“Wine is a stage in a natural and inevitable process. We set it in motion when we plant a vine. The less we do to intervene with the behaviour of roots and leaves, soil, sun and rain, the better.”
Hugh Johnson OBE – Co-founder, Royal Tokaji
QUALITY OBSESSED
At the outset, Royal Tokaji decided to concentrate on producing single-vineyard wines, made from the First Growth vineyards of Mezes Maly, Myulaszo, Szt. Tamas and Betsek. Acknowledged as one of the region’s top winemakers, they combine traditional techniques with modern technology to create the award-winning Royal Tokaji range of wines. Royal Tokaji is the acknowledged leader of the renaissance of this legendary Hungarian wine, which, in the words of the wine author and company co-founder Hugh Johnson, is “a wine that would make angels sing out loud in praise.”
The Tokaj wine region lies 220km north-east of Budapest at the confluence of the Tisza and Bodrog rivers. The Zemplen Mountains are volcanic, rising in typically sudden cones from the north edge of the Great Plain. Two rivers, the Bodrog and the Tisza, converge at the southern tip of the range, where the Tokaj Hill rises above the villages of Tokaj and Tarcal. From the plain come warm summer winds, from the mountains shelter, and from the rivers the rising autumn mists that promote Botrytis. Tokaji was the first wine knowingly to be made from botrytized or “noble rotten” grapes. The conditions that cause the rot, the shrivelling of the grapes, and the intense concentration of their sugar, acidity and flavour are unique to the Tokaj region.
Royal Tokaji remains in private ownership and the wines are exported to more than 30 countries. The wines of Royal Tokaji have won over 100 international awards and continue to seduce wine lovers throughout the world.
