Royal Tokaji eyeing ‘potential for growth’ as Essencia 2016 unveiled in UK

By Andrew Catchpole

Published: 07 August, 2023

Sweet wines may be less in vogue these days in many mature western markets, but the uniqueness of Tokaji – and especially its flagship Aszú wines – are bucking that trend.

That, at least, is the assessment of The Royal Tokaji Wine Company’s MD, Charlie Mount, who believes “there is strong potential for growth in both markets like the UK and also new markets”.

Mount was speaking alongside Royal Tokaji winery director Zoltán Kovács (pictured) at a virtual presentation to UK drinks press of the soon to be available Essencia 2016. This rare wine is made only in very special years from the juice that ‘drips’ freely from already specially selected botrytis Aszú-destined grapes, with half bottles of the last vintage released costing upward of £600 from a very small number of specialist merchants and retailers.

“Yes, sweet wine is not a growing category in a lot of markets, but it is a growing category in a lot of other markets,” said Mount.

“And for us, with Aszú wine, we very strongly believe in its future… our biggest challenge is how to make more, and that starts in the vineyard.”

To that end, Kovács and the team have been “working in the vineyard to increase the chances of getting botrytis and getting drying of the grapes” since his arrival at Royal Tokaji in 2017, with the average production of Aszú rising from 120,000 bottles a year towards 150,000.

Mount said that much of this comes down to spending the time in the vineyard (where a picker may only deliver one kilo of suitable grapes a day) to help spread the botrytis.

Despite the growth of dry wines from producers in this region of Hungary, Royal Tokaji remains “very committed to Aszú, with the challenge being to make more of it and charge what we believe to be a fair price for it”.

As for the Essencia, which sommeliers have typically been encouraged to serve on a specially designed glass spoon as an alternative to a dessert, at prices of £100 or more a mouthful, its role is also to help create what Mount describes as a very important “halo” around the sweet wines of Tokaji.

The price of Essencia may appear eye-watering, even to hardened fine wine critics, but Kovács has worked out that on average it takes “746 berries, hand-picked grapes” to begin the process of making Essencia, with a percentage of the wines that subsequently mature in various glass demijohns then blended back into Aszú if they are more latterly considered sub-par for Essencia.

The 2016 Essencia comes in at just 2% alcohol (quite high for the style, but generally yeasts tend not to perform well in such sugary environments), with acidity “electrifying”, to use Kovács’ description, and sugar levels well above the required 450g per litre.

As with Aszú wines, the longevity of Essencia is, perhaps obviously, another feature of such a sweet yet high acidity wine. Kovács happily concluded that: “I don’t think any of our lives will be long enough to reach the end of the drinking window.”

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