Tokaj is increasingly becoming known as not just a region, but a brand. It is a brand worth watching, as evinced by the EU’s decision to make it a protected destination of origin, much like like Champagne or Emmentaler cheese. It is of course the dessert wines, the Azsú and Essencia, that have gained worldwide fame and are sought after by wine enthusiasts of every nationality. But did you know there is a variety of Tokaj that is even more rare than these? We are speaking of ice wine.
Ice wines are nothing new to countries like Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. But it was only in 1999 that Chateau Pajzos became the first winery to produce a Tokaj ice wine. Unlike traditional Tokaj wines that employ the ‘noble rot’; grapes which are left to over-ripen on the vine and are harvested in autumn, the grapes used for ice wine are not harvested until they have actually frozen on the vine. This leaves the fruit vulnerable to the elements far longer than what is safe for a good harvest, and thus the haul is a precious small one. Once the first frost has come, the grapes must be picked immediately, within the day’s first few hours, or they will be unusable. This means that a wine-maker either needs a very large workforce or a very small acreage to harvest grapes for ice wine. Furthermore, the frozen grape yields less wine must than an unfrozen one; the winemaker needs more of them for production. Ice wines are rare and expensive for these reasons.
It should be noted that the Riesling grape is typically used in Hungary for ice wine, and wine-makers from the Villany and the Balaton regions have also experimented with ice wines, which are known for their clean, sweet flavor.
What’s the world’s biggest producer of ice wine? We wish we could say Hungary, but most ice wine comes from the unlikely source of Canada. So we happily raise a toast, on these, the coldest of days, to our cousins across the Atlantic. But they should watch their backs, because like with all other varieties of wine Hungarians have applied their skill to, Hungarian ice wine is on the rise.
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