Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Europe
346
Royal Tokaji
The Noble Rot
Mád, Tokaji, Hungary
The sleepy hills and quaint villages of
northern Hungary have seen their fair
share of war and revolution. One of those
wars created a wine—and one of those
revolutions nearly killed it.
The story begins in the 13th century.
One year, the vineyard workers had to
abandon their harvest—the Turks had
once again decided to invade, and help
was needed to fight them off. By the time
the farmers returned, the white grapes
not only grew old and shriveled on the
vines, they were covered in an unpleasant
fungus called botrytis. The workers picked
the grapes anyway, leaving them piled in a
heap. Soon they noticed a rich, honey-
colored syrup oozing from the bunches.
Mixed with the previous year's white wine,
it tasted surprisingly good.
Thus was born the famous Tokaji Aszu
wine. The fungus—which became known
as “the noble rot”—produced an intense,
sweet wine so rich, each plant can only
produce a glassful. It became the favorite
drink of royalty all across the continent;
kings, popes, queens, and emperors
clashed to own the wine region. The
grapes literally became worth their weight
in gold; to touch them was punishable by
death. (Catherine the Great of Russia went
so far as to place a permanent sentry
around the area.) The vineyards became
the first classified wine region in the world
in 1772 (a mere 150 years before Bor-
deaux was classified), with a secret net-
work of hidden caves built to hide the wine
from marauders.
Nowadays the only marauders are tour-
ists, and those very same moldy under-
ground complexes can be toured and
tasted in. The 3-hour train ride from
romantic Budapest takes you through pic-
turesque towns with red onion-shaped
church towers, and past bucolic hills
divided by two great rivers called the Tisza
and Bodrog. In the morning, the vineyards
lie covered in a heavy mist that encour-
ages the noble rot.
The Royal Tokaji is probably Hungary's
most famous winery. Located in a small
yellow-fronted house in the town of Mád, it
has a charming underground cellar and
tasting room. You learn from the guide that
the sweet wine Tokaji Aszu nearly disap-
peared during the Cold War; this winery
only reopened its doors in 1989. Just as
royalty coveted the wine, communism dis-
missed it as manna for the bourgeoisie, and
when the Iron Curtain came down, so did
the bar counter. During the communist era,
private vineyards became one big state col-
lective, and all the juice went into one big
pot, so to speak. Since the fall of the Soviet
Union, however, the region has experi-
enced a renaissance in its wines. The rot
has become noble once again.
Royal Tokaji,
Rakoczi Ut 35, Mád (
&
36/
47/548-500;
www.royal-tokaji.com).
(
Budapest (173km/107 miles).
L
$$$
Mamaison Residence Iza-
bella,
Izabella u. 61, Budapest (
&
36/47/
55-900;
www.residence-izabella.com). $$
Millennium Hotel,
Bajcsy-Zs. út 34, Tokaj
(
&
36/47/352-247;
www.tokajmillennium.
hu).
