremus estate is based in Tolcsva and farms plots spread across favourably exposed slopes, between the foothills of the Carpathians and the valleys of the Bodrog and Tisza rivers. The volcanic soils, made up notably of rhyolite, tuff and clay, give the wines a mineral backbone. Autumn mists from the rivers encourage noble rot (botrytis), essential to making Eszencia.

The botrytised berries are harvested by hand, one by one. Their free-run juice, released under the berries' own weight, is collected and then fermented very slowly in 50-litre glass demijohns over several years.

This wine reveals notes of candied apricot, orange zest and dried fig, joined by hints of acacia honey, orange blossom and black tea. Touches of ginger, saffron and wet stone deepen its complex expression. The palate, extraordinarily concentrated yet airy, offers a syrupy texture balanced by vibrant acidity; its very long, fresh and saline finish extends the flavours of candied fruit and sweet spices.

It was the Romans who planted the first vines, at a time when the country was part of a region called Pannonia. At the dawn of the 18th century, Hungary, then united with Austria, exported its most famous wine throughout Europe: Tokaj (made from the Furmint grape). As everywhere in Europe, viticulture was devastated by phylloxera in the 19th century. During the communist era, vineyards were run as cooperatives, which guaranteed winegrowers a stable income. Quite a few small growers could not keep pace with this expanding economy, and so the Hungarian vineyard was restructured, losing 30% of its area in the process. Today many family estates have made their name, some of them producing wines of incredible quality. As everywhere in Europe, viticulture is in decline under the European restructuring plan for the wine industry. Hungary, which lies on the same latitude as Burgundy, has a continental climate with hot summers and cold winters. Rainfall is sufficient for non-irrigated viticulture, and the soils are varied and of high quality depending on the region. With around a hundred native and international grape varieties, the country enjoys good varietal diversity. Furmint and hárslevelű from the Tokaj region, vinified dry and the source of the great sweet wines of Tokaj, are undoubtedly the best-known varieties today. The most widely planted grape is olaszrizling for whites and kékfrankos for reds. International varieties, mainly the Bordeaux grapes, flourish especially in the south of the country, where they produce wines of great class.