Tokaji eszencia, the rarest of all wines in Tokaj, if not in the whole world, is the pure essence of botrytized aszú grapes. The individually picked special late-harvest and noble-rotten berries are traditionally heaped on a table where the fruit’s own weight forces out the legendary nectar, the true heart of Tokaj with unequaled intensity of flavor and enormous concentration of sugar. This sweet revelation is then slowly fermented and long-aged for many years in small oak casks. An elixir of kings, the finished unctuous wine is so extreme that it was once reserved for the final hours of dying Magyar monarchs. Immortalized in the national anthem, only a few dozen barrels of Tokaji eszencia exist in all of Hungary. None of it is known to leave the country. Largely relegated to the imagination only, a few wildly expensive bottles, however, turn up overseas from time to time. Given its genuine characteristics, Tokaji eszencia maintains its quality and drinkability for centuries.
