Ausbruch pinging Michael Pronay Sender: Ian

Salut-Hi Michael Pronay,

le-on Wed, 15 Feb 2006 15:47:04 +0100, tu disais-you said:-

I was about to comment earlier, but fortunately read down the thread before coming in.

Istvan's remark is both correct and misleading at the same time.

In general, Tokaji Aszu has always been made by the maceration of botrytised grapes in either wine or must - with one exception, which is that which gives the finest Aszu wine - Tokaji Aszu Eszencia. In THIS wine and this wine alone, the botrytised grapes are pressed and fermented as for a TBA or a properly picked Sauternes or Monbazillac (Cru Barréjats did 31 pickings in Oct 1997, just for your info) However I think it's also fair to say that normally in Tokaj botrytised grapes have a significantly higher sugar content than either Sauternes-monbazillac grapes, or beerenauslese grapes. This very high sugar content implies that you tend both to get very low yields and also have great problems in fermentation, which is why, incidentally, Hungarian wine law insists that the non macerated wines be kept in barrel longer than the others. Maceration in wine-must solves - or at least eases both problems.

In all other Tokaji Aszu wines, maceration does take place. Even in Szepsy's Tokaji Aszu 6 puttonyos, which is about as good as you can get for a Tokaji without the word "eszencia".

So while it's true that for the very finest Tokaji sweet wines, no maceration takes place, that's putting the bar pretty high in respect of "great".

ATB Ian -- All the Best Ian Hoare mailbox full to avoid spam. try me at website