The Aszú Premier tasting at the beginning of December offered a timely opportunity to reassess where Tokaji Aszú stands today. It was a focused professional setting: tasting, exchanging views with winemakers, and taking the temperature of the category. Not everyone was present — notably, a few larger producers were missing. Still, the tasting provided a representative snapshot, and selected tasting notes will be highlighted at the end of this article.
Tokaji Aszú Today: Legacy, Responsibility, and Market Reality
Tokaji Aszú remains one of the wine world’s most singular achievements. This is not a romantic claim but a historical and professional consensus. As Michael Broadbent MW famously stated, “It is one of the unique classic wine areas of the world.” Tokaj, the region, and Tokaji, the wine. The international wine trade learnt about Hungary through Tokaj and, more precisely, through Tokaji Aszú. For generations, the global community has taught, referenced, and understood this wine as Hungary’s defining vinous expression. Full stop.
That legacy, however, brings responsibility. Protecting the name, safeguarding quality, and ensuring relevance for the future are no longer abstract ideals; they are practical questions facing Tokaji Aszú today. And this is precisely where the current conversation begins.
Tokaj as a Region: Fragmentation, Scale, and Conflicting Signals
Tokaj is a difficult terrain when you look at it as a complete wine region. The producer landscape is unusually fragmented and layered. At one end, there are small to mid-sized local estates aiming for high quality. At the other end, there are volume-driven actors whose business logic is closer to throughput than to origin expression. In the middle sits a broad, shifting group with mixed incentives and mixed outcomes.
This complexity is not just social or economic. It becomes structural because Tokaj’s framework also contains powerful institutional and market-moving forces. There are state-linked structures that absorb large grape volumes and shape baseline market behaviour, while international investors and quality-driven estates operate with global positioning, export routes, and different expectations around brand building. Plus entities that buy grapes and drive production capacity.
A region like this can accidentally work against itself. When many segments operate under the same regional name but pursue sharply different price and quality strategies, the market receives contradictory signals. The result is predictable: Tokaji Aszú can appear “too cheap” in places where it should be defended as one of the world’s great classic wines, while the specification and its interpretation allow a range of outcomes that are difficult to communicate as one coherent category.
This leads to the core tension. Tokaj is willing and able to tighten rules when it wants to, just observe the last product specification when they tightened the sparkling wine rules. Stricter lees ageing and dosage levels. Nevertheless, when we turn to Tokaji Aszú, the regional reality still allows substantial divergence between “Tokaji Aszú” and “Tokaji Aszú” in both quality and price. That gap distorts the category nationally and internationally, because the consumer sees one name, but experiences multiple, sometimes incompatible, propositions.
How Tokaji Aszú is made – method, thresholds, and constraints
Tokaji Aszú is made from aszú berries: individual grape berries affected by Botrytis cinerea (noble rot), which develop on the vine and are hand-harvested separately at vintage.
For Aszú production, the minimum sugar content of the aszú berries is defined at
26.08% potential alcohol, equivalent to 45° refractometric sugar or 438.3 g/l.
Since it’s so concentrated you need to apply a “red wine technique”, the soaking of the aszú berries in must, fermenting must/wine or base wine from the same vintage.
The base wine or must used for Aszú itself meets a minimum sugar level of
12.08% potential alcohol (19 °MM; 203.3 g/l).
During this process, sugars, acids, aromas, and extract are transferred from the botrytised berries into the liquid. This step is central to Aszú’s identity and distinguishes it from “pressed sweet wines”. And it makes them very different to other sweet wines in the world. But here is a fun fact: due to the dilution of must of the wine (non-botrytised), a sweet Szamorodni can contain more botrytis than an Aszú. From 100 kg of aszú berries, the maximum permitted production yield is 220 litres of wine. The maximum permitted yield is defined as 70 hl/ha. When calculating permitted yield, aszú berries are counted with a fivefold multiplier, meaning that the quantity of botrytised berries weighs disproportionately in the total yield calculation. So much for the production side.
Example one: Rust
I teach a lot in Austria for the Weinakademie in Rust, so I’m happy to pick a comparison from there, like a Ruster Ausbruch, which is a Trockenbeerenauslese (TBA) level and actually shares quite a few historical points with Tokaj.
