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Producer name: Oremus

Wines:

1999 Tokaji Harslevelu Noble Late Harvest
Color: Sweet White

Score: 0.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: First harvest from vines in the Szentver, a Tolcsva site lower in elevation than the town top-rated vineyards. Sweet florality and musky Jurancon-like notes in the nose. Fat, rich and oily in the mouth, with persistent florality. Without the vigor and length of the corresponding, higher-acid furmint, this nevertheless displays considerable polish and a subtly floral, honeyed finish. 1 star.

Producer Commentary:
Oremus director Andras Bacso is a man whose vision for Tokaj, after years spent struggling to reform the old system from within, has been exonerated and on whom Nature has belatedly smiled. A dream facility, focusing his vision of an ancient winemaking regimen by way of the control, cleanliness and refinement that only high technology can deliver, was completed in time to receive the vinous wealth of 1999, rendering from it an absolutely stellar collection. Moreover, thanks to the cooler, more water‑retentive soils in many of Oremus' Tolcsva sites, including the top‑rated neighboring vineyards of Mandulas and Kutpatka, Bacso was able to achieve what he believes to be not just richer but even better wines in the freakishly hot 2000 vintage. Meantime, the Oremus vineyard itself, near the northern extreme of the Tokaj region at Satoraljaujhely, has been replanted to muscat and zeta (a.k.a. "Oremus"). Given this site unique, fine‑grained, weathered volcanic soil and its varietal mix, one can anticipate results very different from those in the other Oremus vineyards. Whether any vineyard‑designated wine will be bottled is an open question, maintain Bacso and his cellarmaster Lajos Kun. Nor is replanting at Oremus confined to the eponymous vineyard. Furmint from the Mariassy vineyard outside the town of Tokaj will reach production in three or four years, and major projects involving further land acquisition are underway around Tolcsva, including experimental plantings of a new crossing and of one or two ancient varieties. At present, Oremus owns 250 total acres of vineyard. They expect to top out at the winery's capacity of approximately 285 acres. At Oremus, Aszu berries are macerated in a mix of two-thirds clarified fresh must and one-third fermenting must, both rich in yeasts, a "recipe" Basco found documented from the 18th century and conducive to complex flavor byproducts and high levels of glycerine, if not to ease or speed of extraction. The use of finished wine to extract Aszu is only traditional, he says laughingly, "if by that you mean a tradition of the last 50 years." Oremus wines are also treated to a high percentage of new wood. Old barrels, claims Basco, were just another unfortunate expedient of recent hard times. Given the high protein levels in botrytized juice, he insists, new wood is essential for proper vinification and natural clarification of the young wine. (Represented by Europvin/Christopher Cannan Selections; various importers including Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, NY)
1964 Tokaji Szaraz Szamorodni
Color: White

Score: 0.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Nutty on a broader front, more subtle and diverse in flavors. Preserves an amazing core of fresh fruit and citricity, with a lovely counterpoint of sherrification and creamy richness. Finish of pistachio and walnut. Really quite fine and rarified.

