Royal Tokaji Dry Furmint 2019

“smoky, stony and aromatic”

Jackson’s Notes: I first remember hearing about the wines of the Tokaji region in Hungary (they make wine there?) when I was a brand new recruit at Canlis in Seattle. My first taste of the Royal Tokaji Aszù sweet wine was a revelation, an aromatic wine with intense notes of fresh peaches, honey, and ginger. The ultimate free-run juice of this region’s wines used to be reserved for the bedside tables of tsars, kings, and popes.

The only problem is that even though the sweet wines are incredible, they’re expensive to make and they don’t sell as easily as they used to back in the early 1900s. So like many sweet wine regions, Tokaji has pivoted to dry winemaking in tandem with the sweet stuff. It turns out that Furmint, the most widely-planted white grape in Hungary, makes awesome dry white wines. They have high acidity, interesting stone fruit flavors, and lots of stony, minerally texture. 

Royal Tokaji company has been around for a relatively short time, having been founded in 1990s after the fall of communism. But the raw materials for great wine were already there. They had old vines, great volcanic soil, and a rich winemaking tradition that was just waiting to get revived and rejuvenated. The thing about Tokaji that makes it interesting is that it sits in the confluence of two rivers, the Tiszá and Bodrog, which contribute humidity to the air and create a perfect environment for botrytis cinerea, or noble rot. These mold spores dry the fruit out and concentrate the sugars and acids, also providing a beautiful note of ginger and honey to the finished dry and sweet wines.

This 2019 Dry Furmint leans more on the presence of fruit and mineral notes than those of botrytis, but you can still feel a sense of honeyed, spicy flavors on the finish. The volcanic notes here are the other point of interest: smoky, stony and aromatic. Even though you’re not technically supposed to be able to taste river and volcano notes in a wine, this one feels like it has them. Even if it’s just the power of suggestion, so be it.