Ruster Ausbruch is a natural sweet wine made from selectively hand-harvested, noble-rotted grapes that shrivel on the vine under the influence of Botrytis cinerea. Fermentation does not run to dryness; residual sugar results exclusively from interrupted fermentation, with enrichment or sweetening prohibited. The must must reach a minimum of 30°. Klosterneuburger Mostwaage (22% potential alcohol), production and bottling are restricted to the Free City of Rust, and yields are capped at 10,000 kg of grapes or 7,500 litres of wine per hectare.
Example two: Sauternes
Sauternes, another benchmark for botrytised sweet wines, is defined by rigorous vineyard and harvest discipline. Grapes are harvested by hand in successive selective passes, with a minimum must sugar of 221 g/l, a minimum natural alcohol potential of 15% vol., and a deliberately low yield of 25 hl/ha (28 hl/ha absolute maximum). Limited enrichment and partial must concentration are permitted within strict boundaries, reinforcing a system where concentration, selection, and scarcity—rather than sugar alone—define quality.
Tokaji Aszú
Tokaji Aszú possesses the most extreme raw material of the three systems, but it is the only one that allows that raw-material intensity to be redistributed across a relatively wide liquid volume. Quality is therefore enforced economically and structurally rather than directly through compositional thresholds. This makes excellence possible but variability inevitable. We can see this every day; on the one hand you have a stunning, amazing Tokaji Aszú for 250 EUR and also a Tokaji Aszú which retails for 7 EUR. This gap is simply too wide.
This is a screenshot from one of the discounter’s websites.
Sauternes controls quality by limiting how much wine can exist; Tokaji Aszú controls quality by making intensity economically expensive rather than chemically mandatory based on the product specifications.
The comparative evidence shows that the strongest sweet-wine systems do not define quality by sugar alone, but by how tightly concentration, yield, and volume are linked. A revised Tokaji Aszú specification could retain the historic soaking method while introducing a clearer intensity lock—through a modest maximum litre output per kilogram of aszú berries, paired with an Aszú-specific yield ceiling—so that density and extract, not just sweetness, are structurally guaranteed. Such an approach would not push Tokaji toward extremism but would restore coherence, ensuring that the name Tokaji Aszú consistently signals concentration, labour, and scarcity rather than merely residual sugar.
The best producers are usually those who followed a tighter and stricter approach, because it’s not just the sugar content but the concentration of it which gives you depth and dimension. Another finding is that the individual sites play a crucial role, and even if a producer produces in its line-up a 5-puttonyos aszú – while 6 puttonyos would be technically above – yet if the individual site is strong enough, it clearly shows amazing quality. Especially those who make both 5- and 6-puttonyos – it’s worth taking a closer look at the label.
Tokaji Aszú is undoubtedly – if not the best – amongst the finest of the finest when it comes to great natural sweet wines of the world. No doubt it has everything a great wine needs: history, reputation, place, people’s knowledge and, of course, the quality of it is exceptional. However, the gap in some cases on the market can be wide. Not just down to price but also quality.
Stats 2024
The Hungarian statistical bureau (KSH) has export data for Tokaji wines (just Tokaj PDO without sparkling wine), as it’s the only wine which runs under an individual tax code. All the graphs (3) here relate to all Tokaji still wines. The 2024 numbers tell us that the Czech Republic is a volume-driven core market, followed by Slovakia and Poland, while Spain is a clear value outlier, as are France and the USA, with premium positioning similar to China and South Korea, while the UK is premium but low volume.
Research of Tokaji Aszú
Winemaker (Gizella Winery) and researcher László Szilágyi has shown in his recent research that wines achieving higher results at major international wine competitions such as the Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA) are consistently associated with higher market prices.
For Tokaji Aszú, this means that top-scoring wines tend to sit in the premium price segment, not because awards automatically raise prices, but because independent competition results reinforce quality signals that both producers and consumers already value.
In practice, competition success strengthens the economic case for higher prices in Tokaji Aszú, especially for the best lots, by improving credibility and demand in premium international markets.
The future of Tokaji Aszú?
