The Tokaj appellation stretches over nearly 5,000 hectares in Hungary (plus a few hundred hectares in Slovakia), crossed by two rivers that create ideal conditions for the development of Botrytis. This is one of the oldest appellations in the world, with 28 classified villages.
At Oremus, plot-by-plot vinification and the use of French oak casks are the rule of thumb, and the estate has been producing dry white wines for the past 20 years. Here, the spotlight is on the Furmint grape variety. For its luscious Aszú sweet wines, Oremus uses only individually hand-picked botrytised Aszú berries selected one by one by skilled pickers. Harvesting is an arduous task with each person picking only about 5 kilos per day. Sugar levels are expressed in puttonyos, the Hungarian name for the buckets the harvested grapes are placed in (3 puttonyos = 130 g/L, 5 = 150 g/L, 6 = 180 g/L). Because the juice is so sugar-saturated, the native yeasts struggle to work, and alcoholic fermentation proceeds extremely slowly, often taking nearly two years. The wines reveal complex aromas of apricot, peach, tarte tatin, jam, candied and exotic fruits, spices and dried herbs.