Had this tonight. Hungarian wines remain a mystery for many, including me, but the quality level can be mind boggling and like Austrian wines, many very good wines sell at reasonable prices.

Tokaj is a town in Northeast Hungary near the Bodrog and Tisza rivers. As in Burgenland, fall mists promote "noble rot" fungal botrytization on local grapes, concentrating and altering the grape juice inside. These grapes are primarily the Furmint,deriving from the Latin Fromentum (wheat), and also the Harslevlu, or "lime"leaf deriving from its' shape; and occasional yellow Muscat, and hybrid Zeta. Chardonnay is grown too but not considered inthese wines.

Tokaji (add suffix -i)wines are not Tokay, but simply wines from the area around the town eg St. Emilion and can be dry or even red though most are whites.

Wine from these grapes picked later in the harvest, some botrytized some not, but still in the clusters is called "Szamarodni" or as it comes, and varies between dry and sweet.

Asza are the nobly rotted grapes, Aszu the juice from these. When the botrytized grapes are collected, molded into a putty-like mash, and added to the base nonbotrytized wine and must already in barrel, then steeped, stirred, pressed, and the juice collected, the concoction is already quite sweet. Allowed to ferment incompletely with local hardy yeasts tolerant of high alcohol, the juice is kept in barrel usually 3-4 years to allow optimal fermentation. Puttony or wicker tub-like hods of this mash used to be a gross measure of the degree of potential sweetness, and when added could number 3-6. When botrytis was prolific, at 7 or 8 puttonyos, all the juice essentially derived from the Aszu portion and this was called Aszu Eszencia (the essence of Asza).Today puttonyos are no longer used, but relative sugar contents of the base and rotted mash proportions estimated. Aszu by definiton must ferment two years in barrel, one in bottle. If not managed well, these can become maderized wines.

Disznoko, is one of several international second category (buy and grows own grapes) producers of Aszu Tokaji. They are owned by AZA and starting with 1990, after the removal of the oppressive Communist regimes, have led the industry's attempt to return to historical 'glory"days. The superb 1993 vintage and excellent 1995 have helped this winery rise to the upper tier of producers. Recent vintages, eg 1999, 2000, which won't be available for 3-4 years are purportedly also stellar. Tsunami on WS board has posted his ratings of these vintages for Aszu.

Now the wine. 5 puttonyos.WS-94 pts. $26.00 (500ml)

Color: amber to burnt sierra; slow thin legs.
Aroma: olde English marmalade, clementine, toasted wood.
Flavor:Orange peel with hint o lemon, burnt toast, and caramel. There is plenty of acidity to bolster the residual sugar. A slightly tangy finish tickles the tongue in a moderately long finish. 92 pts. QPR=A-