Tokaji Aszú also operates against a broader global backdrop that currently favours drier wine styles and lower perceived sweetness, a trend driven less by science than by changing consumer attitudes toward sugar in general. Furmint remains a demanding variety precisely because it expresses place so clearly; if it were easier, it would be ubiquitous, yet its tension, acidity, and structural depth are what give Tokaj its identity, with Hárslevelű playing a crucial complementary role. Add to this a warming climate that makes consistently high-quality botrytis increasingly vintage-dependent, the growing scarcity of skilled manual labour for selective harvesting, and the central importance of individual sites, and Tokaji Aszú emerges not as a relic, but as a profoundly labour-intensive, nature-driven wine whose value depends on understanding, patience, and context as much as on sweetness itself.
Why Tokaji Aszú needs clearer internal signalling, and why this is a hopeful story?
Tokaji Aszú does not suffer from a lack of greatness. It suffers from a lack of clarity. Few wines in the world combine such extreme natural concentration, labour intensity, and historical depth, yet so few categories ask the consumer to navigate such a wide internal spectrum under a single name. When wines of radically different density, origin, and ambition appear side by side as “Tokaji Aszú,” the problem is not that one is wrong, but that the signal has become blurred.
This matters because the global wine market no longer rewards mythology on its own. Consumers today respond to coherence: to categories where name, price, and experience align with reasonable predictability. In benchmark sweet-wine regions, quality is not defined by sugar alone, but by how tightly concentration, yield, selection, and volume are linked. Tokaji Aszú, by contrast, relies on an indirect system in which intensity is often enforced economically rather than structurally. That approach makes excellence possible and variability inevitable.
Crucially, the solution does not require reinventing Tokaji Aszú, nor abandoning its historic soaking method. What it requires is clearer internal signalling: modest, intelligible anchors that connect raw-material intensity more visibly to the finished wine. Whether through tighter yield expression, clearer limits on dilution, or more legible internal hierarchies, the aim is not extremism, but consistency.
The most compelling argument for this shift already exists in practice. The finest Tokaji Aszús are increasingly site-driven as well. Concentration is not about chasing puttony numbers, but about depth and dimension. These wines prove that acidity, extract, and place matter as much as residual sugar, and that Aszú’s greatness lies in balance rather than excess. Clearer signalling would simply allow more consumers to recognise this before, rather than after, opening the bottle.
There is also an ethical dimension. Tokaji Aszú is one of the most labour-intensive wines in the world, dependent on skilled hands, precise timing, and increasingly fragile natural conditions. As climate change narrows the window for high-quality botrytis and manual labour becomes scarcer, Aszú cannot afford to be treated as a volume category. Clearer standards help ensure that when Aszú is made, it is made for the right reasons and valued accordingly.
Education plays a central role here, but education works best when the product supports the lesson. Sweetness, when framed by acidity, astringency, and structure, becomes complexity rather than excess. Yet that lesson is far easier to teach when the category itself delivers a consistent sensory message. Clearer internal signalling does not replace education; it amplifies it.
Seen this way, the future of Tokaji Aszú is not defensive, but optimistic. Greater clarity strengthens premium positioning, supports sustainable pricing for producers, and gives consumers confidence rather than confusion. It allows Tokaji Aszú to remain what it has always promised to be: not a sweet wine for everyone, but a great wine for those willing to understand it.
And that is the hopeful ending. Tokaji Aszú does not need to change its soul. It simply needs to speak more clearly so that effort, place, and time are once again audible in every glass.
Tasting notes 12/12/2025 at Tarcal
Bott Pince – Tokaji Aszú 6 Puttonyos 2023
Still in barrel.
Bright gold in colour. The nose is initially reserved, opening gradually to dried fig, sweet apricot, prune and a touch of manuka-like honey, with youthful orchard fruit and a faint spice note in the background.
The palate is broad and weighty, showing full body and serious concentration. Apricot and honeyed fruit are carried by structure rather than sweetness, with spice adding depth and dimension. The Furmint base delivers richness and extract, the result of extended soaking of aszú berries in fermenting wine at around 5–6% alcohol. Sourced exclusively from the Csontos vineyard in Olaszliszka, on Tokaj’s northern edge, this is an intense, site-driven Aszú with impressive density already evident at this early barrel stage.
