Other sweet wines: In the past few years reductive sweet wines have begun to appear in Tokaj. These are ready for release a year to 18 months after harvest. They typically contain 50-180 g/L of residual sugar and a ratio of botrytised berries comparable to Aszú wines. They are usually labeled as késői szüretelésű ( late harvest) wines. Innovative producers have also marketed tokaji wine that does not fit the appellation laws of the above categories but is often of high quality and price, and in many ways comparable to aszú. These wines are often labeled as tokaji cuvée. Undeniably, there is an aura about Szepsi: he ranks among the very few persons to whom a kind of wine is attributed. He could be called the Dom Perignon of Hungary,” continues Lambert-Gócs. “From all the fanfare about him in Hungarian wine history, it can hardly be doubted that he made a major contribution of some sort, a contribution that profoundly affected the fabrication of botrytis wines in Hegyalja. But just what was his contribution? Did he actually ‘discover’ botrytis or ‘invent’ botrytis aszú wine? Not likely, since over one-hundred years had passed since the very overripe grapes were being used in Hegyalja. Was he the first person to ‘soak’ the mass of aszú-grape material before fermentation? Again, not likely, since this was a Balkan method known in Hegyalja long before his time … But, in the end, without any documentation, it seems destined always to remain guesswork.” In H. Warner Allen's short story "Tokay of the Comet Year" (1930), a rare Tokay features prominently in a complex plot involving spies and a missing treaty. The wine called Eszencia is a wine made entirely of Aszú berries. The grape must for Eszencia is so sweet, it’s practically syrup, making it very difficult for yeast to ferment sugar into alcohol.

The concentration of aszú was traditionally defined by the number of puttony of dough added to a Gönc cask (136 liter barrel) of must. [6] Nowadays the puttony number is based on the content of sugar and sugar-free extract in the mature wine. Aszú ranges from 3 puttonyos to 6 puttonyos, with a further category called Aszú-Eszencia representing wines above 6 puttonyos. Unlike most other wines, alcohol content of aszú typically runs higher than 14%. Annual production of aszú is less than one percent of the region's total output. The Aszú berries are macerated with the must for approximately 48 hours. The ratio of must to Aszú berries dictates the level of sweetness. The blend, now “Tokaji Aszú” is run off into stainless steel tanks or oak casks and fermented until it reaches the final balance.The Rutherglen wine region in Australia produces a dessert wine made from Muscadelle grapes that has usually been referred to as Tokay, but which has little resemblance to the grapes or the processes of Hungarian Tokaji. Following a change in regulations in 2007, this variety of dessert wine has been sold under the name "Topaque" [16] by some wineries, but as of 2012 some others continue to label theirs Tokay. It was really good fun. Being able to spend time with capable, passionate people gives us real energy and faith in the future. It was wonderful to see the interest of so many people. Bori, Istvan, ed. (2012). The Essential Guide to Being Hungarian: 50 Facts and Facets of Nationhood. Steerforth Press. ISBN 9780982578162. Dry Wines: The fine quality dry Tokaji Furmint is a relatively new development in the region. For centuries the main product of the area was the sweet wine, mainly the Botrytised selections. The dry Furmint got into the attention of wine connoisseurs and experts of the world when the Úrágya 2000 single vineyard selection had been introduced by István Szepsy. The wine expressed great minerality, complexity and structure, which has been experienced only in the finest white wines of historic regions like Burgundy or the Mosel before. The aging potential was also promising. In 2003 more producers of Mád village produced single vineyard selected dry Furmint wines with great success. Mád village with its almost 1200 ha had the opportunity to produce high quality dry Furmint wine in significant quantity as a commune level wine, which can express the unique volcanic terroir of the region, this wine is named after its appellation Mad and produced by István Szepsy Jr. in the Szent Tamás Winery. Tokaji wines have been famous for a long time, which has resulted in their name being "adopted" by other wines:

In Italy the name Tocai came to refer to the grape Sauvignon vert from the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, under the designation Tocai Friulano. It is currently known simply as Friulano. Emperor Franz Josef (who was also King of Hungary) had a tradition of sending Queen Victoria Tokaji Aszú wine, as a gift, every year on her birthday, one bottle for every month she had lived, twelve for each year. On her eighty-first and final birthday (1900), this totaled an impressive 972 bottles. Quality production ended with the Communist Party takeover of Hungarian winemaking. Aszú grapes were used for mass production in factories, with vineyard distinctions lost in giant tanks. Tokaj’s renaissance began after the collapse of communism with the establishment of Royal Tokaji in 1990 by well-known author Hugh Johnson and a small group of investors, who were inspired to restore and preserve Hungary’s precious wine legacy. The Tokaj RegionIn other words, Tokaji is defined by a terroir unique in the world, famous for the conditions that favor noble rot, and the late harvest of raisin grapes, highly concentrated in sugar, acid, and aroma. That is why, by royal decree, the region became the first delimited wine region in the world în 1737, just before the Bordeaux, Burgundy and Porto vineyards. Szamorodni: This type of wine was initially known as főbor (prime wine), but from the 1820s Polish merchants popularised the name samorodny, (The word stems from Slovak, the Prekmurje dialect of Slovene, and Kajkavian Croatian, which used to be spoken before the hungarization of the Pannonian Basin. The word is an adjective and means "self-grown", "the way it was grown", or "made by itself"). What sets Szamorodni apart from ordinary wines is that it is made from bunches of grapes which contain a high proportion of botrytised grapes. Szamorodni is typically higher in alcohol than ordinary wine. Szamorodni often contains up to 100-120 g of residual sugar and thus is termed édes (sweet). However, when the bunches contain less botrytised grapes, the residual sugar content is much lower, resulting in a száraz (dry) wine. Its alcohol content is typically 14%.