Interesting article I thought would be worth sharing:
3 Likes
Wow, 88 pounds of grapes to make 1, 375 mL bottle. Crazy.
1 Like
I thought I was going to see an article about some Burgundy and say "I thought Essencia is the pretty much the rarest wine made,"but here we are.
2 Likes
Interestingly, this page has the same numbers listed to produce a 375 of Ordoñez #4 Esencia.
How about 500+ g/l of residual sugar!
I’ve had some PX that was in that class, maybe
2 Likes
Ewww, I don’t even consider them before 61 
1 Like
Did you pay more than $1,416 for that?
Not 45 years ago when I bought it
I believe Aszu Essencia is a step right below Essencia. I have a bottle of 1993 Royal Tokaji Aszu Essencia that I’m not sure when to open.
1 Like
(deleted)
Would love to find a '93. One of my Holy Grail bottles.
Indeed, PX is often 300-500 g/l in residual sugar - yet they are nothing alike. The difference is in the acidity and alcohol. PX is typically 15-20% ABV with 3-5 g/l acidity. Essencia is often just 3-5% ABV with 20-25 g/l acidity. Due to their immense acidity, they don’t taste nearly as sweet as they technically should.
This is correct. Eszencia is the flagship Tokaj. Aszú Essencia or Aszúeszencia is just a regular Aszú with sweetness that goes beyond 6 Puttonyos. Technically can be considered to be the 7th Puttony with no upper limit in regards to the sweetness.
I had this maybe 10 years ago and it’s one of the greatest, most memorable wines I have ever tasted. There’s probably no rush, but absolutely no reason to wait. In fact, I would find an opportunity to get to it in the next couple of years, just because when I had it there was already a good bit of maturity, and I don’t think it would get any better from that point.
1 Like
The thread brings back memories. I imported Hungarian wine for a while straddling the period when walls were falling. I remember bringing hoisin sauce for Peking Duck to Eger on my second visit after deep discussions about hanging ducks (they are big on duck in Hungary). They had the ducks, they pretty much knew how to get the skins crisp (there was an incident with getting the skin separated from the meat involving an air compressor and an exploded duck right on the bottling line), they had the scallions, they had the pancakes.
I bought 1947 Eszencia from Monimpex, kept one bottle and drank it. Spectacular, fiery acidity couldn’t quite mask the sugar and density. IIRC it was labeled 7% but they told me it was actually less.
I have a bottle of Zimmermann 4 Puttonos in the basement penciled in to drink this year, 1924 vintage. I will probably open it in September, when I move into my new house. And I’ve got one 1967 Monimpex 5 puttonos left that will be opened on some random occasion.
Dan Kravitz
4 Likes
All correct with the Aszú Essencia explanation, although the term AszÚ Eszencia is not in use anymore since it caused too much confusion. It was actually “invented” during the communist era to close the “gap” between Aszú and Essencia.
1 Like
How about Essencia closer to 750 g/l?
Uri Borok Essencias are known for extreme high sugar levels, can be found here:
tokajneum.com
Awesome
Year: 2008
Location: Mád
Grape Varieties: 80% Furmint. 10% Harslevelü. 10% Muscat Lunel
Vineyard: Szent Tamás. Dancka. Bojta
Alcoholic Content: 2 % vol
Residual Sugar Content: 760 g/l
Acidity: 16.0 g/l
Content: 0.5 l
Contains sulfite.