Demeter Zoltán – Tokaji Aszú Bóda Magnum 2021
10% abv, 204 g/l residual sugar
Golden in colour. The nose is highly expressive yet refined, showing yellow stone fruit, ripe orchard fruit and a perfumed elegance that feels effortless rather than overt.
On the palate, the wine combines depth and concentration with superb drinkability. Lively acidity frames ripe yellow fruit, while the texture is notably velvety and silk-like, giving the wine a sense of flow and harmony. The length is long and composed rather than forceful. From the Bóda vineyard in Sátoraljaújhely—one of Tokaj’s northernmost sites, with old, north-facing vines rarely prone to botrytis—this Aszú carries both precision and emotional resonance, a wine where place and story clearly amplify its impact.
Disznókő Szőlőbirtok – Tokaji Aszú 5 Puttonyos Hárslevelű 2022
Gold in colour. Unusually made from pure Hárslevelű, a style last produced here in 2015. The nose is bright and floral, layered with fresh herbs, linden leaf and a subtle woodland mushroom note in the background.
The palate is higher in alcohol than typical for the category, yet remains balanced, with aromatic lift and varietal clarity. Herbal and floral tones carry through, supported by structure and freshness rather than overt sweetness. A distinctive, characterful Aszú that highlights Hárslevelű’s aromatic potential in botrytised form.
Disznókő Szőlőbirtok – Tokaji Aszú 5 Puttonyos 2021
170 g/l residual sugar, high acidity (9 g/l)
Gold moving toward light amber. Floral and spicy on the nose, with herbal nuances layered over smooth sweetness.
The palate is lively and bold, driven by very high acidity that keeps the sweetness taut and energetic. Tropical fruit emerges mid-palate, supported by a creamy overtone and excellent balance. Long, concentrated and composed on the finish, this is a confident, modern expression with clarity and drive.
Dobogó Pincészet – Tokaji Aszú 6 Puttonyos 2019
10.5% abv, 220 g/l residual sugar, ~8 g/l acidity
Golden in colour. The nose is exuberant and exotic, packed with spice and aromatics: cardamom, pink pepper and rose pepper leap from the glass.
On the palate, intense sweetness is matched by depth, concentration and remarkable balance. Richness and spice are delivered with precision rather than weight, creating a sense of sheer elegance. Produced from Betsek, Úrágya and Szent Tamás, with new oak used to support the sugar load, aszú berries were soaked overnight at a ratio of 1 kg berries to 1 litre of base wine (17% abv). The result is a polished, confident Aszú with real authority and poise.
Erzsébet Pince – Tokaji Aszú 6 Puttonyos 2023
~200 g/l residual sugar, 8.5 g/l acidity, aged 2 years in new oak
Gold in colour. The nose is fresh yet slightly closed at this stage. The palate is bright and juicy, driven by youthful lemon and Meyer lemon tones, with fine fruit definition and lively acidity.
The wine shows clarity and freshness rather than density, with a sense of precision and forward momentum. Bottled under DIAM closure, this is a very promising Aszú whose evolution may be gradual, allowing the components to knit together over time.
Grand Tokaj – Terroir Selection 5 Puttonyos Aszú 2023
Produced exclusively from estate fruit, with no purchased grapes. The wine shows good fruit concentration, with sweetness that initially feels prominent but is supported by sufficient acidity.
A mix of perfume, spice and richness defines the profile, with balance achieved through structure rather than restraint. A solid, coherent Terroir Selection that reflects careful sourcing and intent.
Grand Tokaj – Terroir Selection Kővágó 6 Puttonyos Aszú 2023
Single vineyard, pure Furmint
From the Kővágó vineyard in Mád, a large, historically significant site with scattered plots, red clay-like soils, high stone content and south-eastern exposure. Golden in colour, with rich quince on the nose and a subtle saline edge.
The palate is concentrated and structured, with a dense mid-palate and a long, composed finish. This marks a shift from the winery’s earlier loess-driven pure aszú styles, offering a more stony, site-defined expression with depth and persistence.
