Tokaj PDO

Written records of viticulture in Tokaj go back to the 13th century, when the region's underground cellars also began to be built. The first written mention of aszú wine dates to 1571, in an inventory of the Garay family, and a 1707 national classification of Hungary's wine regions gave first-class status to Tokaj-Hegyalja alone. In 1737 regulation of Tokaj established the delimitation of the region, which the Tokaj product specification calls the first definition of origin protection in the world. Decanter's 2018 travel guide calls Tokaj's 1707-1708 classification possibly the oldest vineyard classification in the world, and the 1737 royal decree, which defined the region and the villages permitted to use the name, arguably the first controlled appellation.

• King Louis XIV of France praised aszú wine he received from Francis II Rákóczi with the words „C’est le roi des vins, et le vin des rois”
• Phylloxera appeared in 1886 and destroyed 90% of the vineyards within 10 years; Hungary's first wine law, in 1893, gave the Tokaj designation of origin a chapter of its own
• Between 1950 and 1990 state farms and state cellars were merged into the Tokaj-hegyaljai Állami Gazdasági Borkombinát, which bought up small growers' grapes; privatization in the region began in 1990
• In 2004 Hungarian wine law reserved the name aszú for the Tokaj wine region, and the region's name changed from Tokaj-hegyaljai borvidék to Tokaji Borvidék

Tokaj lies on the southern and south-eastern edge of the Zemplén Mountains, between latitudes 48°7′ and 48°30′. The Bodrog and Tisza rivers and the wetlands they form are major influences on the local climate; the two rivers meet in the town of Tokaj, and the Zemplén Hills protect the region from cold northerly winds. Humid air from the rivers brings dense foggy mornings in autumn, creating the conditions for Botrytis cinerea to infect the grapes as noble rot, and sunny, breezy afternoons then shrivel them. The vineyard soils are largely of volcanic origin and geologically very varied, with loess covering about 5% of the region around Tarcal and Tokaj.

• Annual mean temperature 10.8 °C, annual rainfall 525 mm (313 mm in the growing season), 2,009 hours of sunshine a year, and vineyards at 100 to 300 m above sea level
• August and early September are usually drier, as grapes reach full ripeness and then begin to shrivel; a wetter spell usually follows that opens the way to Botrytis cinerea
• Noble-rotted berries lose much of their water and reach sugar concentrations of 55 to 65%, while acidity rises less because the noble rot lowers acidity naturally
• Loess warms up faster, so the growing season starts earlier on it; the vineyards range across the slopes of 400 extinct volcanoes

Six varieties are permitted: Furmint, Hárslevelű, Kabar, Kövérszőlő, Sárgamuskotály and Zéta. Furmint, Hárslevelű and Sárga Muskotály are the region's characteristic grapes, with Zéta, Kövérszőlő and Kabar grown to a much smaller extent. In 2018 the permitted varieties' shares were 69% for Furmint, 18% for Hárslevelű and 9% for Sárga Muskotály, with the other three together at 4%; in 2008 Furmint covered about 60% of Tokaj's vineyards. Furmint comes in big, compact bunches that are prone to botrytis but retain very good acidity. That acidity provides essential structural balance to extreme sweetness: a firm acid backbone keeps Tokaj's sweet wines from going flat despite sugar levels that are often 100 to 250 g/L. Eight wine types are permitted: Eszencia, Aszú, dry Szamorodni, sweet Szamorodni, Fordítás, Máslás, late-harvest wine and white wine. As of 2018, output split into aszú 10%, dry 21% and wines with natural residual sugar 69%.

• Aszú: berries shrivelled on the vine by Botrytis cinerea and hand-picked separately at harvest are soaked in must of the same vintage, partly fermented must, still-fermenting new wine or wine, then matured for at least 18 months in wooden barrels
• Eszencia: must that runs from hand-picked aszú berries under its own weight, without pressing, and ferments only minimally
• Szamorodni is made from bunches that contain both botrytized and healthy berries; dry Szamorodni (maximum 9 g/L residual sugar) needs at least 24 months in wooden barrels and sweet Szamorodni (minimum 60 g/L) at least 6 months
• Fordítás pours must or wine over pressed aszú paste, and Máslás over the lees of aszú wine or Szamorodni; each needs at least 6 months in wooden barrels

Tokaj (Tokaji) is a protected designation of origin whose product specification is submitted by the Tokaji Borvidék Hegyközségi Tanácsa. Version 10a, which applies to grapes harvested after 1 August 2024 and before 1 August 2025, sets minimum residual sugar at 450 g/L for Eszencia, 120 g/L for Aszú, 60 g/L for sweet Szamorodni, Fordítás and Máslás, and 45 g/L for late-harvest wine. Aszú labels may carry the traditional terms 3, 4, 5 or 6 puttonyos, but '6 puttonyos' is allowed only on Aszú with at least 150 g/L residual sugar. The delimited area is the class I and class II land, under the vineyard cadastre, of 27 settlements, and Aszú, Eszencia, Szamorodni, Fordítás and Máslás may be bottled only inside the delimited area and sold in the Tokaj bottle, unless the council's board of directors permits a different bottle.

