Tokaj Wine Region Day Trip

Time for some rural Hungary!  Tom reserved a private tour of the Tokaj wine region in eastern Hungary.  A tour to this region required a 2.5-3 hour van ride each way but it seemed to make sense that we should aim to visit the most famous wine region in Hungary (and one of the most famous in the world for that matter).

At 8am, Judy (Judit, actually, but most people call her Judy) met us in the lobby of our grand Budapest hotel.  I had managed to slug a couple good coffees down and bought a pastry and water for the road.  We had an excellent driver and Tom and I were glad to hand the reins to someone else in this foreign land.  Tibor was his name I believe.  Nice guy.  I was a bit nervous at first with another driver but after a few minutes I could see that he was truly a great driver and I relaxed.

Our itinerary for the day was to visit Oremus, one of the premier wineries in Hungary, in the morning.  This would entail a full tour of the facility, a visit to the caves, and an in-situ tasting by candlelight.  At midday, we would eat lunch at a fine establishment and have wine pairings with our 3 courses.  In the afternoon, we would finally visit a very small newer winery doing some amazing things.

First up - Oremus.  There is a very long, interesting history to Tokaj wines but for centuries these special, sweet wines were favorites of kings.  Phylloxera and communist rule did a number on the vineyards from the late 19th century until 1989 but the industry is reemerging with a vengeance now. Hopefully, in the next 10-20 years we will see Hungarian (and Czech) wines much more frequently on the shelves in the States.  But I digress...

Oremus...  Since it was harvest season, a crew was in full swing taking the grapes in and sending them on to be crushed and fermented.  You gotta love that smell of grapes in the air during the harvest season.

Oremus Winery, Tokaj, Hungary 

Grapes with Botrytis (fungus) -

Yes, this is the way it's supposed to look!!! 

The nectar 

Bottles of Eszencia - SUPER-sweet nectar of the Gods (and VERY expensive) 

Exterior of Oremus 

Before entering the chilly caves, they gave us these heavy woolen vests to keep us warm.

Styling Vests for our Cave Tour

Entering the Oremus Cave System (miles long) 

Stacked, unlabeled bottles 

Mold growing on the bottles in the cave

I've been in quite a few wine caves now but I've never seen anything remotely close to the mold buildup on these bottles!!!

Our Oremus tour guide did not speak any English (although I do think she understood a decent amount) so Judy translated what she said for us.  After walking through long corridors in the cave with thousands and thousands of bottles in storage, we finally came to a round room where we had our tasting.  Our guide lit the candles and it really was an amazing place to sample these famous wines.  At this point, I was quite happy to have my warm wool vest!

I must say that I had some trepidation about these sweet dessert wines.  Would I really enjoy them for more than a sip?  

The first two wines were dry, white Tokaj wines, furmint grape I believe.  The first was from 2012 and the second (same wine) was from 2003!!!  The two tasted amazingly different.  I guess these whites can age quite a bit!  

Then came #3, a late harvest white wine.  I thought I'd died and gone to heaven!  Not just sweet.  This wine had so much going on in it.  Complex flavors and sweetness but balanced with some acidity it was NOT like a sugar-bomb in the mouth.

Then it was on to the Tokaj Aszu.  This is why we were here.  Yes, I've really enjoyed some of the dry white wines here in this region and I'm a fan of furmint now (the "jury's out" for Tom a bit, at least for the nose of those wines).  We started with the 2005 and ended with the 2003.  Both of these knocked our socks off!  Now we get it.  Now we catch a glimpse of what all the hype is about!  We are believers.

These special wines can literally age for decades (and you really want them to).

 The five Oremus wines we tasted

Tom, Lori and I in our awesome vests

At the end of possibly the best wine tour/tasting I've ever had, of course, I just had to purchase a couple gems.  I bought the late harvest bottle and a 2000 Tokaj Aszu.  What makes this so special is that it is very difficult to get these in the US.  The 2000 Aszu was rated 98 points by Wine Spectator, and our tour guide recommended that one highly, so I decided to go with that vintage.  I'm sure I won't be disappointed.  It's 14 years old now and I'm sure I can wait another 10-15 years before drinking it (but I won't!).  This 500ml bottle cost the equivalent of $40 so quite expensive by Hungarian standards.  This may be the most special bottle of wine now in my collection and it will have to be for a special occasion with special friends or family.  Drinking this wine deserves complete focus from all who taste it.

What a great start to the day!  Oremus will not soon be forgotten...

But now we were all getting quite hungry so it was onto our lunch spot.  We had a table outside in the beautiful, bright sun.  It was hard to complain about too much sun as the trip has been generally cool until Hungary.  We all ordered salad/appetizer, a main course, and some got a desert as well.  I opted for a 1993 Tokaji Aszu for my desert.  The best desert possible (yes, better than port even!).

It was a very good lunch in a nice setting but the wine was the most memorable part for me.

Judy and Tom check out the grapes on the vines 

An interesting tidbit of info about the grape harvest in Hungary.  Apparently women do all (I believe) of the grape picking BY HAND.  Men's hands are too clumsy and strong to pick correctly apparently. Below, a group of women working hard in the field (Judy is on the left walking).

Another nice treat is that they let us actually eat the grapes from the vine.  That's a first for me in all the tours I've ever done!  Yummy.

 Tom enjoying some furmint

After a thoroughly satisfying and necessary lunch, it was on to our final winery of the tour:  Erszebet Pince.  If Oremus is attainable in the States, Erszebet Pince is most definitely not.  There was no tour here and that was fine by us.  The winemaker spoke perfect English and we tasted his fine selections at his deck in the shadows of the famous Tokaj Hill.  It was a truly great, relaxing experience sitting down with him and just talking about Hungarian wines and the state of the industry there.

I found all the wines to be quite good but in reality I'm quite sure my palette was shot at this point. Nonetheless, I knew it was worthy of a purchase.  I even got him to sign the bottle for me.  Unbelievably the bottle I chose cost the equivalent of $12 when it was easily worth twice that in my humble opinion.  My checked bag is filling up too quickly.  We still have yet to visit the Moravian wine region in the Czech Republic!!

Our experience with Judy for the most part was fantastic.  Taste of Hungary (her company) provided an ideal full-day itinerary and we had a robust experience we would not have had otherwise.  Nice find, Tom!!