The sweet wines of Hungary are synonymous with the famous vineyard Tokaji-Hegyalija or, in short, Tokay. The Slovak wine region of Tokaj may use the Tokajský/-á/-é label ("of Tokaj" in Slovak) [2] if they apply the Hungarian quality control regulation. [2] This area used to be part of the greater Tokaj-Hegyalja region within the Kingdom of Hungary, but was divided between Hungary and Czechoslovakia after the Treaty of Trianon. On the wine side of service, we have seen that the terrifying sommelier no longer exists. There is an understanding that the customer needs more warmth, and a relaxation of formality. The UK industry as a whole has increased its attention to this, which is always seen at the front end by customer. It’s important to note that we have benefited from the influence of foreign nationals in the UK because they typically place a greater premium on service. You see so many coming from Italy, Switzerland and France. But we now see service as such an important part of the restaurant process in the UK too. During 2009, on the eve of their 20 th anniversary, the Royal Tokaji winery has undergone a metamorphosis which combines the best of tradition with the best of 21 st century technology.

Any fine wine should speak for itself and should delight without any need for understanding of things like soil types, grape varieties and wine-making. Having said that, any deeper knowledge can enhance this enjoyment even further. Understanding the wonderful volcanic soils of the region and the unique wine-making process helps to explain why our wines are so unique. The sweetness of Tokaj aszú has traditionally been measured in puttonys. A puttony is a 25-liter wooden tub, which was used for harvesting the aszú grapes. The most prized types of Tokaji aszú were made as either a five puttonyos version or a six puttonyos version, which means that the equivalent of five or six tubs of botrytized grapes had been added to each cask of must or base wine. (In Tokaj, aszú is made in 136-liter Gönc casks). So the higher the puttony number, the sweeter, more golden colored, and more expensive the wine will be. (For a more concrete idea of the sweetness level, a three puttonyos aszú had from 60 to 90 grams of residual sugar per liter, a four puttonyos had from 90 to 120, a five puttonyos from 120 to 150, and a six puttonyos from 150 to 180.) Eszencia: Also called nectar, this is often described as one of the most exclusive wines in the world, although technically it cannot even be called a wine because its enormous concentration of sugar means that its alcohol level never rises above 5-6 percent. Eszencia is the juice of aszú berries which runs off naturally from the vats in which they are collected during harvesting. The sugar concentration of eszencia is typically between 500 g and 700 g per litre, although the year 2000 vintage produced eszencia exceeding 900 g per liter. [7] Eszencia is traditionally added to aszú wines, but may be allowed to ferment (a process that takes at least 4 years to complete) and then bottled pure. The resulting wine has a concentration and intensity of flavor that is unequaled, but is so sweet that it can only be drunk in small quantities. Unlike virtually all other wines, Eszencia maintains its quality and drinkability when stored for 200 years or more.

In Terry Gilliam's film The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988), the Baron and the Sultan make a wager over whether the Baron can obtain, from "the imperial cellars at Vienna," a bottle of Tokaji superior to that proffered by the Sultan. Emperor Franz Josef (who was also King of Hungary) had a tradition of sending Queen Victoria Tokaji Aszú wine, as a gift, every year on her birthday, one bottle for every month she had lived, twelve for each year. On her eighty-first and final birthday (1900), this totaled an impressive 972 bottles. Over time, this type of wine became the preferred choice of many personalities, whom today we could certainly define as influencers in their line of work. And from the very long list that indirectly endorsed Tokaji, we could list Stephen the Great, Louis XIV, Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, and the Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary Franz Josef. Tokaji wine received accolades from numerous great writers and composers including Beethoven, Liszt, Schubert, Johann Strauss, Goethe, Heinrich Heine, Friedrich von Schiller, Voltaire and Bram Stoker. The composer Joseph Haydn’s favourite wine was Tokaji. A reputation – supported by various Popes – for health giving properties, as well as lore – explored in some depth by the alchemist Paracelsus – that the wines contained gold also helped the legend grow.

The area where Tokaji wine is traditionally grown is a small plateau, 457 metres (1,500ft) above sea level, near the Carpathian Mountains. The soil is of volcanic origin, with high concentrations of iron and lime. The location of the region has a unique climate, beneficial to this particular viniculture, due to the protection of the nearby mountains. Winters are bitterly cold and windy; spring tends to be cool and dry, and summers are noticeably hot. Usually, autumn brings rain early on, followed by an extended Indian summer, allowing a very long ripening period.

In Goethe's Faust, in the scene in the Auerbach's Cellar, Mephistopheles offers the other characters a choice of any one wine each, which he then produces by boring holes in the table with a corkscrew. Frosch wishes for Rhine wine, Brander for Champagne, and Siebel wishes for a sweet wine, after which Mephistopheles chooses Tokay for him. Az elmúlt három évtized azzal telt, hogy vállalkozó szellemű borászok fáradságos munkával visszaszerezzék a tokaji bor világhírnevét.