Berserkers,
Almost as bad as drinking Vin Santo during the summer heat, I’ve just cracked open a Tokaji to savor during what is actually a pretty cool night so I don’t feel as odd enjoying this.
PUKLUS PINCESZET TOKAJI ASZU 5 PUTTUNYOS
Rich sweet dessert wine full of apricot and a touch of complexity from aging. Drink on its own or enjoy this summer in a Hungarian Fröccs (equal parts Hungarian wine and soda water).
Before I even look at this in the glass, this is dark brown in the bottle. Way darker than a Tokaji should be at this age indicating advanced maderization ahead of its time. Upon opening, the wet cork bottom is covered in blue mold giving it a dark tint. Two reasons to worry now. Once poured in the glass, a slight translucency and golden yellow color starts to show in the light. Candied orange peel and dried apricot on the nose with a touch of burnt sugar. On the palate, full bodied and sweet intense flavors of honey, orange marmalade and apricot jam. A little burnt sugar toffee on the finish. I was worried about the wine’s advanced state but it actually to its credit has added character to the wine. High acidity to it as well to balance things out. Not Riesling levels of racy but certainly very high. Pretty good Tokaji in a good drinking spot in its teenage years.
I’ll definitely be trying this in a Hungarian Fröccs tomorrow. A Fröccs is a traditional Hungarian aperitif made by mixing equal parts of Hungarian red or white wine, either dry or sweet, with soda water. Sounds like a perfect all natural summer soft drink to me.
I don’t see anything out of ordinary in the color. Tokajis can turn surprpsingly dark brown as they age - even when they are quite young - and I’ve had younger Aszus that have been darker in color. Nothing to suggest madeirization.
Very high acidity is also something that sets Tokaji apart from many other dessert wines. I’m actually quite positive that the acidity there is higher than in a typical Riesling, but it just doesn’t taste so due to the residual sugar.
Finally, using such an excellent wine to make Fröccs seems like complete waste of fine wine. Fröccs is typically made from dry, inexpensive and aromatic whites and rose wines, not sweet, big or oaked wines. What you are making is not fröccs but just diluting an Aszu. This is like using premium-quality virgin olive oil for deep-frying purposes.
Nice note, Tran. I’m curious whether you were nibbling on any food while drinking the Tokaji? Also what temperature (relatively) was the wine when you tasted it? Thanks.
I had a small heart attack.
The wine was chilled in the fridge and I let it warm up in my glass a little. I did not pair it with food when I opened it last night as I wanted to savor it alone for the post. I did just finish having a pair of smoked beef and pork sliders and coleslaw for dinner followed by a caramel dacquoise and chocolate eclair for dessert.
Thanks for the comments, Otto. So let me give you some backdrop on this. I recently had dinner with a bartender who gifted me a full-size bottle of Monbazilliac and advised me to mix it with equal parts soda water for a spritzer or as he called it, a natural soda. This of course got me thinking about doing this with other sweet wines. I know that it’s common to have Port wine and soda or tonic but this usually involves a far less expensive White, Ruby or Tawny Port and certainly not an aged one like a Vintage or a Colheita. My curious had been piqued, to say the least. So I discovered the existence of Fröccs on the Internet and I assumed that Tokaji met the requirement of the Hungarian wine part.
Regardless of the tradition of which Otto has made me now aware, I decided to give it a try in the name of scientific imbibing. ![[wow.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/7/7d450e9830889c8943b674446a21b7254cad657e.gif "wow")
So is the end result any good? Yes, it’s quite good. I used 1 oz of the Tokaji and 3 oz of fresh soda water. The most striking thing is that the dilution from the soda water only shows me just how high a quality wine this is as the honey sweet apricot and marmalade flavors still shine through. That interesting burnt sugar toffee flavor on the finish when drinking the wine neat is gone, lost to dilution. Other than this, though, it’s pretty good as a sweet wine spritzer.
Now does this mean you should do it? That’s like asking if I should mix Dow’s 1994 or 2010 Chateau Rieussec with soda water because my bartender friend gave me a relatively inexpensive botrytis wine to do it with. Sure, the result would be far superior but it’d also be an incredible waste of good wine to turn out what is essentially just a good soda. Which is what Paul and Otto are getting at with their comments. You’d probably want to try this with a much less expensive Tokaji like a non-Puttonyo rated late harvest.
This brings me back to something I posted in the cocktail thread when I first got into mixology. Do you use inexpensive ingredients because it’s going into a diluted cocktail anyway or do you use top shelf ingredients to turn out the best possible cocktail you can? Still an ongoing debate in the cocktail world and I lean towards top shelf myself. Still there’s a limit here. While I was comfortable using a 5 Puttonyos Tokaji for this experiment, I sure wouldn’t use a 6 Puttonyos or an Aszu Essencia, that’s for sure.
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