Kvaszinger Pincészet – Tokaji Aszú 6 Puttonyos 2021
10% abv, 200 g/l residual sugar, 10 g/l acidity
Gold in colour. The nose shows ripe tropical fruit, fig, prune and honey, still carrying a youthful edge.
On the palate, high acidity drives the wine, giving lift and energy to the richness. Tropical fruit and spice dominate, with bold concentration and clarity. Only 600 bottles were produced, two barrels in total, with half reserved for the winemaker’s son’s wedding, marking his birth year. A well-made, generous yet structured Aszú.
Myrtus Pincészet – Tokaji Aszú 6 Puttonyos 2021
Amber in colour. The nose shows fig and prune, with a distinctive note of cacao nibs adding depth.
The palate is rich and long, with very high acidity providing backbone to the sweetness. Bold, concentrated and persistent, this is a powerful Aszú built on tension rather than softness.
Naár Családi Pince és Szőlőbirtok – Tokaji Aszú 5 Puttonyos 2022
Kövérszőlő-led
An unusual expression where Kövérszőlő plays a leading role. The nose shows herbs, green spice and a slightly medicinal tone, underpinned by a stony mineral edge.
On the palate, almond, ripe stone fruit and richness come together, finishing long with nutty and almond-like nuances. A distinctive Aszú that leans toward savoury complexity rather than overt fruitiness.
Patricius Borház – Tokaji Aszú 6 Puttonyos 2021
11.5% abv, 204 g/l residual sugar, 9 g/l acidity
Gold in colour. The nose is packed with tropical fruit and pronounced botrytis character, layered with spice and floral hints.
The palate is rich yet lively, with sweetness balanced by acidity and structure. Depth, density and length define the finish, making this a confident, full-bodied Aszú with clarity and persistence.
Pelle Pincészet – Tokaji Aszú 2021
10% abv, 193 g/l residual sugar, 9.2 g/l acidity
Gold in colour. The nose is intense and spice-driven, with clear fruit definition.
The palate is vibrant and youthful, shaped by high acidity and lower alcohol. Aszú berries were soaked in fermenting must for 18 hours, resulting in a wine that combines freshness, spice and long, clean fruit. Energetic and precise in style.
Sauska – Tokaji Aszú 6 Puttonyos 2019
208 g/l residual sugar
Gold in colour. The nose is pronounced and ripe, with tropical fruit, quince and concentrated spice.
The palate is dense and structured, medium-full in body, with sweetness well balanced by acidity. Richness and depth carry through to a long, composed finish.
Tokaj-Hétszőlő Szőlőbirtok – Tokaji Aszú 5 Puttonyos 2021
Nagyszőlő-dűlő
From the estate’s top cru, Nagyszőlő, divided by a cool valley between its main parcels. The wine raises an important question: puttony level versus site expression. With almost 150 g/l natural sugar (officially 146 g/l), it sits technically at the upper edge of 5 puttonyos, approaching 6.
Hárslevelű adds aromatic layering, while Furmint provides backbone, focus and fruit clarity. Well made, precise and expressive, this is a wine that invites discussion about classification versus terroir rather than simple hierarchy.
Tokaj Nobilis – Tokaji Aszú 5 Puttonyos 2022
Gold in colour. The nose opens with spice and ginger, followed by floral notes and a subtle mineral touch. Herbal tones and cacao nibs add complexity.
On the palate, sweetness is tightly balanced by very lively acidity, creating a crunchy texture and long, energetic finish. Clean, focused and expressive.
Tokaj-Oremus – Tokaji Aszú 5 Puttonyos 2019
Gold in colour. The nose shows marzipan, prune and intense tropical fruit.
The palate is vibrant and elegant, driven by juicy fruit and a velvety texture. Dense tropical fruit, apricot jam and sweetness are delivered with polish rather than weight, resulting in a composed, flowing style.
Tokaj-Oremus – Tokaji Aszú 6 Puttonyos 2017
Gold in colour. Orange jam, prune and bold spice define the nose.
Zéta contributes richness, and Sárgamuskotály adds fruitiness and playfulness, while the remaining components anchor balance and structure. Long on the finish, this is a harmonious, layered Aszú with clarity and charm.
Check out my other article on Tokaji or what’s the secret behind the ageability.
