Hungary's Tokaj region - aiming
to regain old glories
31.8.2007 - Sandor Laczko
"The wine of kings - the king of
wines" - is what Louis the 14th, of
France is reported to have said
as he popped the cork on another
bottle of Tokaj wine. This is the
delicious sweet wine produced in
the north-eastern Hungarian
region of Tokaj - with a little bit of
it stretching into Slovakia. The
region is World Heritage listed
and the flagship of Hungarian
wine production. It is now trying
to regain its former glory.
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Wine has been produced in the
Tokaj region since the 14th
century. It is the combined
presence of special geological,
climatic and biological conditions
along with strict rules applied for
centuries that make the taste of
Tokaj wines so special and
inimitable. Mihály Konkoly of the
Pannon-Tokaj Trading House
explains:
"The speciality is the microclimate, the botrytis cinerea, a
kind of fungi, which is necessary
to get aszú berries and, of
course, the soil, give the
opportunity special white dessert
wines. Aszú is a kind of raisin, a
kind of botrytised grape, very,
very late harvested grape. The
water is going off from the berries
during the harvesting period.
That's
why
everything
is
concentrated in the berries:
sugar, aroma, acids, etc. In
Tokaj, there are very strict rules
for cultivating grapes and the
winemaking technology, as well".
"Other experts I talked to added
that the special volcanic soil
containing triolite tufa and the
white grapes retaining acid
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content, even when they are
overripe, also contribute to the
uniqueness of wine produced in
the Tokaj region. The noble wine
varieties from Tokaj became
known
all
over
Europe.
Erzsébet Prácser, the owner
of the family wine cellar
"Erzsébet Pince" in Tokaj
believes that Prince Ferenc
Rákóczi, the landlord of the
Tokaj area in the late 16th and
early 17th century made the first
important steps to make this wine
known in many countries of the
continent.
"I like to say that Rákóczi was
our first real great marketing
manager since he made the
Tokaj wine known in countries his
diplomats travelled to. That is
how the Tokaj wine got to the
Sun King, for instance, or to the
royal courts of King Gustav of
Sweden and Tsar Peter the Great
of Russia who then purchased
large quantities. The image of
Tokaj wine was bright until after
the Second World War when the
nationalisation
of
private
properties and the fact that the
large Soviet market attracted
huge quantities without respect to
quality did a great damage to the
quality and image of Tokaj
wines".
During the past 15 years much
has been done to improve quality
and marketing. But the wine
industry is rapidly changing. For
instance, the latest health trend in
public taste - in line with
discouraging
people
from
consuming sugar - does not help
the cause of sweet Tokaj wines.
That - just like the EU directive calls for lower production levels
that producers wish to counter
with higher quality. This year's
figures seem to confirm these
efforts as vintage promises to be
around 26,000 tonnes in the
region, 20-30 per cent less than
last year, but of higher quality.
"Our problem now is that high
quality and great care are not yet
reflected in the prices we can
achieve.
That's
when
the
importance of marketing comes
into the picture again. I think
Hungarian wine producers should
be given similar support by the
government to those enjoyed by
their colleagues in Chile, for
instance.
What
I
have
experienced in California recently
is that the name 'Tokaj' is wellknown but the actual wine is not.
Mentioning Hungary abroad,
everybody heard about Tokaj and
Puskás - wine lovers and
football lovers know about them".
The Tokaj brand name used to
be used not only in Hungary but
also by producers mainly in
France, Italy, Australia and the
United States. EU regulations on
geographical indication ordered
French and Italian producers to
relinquish using the Tokaj brand
name, including its spelling
varieties. The Italians offered a
huge amount of money to
Hungary for the right of using this
brand name and when rejected,
they even turned to the European
Court of Justice that eventually
decided in Hungary's favour. The
European Union also settled this
issue with Australia and the
United States and both counties
agreed to phase out the use of
the Tokaj brand name in the next
few years. However, the situation
with Slovakia where about 10 per
cent of the Tokaj region extends
to is different. Zoltán Harcz of
the
Hungarian
Ministry
of
Agriculture explains:
"There was an agreement signed
on the 14th of June, 2004 by the
representative of the European
Commission and the agriculture
ministers
of
Slovakia
and
Hungary. In this agreement, there
are certain tasks for Slovakia,
something like the harmonisation
of the rules on Tokaj wines, of
regulations on bottling, labelling
of Tokaj wines and there is a
maximum area of Slovakian
Tokaj wine growing region: this is
560 hectares".
So, with the debate about the use
of the prestigious 'Tokaj' name
settled, Hungarian producers
must now concentrate their
efforts on re-establishing the old
glory of the wine of this UNESCO
World Heritage listed region.
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