Tokaj PDO

The Tokaj product specification records written evidence of viticulture in Tokaj from the 13th century, when the region's underground cellars also began to be built. It dates the first written mention of aszú wine to 1571, in an inventory of the Garay family, and records a 1707 national classification of Hungary's wine regions in which only Tokaj-Hegyalja received first-class status. In 1737 regulation of Tokaj established the delimitation of the region, which the specification describes as 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.

• The product specification records that 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 (product specification)
• 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 (product specification)
• 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 (product specification)

Tokaj lies on the southern and south-eastern edge of the Zemplén Mountains, between latitudes 48°7′ and 48°30′, according to the product specification, which names the Bodrog and Tisza rivers and the wetlands they form as major influences on the local climate. Decanter's 2008 feature notes that the two rivers meet in the town of Tokaj and that 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 (Decanter, 2018). The specification describes the vineyard soils as largely of volcanic origin and geologically very varied, with loess covering about 5% of the region around Tarcal and Tokaj.

• Product specification climate data: 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
• The specification says August and early September are usually drier, as grapes reach full ripeness and then begin to shrivel, and 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 (product specification)
• Loess warms up faster, so the growing season starts earlier on it (product specification); Decanter (2008) describes vineyards across the slopes of 400 extinct volcanoes

The product specification permits six varieties: Furmint, Hárslevelű, Kabar, Kövérszőlő, Sárgamuskotály and Zéta. It names Furmint, Hárslevelű and Sárga Muskotály as the region's characteristic grapes, with Zéta, Kövérszőlő and Kabar grown to a much smaller extent. Decanter's 2018 guide gave the permitted varieties shares of 69% for Furmint, 18% for Hárslevelű and 9% for Sárga Muskotály, with the other three together at 4%; Decanter's 2008 feature said Furmint covers about 60% of Tokaj's vineyards. Decanter (2008) describes Furmint as coming in big, compact bunches that are prone to botrytis but retain very good acidity. That acidity provides essential structural balance to extreme sweetness: the specification says a firm acid backbone keeps Tokaj's sweet wines from going flat despite sugar levels that are often 100 to 250 g/L. The specification lists eight wine types: Eszencia, Aszú, dry Szamorodni, sweet Szamorodni, Fordítás, Máslás, late-harvest wine and white wine. Decanter's 2018 guide split output 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 (product specification)
• Eszencia: must that runs from hand-picked aszú berries under its own weight, without pressing, and ferments only minimally (product specification)
• 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 (product specification)
• 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 (product specification)

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 (product specification)
• 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 (product specification)
• The vintage must appear on the label, and at least 85% of the grapes must come from that year (product specification)
• Royal Tokaji's own site describes a classification of the finest vineyards, dated there to the end of the 17th century under Prince Rákóczi, into Great First Growths, First Growths, Second Growths and Third Growths

Decanter's 2008 feature describes how, under communism, 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; its site places Mézes Mály, a Great First Growth, in the Tarcal commune and the First Growths Szt. Tamás, Nyulászó and Betsek in the Mád commune. Disznókő, acquired by AXA Millésimes in 1992, says its Aszú of the 1993 vintage, released in 1997, was a fresher wine than those produced during the communist period. Decanter (2008) reports that Tokaj Oremus in Tolcsva is owned by the Alvarez family of Vega Sicilia, and that 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; Decanter (2008) says the estate resisted making anything but top Aszú wines until 2003, when it produced its first impressive dry Furmint
• Disznókő takes its name from a vineyard first recorded in 1413; the estate says the name means "wild boar stone"
• Decanter (2008) describes Oremus's Mandolás as a selection rather than a single-vineyard wine, and a demonstration of Furmint's ability to take to oak fermentation
• Decanter's 2018 guide says single-vineyard (dűlő) wines have recently been a strong trend and that Szepsy has lately focused on the soils of his 400 vine parcels

The product specification says Tokaj's cellars, mostly carved into tuff, hold a near-constant temperature of around 8 to 12 °C whatever the season, and that the walls of cellars with a good climate are thickly coated in the noble cellar mould Cladosporium cellare, which helps regulate humidity. It justifies bottling the specialties inside the region by their need to mature undisturbed in special cellars at 10 to 12 °C covered with noble mould. The specification also notes that 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.

• Decanter (2018): 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
• Decanter (2018) puts the drive from Budapest at 2.5 hours
• Decanter (2018) says 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 2026-09-28