Old Communist Noble Rot Aged 15 Years in Oak Casks - Tokaji Oremus 1983
Oct 16 '04
The Bottom Line In the words of the winemaker: "A historical wine, recovered by Vega Sicilia´s meticulous work, with a single and noble aim: to follow in the last centuries´ tradition."
A relative--visiting from Budapest, Hungary--brought a special treat for me: an old bottle of Tokaji (Tokay). Tokay is one of the world's great dessert wines... a rare treat, fairly hard to find in the U.S.A. because so little of it is produced and exported.
The wine I had for my nightcap was a special bottling of the 1983 vintage from the Oremus vineyard.
The Oremus vineyard is a historic site in Hungary's Tokaji (Tokay) wine region. Tokay wines were first produced in this region over 350 years ago. After the fall of Communism in Hungary (1989), the State's wine production monopoly was dismantled and the Oremus vineyard and cellars were re-organized by the owners of Vega Sicilia Winery--a famous produced in Spain's Ribera del Duero. Cellared, casked Wines produced during the Communist were bottled by winery's new operator, Bodegas Vega Sicilia, S.A.
Tokaji Aszú Oremus, 1983
5 Puttonyos
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Alcohol: About 12% ABV.
Production: Produced using a blend of Aszú grapes from a series of hand-picked harvests.
Aszú grapes feature strong acid content and can deliver an extremely sweet flavor similar to golden raisins. The Aszú grapes are harvested from the Tokaji-Hegyalja (Tokaji hills) region--a wine producing region that lies a little more than 100 miles north of Budapest, near the Slovakia border.
This grape is susceptible to a rotting condition called "Noble Rot" (a fungal infection caused by Botrytis Cinerea) that adds very aromatic and honeyed qualities to the wine. To make Tokay, a mixture of "healthy" Aszú grapes is blended with a specially-harvested, shriveled, botrytis-effected grapes. The "rotted" grapes are collected in special tubs or baskets called Puttonyos. These tubs are added to the fermenting must (juice of the healthy grape), according to special proportions of 3, 4, 5, or 6 (and I have seen up to 7!) Puttonyos per barrel of wine. The larger the number of Puttonyos, the sweeter, thicker, and more honeyed the wine.
Climatic conditions are not always ideal for the development of botrytis, so there are some years when no Tokay dessert wines are produced. The bottle I had was one of the last, highly-regarded vintages produced while Hungary was a Communist state (a time when wine production was controlled by State-operated cooperatives).
The 1983 vintage was stored 15 years in old Hungarian oak casks. That's a long time by modern standards.
Check these other vintages--
1999: 2 years in oak (minimum by law)
1995: 3 years in oak
1988: 5 years in oak (last communist produced)
1983: 15 years in oak
1975: 21 years in oak
Appearance: Pours with a brilliant apricot-copper color. 5/5
Aroma: Organically complex--fruity and fungal--with rich, concentrated apricot, mandarin orange, and golden raisin. This is a wine that was stored over many years in an oak cask that is not completely filled... left exposed to some air. This gives the wine a wooded rancio nose (oxidized). Additionally, this wine was casked and stored cellars that were scooped out of rocky hillsides in Tokay. The ancient walls of these cellars are covered by a black mold known as Racodium Cellare, which some say also influences the aroma and flavor of the wine. There's a very interesting dissertation that discusses this fungus (and of Tokay wines, in particular) written by Tim Atkin:
http://www.ernestopauli.ch/Wein/Tokaj/Master/of/Wine.pdf
Flavor/Body: Medium-bodied and intensely flavored. Strong acid balances a fairly extreme measure of sweetness with a flavor very similar to golden raisins and ripe apricots. Small amount of nutty oak and an organically rich botrytis (noble rot) flavor. May not appeal to all, but definitely a complex, engaging drink. I drank this Tokay from a small wine/cordial glass (about 2 fl. oz. filled to the top, or about 50ml per regular serving) especially designed for this wine. 37/40
Finish: The acidity of this wine guards against a heaviness that one would expect from a very sweet wine. This is a particular kind of dessert wine that almost begs one to take gulps, featuring a long, fruity finish that is almost punctuated with a zippy amount of citrus/Mandarin orange flavor. 9/10
Overall: 23/25. Very good, even after 20+ years of waiting.
My score: 93. 4¾ stars. Recommended for those wanting to try a piece of history.
Price: This wine carries a retail price of €44 or so per 500ml bottle (about $55 US).
Recommendations: You may have better luck finding more recent vintages of this Tokay.
Oremus's 1999 Tokay Aszú 5 Puttonyos scored a rating of 92 in the June 15, 2004, edition of Wine Spectator magazine. A little more than 4,100 cases produced... which means that you'll probably still have a difficult time finding this wine, even at the suggested price of $45 per 500ml bottle. But if you can find a bottle or Oremus Tokay, grab one... and enjoy a fabulous dessert.
More information is available at the winery's website:
http://www.tokajoremus.com/
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