Tokai

229 km from Budarest, a full-day excursion. We will be able to walk around the vineyard, watch the production of wine, listen to an interesting story about the intricacies of its technology and, of course, taste wine in an old basement with a typical Hungarian snack, you can also order lunch.

If desired, this tour can be combined with a visit to the cave thermal pools in Miskolc-Tapolza, as they are almost halfway to the Tokai valley.

Tokai is a wine region located between the Tisa and Bodrog rivers on a narrow strip of 87 km by 3-4 km, included as a “historical cultural landscape” in the UNESCO World Heritage List. White dessert wines of golden color, made from the fruits of light grape varieties, soaked in natural conditions, have a taste of raisins and a specific bouquet with a honey tone deservedly have world fame. King of Wines, Wine of Kings, Vinum regium, rex vinorum, was the name of Louis XIV of Tokyo. For centuries, tokai was considered the noblest of all wines. Voltaire said that “... Its sweetness and strength revive man. This wine activates all the convolutions of the brain and lights in the depths of the soul a magical firework of sparkling wit and joy.” Beethoven, List also paid homage to sweet nectar as a reliable healer of soul and body, and Schubert wrote music in honor of Tokai wine. Even the words of the Hungarian anthem mention Tokay vineyards. The method of wine preparation practiced to this day was developed by the house priest of the princely family Rakóczi and it was Rakóczi who popularized Tokai wines in the world. In 1703, a batch of wine was sent to the French sun king Louis XIV the Great and since then Tokai wines are known throughout Europe. But the main consumers of Tokay wines were Poland and Russia. Wine came to Poland with knights who marched to Vienna. And in Russia, thirty barrels of Tokai wine were brought through Poland for the wedding of False Dmitry with Marina Mniszek in 1606, Peter I was a great connoisseur of Tokai wines. During the correspondence of Peter with Catherine with letters, small gifts were sent. For example, the king could send a radish and a bottle of Hungarian. In the XVIII century, the Russian tsars kept a detachment of Cossacks in Tokai, who were in charge of the supply of Hungarian wine to St. Petersburg, and all Russian tsars enjoyed their own supply of Tokai wines until the famous events of 1917. For the production of Tokai wines, only four types of grapes are used - furmint, harschlevelu, lunel muscat and zeta. Under the influence of noble mold, Tokay grapes dry up, become sweeter, zest. It's where the famous wine comes from. There are three types of Tokai wine. Tokaji szamorodni is made from unsorted grapes. Tokaji aszu is made by adding to the base wine thick juice of raisin berries (actually asu), affected by noble rot. The higher the content of the juice, the higher the quality of the wine (the content is measured by knots - special containers). With a large content of concentrated asu juice (from 6 putons), the wine is already called Tokaji aszu esszencia.