Balassa Tokaji Szamorodni 2019

Kpo says: One of the very best dessert wines money can buy!!!

Balassa Szamorodni was the name. It becomes little as it becomes, or rather as it grows, is the true meaning of the word Szamorodni. But István of course still has full control over the production. It all means that the grapes have not been selected, so some may have been attacked by noble rot and others not. The entire harvest is vinified, and the wine can thus be made both dry and sweet, depending on any proportion of grapes with noble rot.

István’s Szamorodni of the 2019 vintage has a sugar level of 187 grams per liter and at the same time has high acidity. It produces a wine that is both sweet and fresh, which is excellent both with certain cheeses and with sour, sweet desserts. The wine has been fermented and stored in 300-liter barrels of Hungarian oak and the fermentation has taken place with natural yeast. Aging time in barrels is 17 months.

“One of the most important building blocks of the Tokaj wine region’s pathfinding is the sweet zamorodni. Since we are essentially a sweet wine region based on our characteristics, and the guy who is both our best friend and our greatest enemy, thanks to the blessed activity of Botrytis cinerea, we can produce amazingly complex, yet light and fruity sweet wines to make. The ratio of acids and residual sugar, thanks to the brilliant growing areas and varieties, fills the szamorodniks with a vibrant, lively experience. I think it is the most important category from the point of view of the future and the Tokaj wine region, which deserves much more attention in the future.” – István Balassa