• Release dates: Eszencia, Aszú and dry Szamorodni no earlier than 1 January of the third year after harvest; sweet Szamorodni, Fordítás and Máslás from 1 January of the second year; late-harvest wine from 1 January of the following year
• Maximum yield for Aszú: 10 t/ha of grapes or 70 hl/ha of new wine on lees; with a vineyard name on the label, every type except Eszencia is capped at 6 t/ha of grapes
• The vintage must appear on the label, and at least 85% of the grapes must come from that year
• Royal Tokaji dates a classification of the finest vineyards to the end of the 17th century under Prince Rákóczi, into Great First Growths, First Growths, Second Growths and Third Growths

Under communism, grape varieties were selected above all for high yield, so leading producers have since had to select and plant clones from old vineyards. Royal Tokaji, founded in 1990 with wine author Hugh Johnson as a co-founder, set out to make single-vineyard wines from the Mézes Mály, Nyulászó, Szt. Tamás and Betsek vineyards; Mézes Mály, a Great First Growth, lies in the Tarcal commune and the First Growths Szt. Tamás, Nyulászó and Betsek in the Mád commune. Disznókő, acquired by AXA Millésimes in 1992, released its Aszú of the 1993 vintage in 1997 and calls it a fresher wine than those produced during the communist period. Tokaj Oremus in Tolcsva is owned by the Alvarez family of Vega Sicilia, and the 2003 vintage was István Szepsy's first release of dry wine under his own name.

• Royal Tokaji opened a new winery in Mád in 2010 to mark its 20th anniversary; it resisted making anything but top Aszú wines until 2003, when it produced what Decanter (2008) called its first impressive dry Furmint
• Disznókő takes its name from a vineyard first recorded in 1413; the name means "wild boar stone"
• Oremus's Mandolás is a selection rather than a single-vineyard wine, and Decanter (2008) held it up as a demonstration of Furmint's ability to take to oak fermentation
• By 2018 single-vineyard (dűlő) wines had become a strong trend, and Szepsy had turned his focus to the soils of his 400 vine parcels

Tokaj's cellars, mostly carved into tuff, hold a near-constant temperature of around 8 to 12 °C whatever the season, and the walls of cellars with a good climate are thickly coated in the noble cellar mould Cladosporium cellare, which helps regulate humidity. The rule that the specialties be bottled inside the region rests on their need to mature undisturbed in special cellars at 10 to 12 °C covered with noble mould. Sessile oak from the higher parts of the Zemplén Mountains supplies barrel wood from within the region. Decanter's 2018 travel guide recommends the multi-level 17th-century cellars at Dereszla, the restored Rákóczi Castle at Sárospatak and the 18th-century synagogue in Mád.

• The annual Tokaj wine auction takes place in late April, the town of Tokaj holds a wine festival in June, and Mád holds a Furmint Festival in September
• Tokaj is a 2.5-hour drive from Budapest
• Visitors to Tokaj-Oremus in Tolcsva can taste eszencia in its historic winery and deep underground cellars

Primary sources (Tokaj PDO product specification, Hungarian wine administration; Royal Tokaji; Disznókő): https://boraszat.kormany.hu/download/8/85/53000/TOKAJ%20term%C3%A9kle%C3%ADr%C3%A1s%20%2810a%20v%C3%A1ltozat%29%20kn.pdf, https://royal-tokaji.com/our-estate/, https://royal-tokaji.com/our-vineyards/, https://royal-tokaji.com/our-wines/, https://royal-tokaji.com/our-wines/aszu-wines/, https://www.disznoko.hu/en/history. Secondary sources: https://www.decanter.com/wine-travel/europe/tokaj-travel-guide-3787/, https://www.decanter.com/features/tokaj-a-new-style-of-top-notch-dry-white-247168/, https://www.decanter.com/premium/experts-choice-furmint-418928/. Last verified 2026-10-05