Producer Commentary:
The owners of Vega Sicilia are building for Oremus director/winemaker Andras Bacso the winemaking facility of his dreams. With luck, this amazing example of modernity in the service of tradition will be ready for the 1999 crush. The juice and wine will move entirely by gravity. Sophisticated rotating fermenters for the extraction of raisined fruit (added to must, not finished wine) and refrigerated storage for freshly picked Aszu are among the modern touches. Bacso believes strongly in the wines' two years' stay in Gonci barrels, one-third of them replaced each year by a local tonnelier working with oak from the Zemplin Hills. "With a really exceptional Aszu year, I'll experiment with longer aging," he explains. Even the simplest dry wine here rests in barrel for three to five months, naturally clarifying in the pure, fungus-filtered air of Oremus ancient cellars. Bacso, cellarmaster Lajos Kun and enologist Peter Molnar strive to achieve a fine balance of sweetness with acids and alcohol. A typical 5-puttonyos wine, for instance, won't have much over the minimum requirement of 120 grams per liter residual sugar. The rest will have been converted to alcohol, with a 12.5% level typical, of which 1% is lost through the barrels during elevage. Fruit from multiple parcels in different villages and microclimates is assembled to achieve the most complex wine and the best balance of fruit and botrytis in a given vintage. Most of Oremus' 130 acres are in Mandulas Kutpatka, Seredi-Vay and Szentver, four top growths of Tolcsva, but several smaller parcels promise to add enormously to the quality of future wines. Just outside Satoraljaujhely new vines are being planted in the parcel from which Oremus derives its name, and from which in 1630 Calvinist pastor and vintner Laczko Szepsi is recorded as having crushed the first Aszu wine. Three acres in the Mariassy, a sheltered heat and humidity trap just outside Tokaj, are also going in. The first vintage under the current regime was 1993 but, like all of the other foreign investors, the owners of Oremus were required to purchase large stocks of older wine vinified under the Communist-era regime. Bacso, who from 1990 to 1993 directed the then-monolithic state monopoly, seems to have viewed this requirement as a special challenge to taste with tenacity and select the best. Many older wines I tasted are still for sale, and demonstrated that great wines, though doubtless the rare exceptions, were bottled even in the "bad old days."
1972 Tokaji Szaraz Szamorodni
Color: White

Score: 0.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Vivid aroma and flavor of toasted walnuts. Intensely bittersweet, oily flavors. Fat, glyceral texture ameliorates the essential austerity of the flavors and balances the sherrified sharpness of the wine.

Producer Commentary:
The owners of Vega Sicilia are building for Oremus director/winemaker Andras Bacso the winemaking facility of his dreams. With luck, this amazing example of modernity in the service of tradition will be ready for the 1999 crush. The juice and wine will move entirely by gravity. Sophisticated rotating fermenters for the extraction of raisined fruit (added to must, not finished wine) and refrigerated storage for freshly picked Aszu are among the modern touches. Bacso believes strongly in the wines' two years' stay in Gonci barrels, one-third of them replaced each year by a local tonnelier working with oak from the Zemplin Hills. "With a really exceptional Aszu year, I'll experiment with longer aging," he explains. Even the simplest dry wine here rests in barrel for three to five months, naturally clarifying in the pure, fungus-filtered air of Oremus ancient cellars. Bacso, cellarmaster Lajos Kun and enologist Peter Molnar strive to achieve a fine balance of sweetness with acids and alcohol. A typical 5-puttonyos wine, for instance, won't have much over the minimum requirement of 120 grams per liter residual sugar. The rest will have been converted to alcohol, with a 12.5% level typical, of which 1% is lost through the barrels during elevage. Fruit from multiple parcels in different villages and microclimates is assembled to achieve the most complex wine and the best balance of fruit and botrytis in a given vintage. Most of Oremus' 130 acres are in Mandulas Kutpatka, Seredi-Vay and Szentver, four top growths of Tolcsva, but several smaller parcels promise to add enormously to the quality of future wines. Just outside Satoraljaujhely new vines are being planted in the parcel from which Oremus derives its name, and from which in 1630 Calvinist pastor and vintner Laczko Szepsi is recorded as having crushed the first Aszu wine. Three acres in the Mariassy, a sheltered heat and humidity trap just outside Tokaj, are also going in. The first vintage under the current regime was 1993 but, like all of the other foreign investors, the owners of Oremus were required to purchase large stocks of older wine vinified under the Communist-era regime. Bacso, who from 1990 to 1993 directed the then-monolithic state monopoly, seems to have viewed this requirement as a special challenge to taste with tenacity and select the best. Many older wines I tasted are still for sale, and demonstrated that great wines, though doubtless the rare exceptions, were bottled even in the "bad old days."
1995 Tokaji Szaraz Szamorodni
Color: White

Score: 0.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Nutty, sherrified aromas. Pithy, hickory nut-flavored palate. Oily and rather thick. Bright acids throughout. Finishes with lemon peel and toasted nut bitterness: quite striking and long.

