Grof-Degenfeld Tokaji Aszu 6 Puttonyos Furmint 2000

I’m sure that many of you don’t know that I am currently enrolled in the Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET) Advanced Certificate – Level 3 in wine at the Washington Wine Academy. It is essentially a ten week course covering each of the major wine producing areas in the world in depth with an exam and a blind tasting at the end. Each week we cover one of the major wine producing areas and we also do a tasting of the wines covered in that weeks class.

Two weeks ago I had the luxury of tasting a Chateau La Tour Blanche 1er Cru 2005. (note: the 1er is not a typo, that is shorthand for First Growth Premier Cru) This wine is a Sauternes which means that it is a sweet wine made from grapes that are affected by botrytis (noble rot) and that carry enough acidity so that they are also remarkably well balanced. Up until this point I had never had a sweet wine that really managed to pull this off successfully but this one had really knocked my socks off.

Then last night I had something that was even better than the Sauternes. Once again, it is one of those little gems that comes from a place that is unexpected and just absolutely shits your brain down as you try to comprehend all the wonderful little subtleties you’re encountering. It was the Grof-Degenfeld Tokaji Aszu 6 Puttonyos Furmint 2000.

Let me start by decoding the name for you because I think most of you are scratching you heads thinking, what the hell does that mean? Grof-Degenfeld is the name of the producer. Tokaji (pronounced Toe-kai) is the region where the grapes were grown. In case you were wondering, Tokaji is located in the eastern half of Hungary. Next is Aszu which is the style of wine that it is. 6 Puttopnyos indicates the amount of sugar in the wine. It is an name of an old unit of measure that now translates to over 150 g/l residual sugar or in layman’s terms, “WOW! Is that sweet!” Furmint is the type of grape used in the wine and of course 2000 is the vintage.

You should also know a little bit about the way that these wines are made. It starts with the growing conditions that allow botrytis to form in the grape and slowly but surely remove the water from the grape, concentrating the sugars and acids. Each of the grapes are hand selected from the bunch. The ripe ones are used to make a still wine while the ones affected with botrytis are broken up and made into a paste which is then mixed with the still wine. This concoction is allowed to ferment and age. The resulting wine is as spectacular as anything I’ve ever tasted.

Oh yeah, the one other thing that we’re taught in our class is how to write a tasting note. Here is what I wrote for this particular wine.

This is a clear wine of a medium intensity amber color that fades to green at the rim and has legs. It has a clean nose of medium (+) intensity with fully developed aromas of apricot, mango, pineapple, and honey. This is a sweet wine with medium (+) acidity, no tannins, medium alcohol and a medium (+) body. It has medium (+) intense flavors of lemon, honey and apricot with a long finish that lasts far after the wine has disappeared from your mouth. This is an outstanding premium priced wine that is ready to drink but will continue to improve over time.