Producer Commentary:
The owners of Vega Sicilia are building for Oremus director/winemaker Andras Bacso the winemaking facility of his dreams. With luck, this amazing example of modernity in the service of tradition will be ready for the 1999 crush. The juice and wine will move entirely by gravity. Sophisticated rotating fermenters for the extraction of raisined fruit (added to must, not finished wine) and refrigerated storage for freshly picked Aszu are among the modern touches. Bacso believes strongly in the wines' two years' stay in Gonci barrels, one-third of them replaced each year by a local tonnelier working with oak from the Zemplin Hills. "With a really exceptional Aszu year, I'll experiment with longer aging," he explains. Even the simplest dry wine here rests in barrel for three to five months, naturally clarifying in the pure, fungus-filtered air of Oremus ancient cellars. Bacso, cellarmaster Lajos Kun and enologist Peter Molnar strive to achieve a fine balance of sweetness with acids and alcohol. A typical 5-puttonyos wine, for instance, won't have much over the minimum requirement of 120 grams per liter residual sugar. The rest will have been converted to alcohol, with a 12.5% level typical, of which 1% is lost through the barrels during elevage. Fruit from multiple parcels in different villages and microclimates is assembled to achieve the most complex wine and the best balance of fruit and botrytis in a given vintage. Most of Oremus' 130 acres are in Mandulas Kutpatka, Seredi-Vay and Szentver, four top growths of Tolcsva, but several smaller parcels promise to add enormously to the quality of future wines. Just outside Satoraljaujhely new vines are being planted in the parcel from which Oremus derives its name, and from which in 1630 Calvinist pastor and vintner Laczko Szepsi is recorded as having crushed the first Aszu wine. Three acres in the Mariassy, a sheltered heat and humidity trap just outside Tokaj, are also going in. The first vintage under the current regime was 1993 but, like all of the other foreign investors, the owners of Oremus were required to purchase large stocks of older wine vinified under the Communist-era regime. Bacso, who from 1990 to 1993 directed the then-monolithic state monopoly, seems to have viewed this requirement as a special challenge to taste with tenacity and select the best. Many older wines I tasted are still for sale, and demonstrated that great wines, though doubtless the rare exceptions, were bottled even in the "bad old days."
1959 Tokaji Aszu Eszencia
Color: Sweet White

Score: 0.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Scents of toasted pistachio, toasted almond and chocolate. Wonderfully satiny in texture. Caramel, chocolate and toasted nut flavors. Amazing balance, with the sweetness scarcely noticeable.

Producer Commentary:
The owners of Vega Sicilia are building for Oremus director/winemaker Andras Bacso the winemaking facility of his dreams. With luck, this amazing example of modernity in the service of tradition will be ready for the 1999 crush. The juice and wine will move entirely by gravity. Sophisticated rotating fermenters for the extraction of raisined fruit (added to must, not finished wine) and refrigerated storage for freshly picked Aszu are among the modern touches. Bacso believes strongly in the wines' two years' stay in Gonci barrels, one-third of them replaced each year by a local tonnelier working with oak from the Zemplin Hills. "With a really exceptional Aszu year, I'll experiment with longer aging," he explains. Even the simplest dry wine here rests in barrel for three to five months, naturally clarifying in the pure, fungus-filtered air of Oremus ancient cellars. Bacso, cellarmaster Lajos Kun and enologist Peter Molnar strive to achieve a fine balance of sweetness with acids and alcohol. A typical 5-puttonyos wine, for instance, won't have much over the minimum requirement of 120 grams per liter residual sugar. The rest will have been converted to alcohol, with a 12.5% level typical, of which 1% is lost through the barrels during elevage. Fruit from multiple parcels in different villages and microclimates is assembled to achieve the most complex wine and the best balance of fruit and botrytis in a given vintage. Most of Oremus' 130 acres are in Mandulas Kutpatka, Seredi-Vay and Szentver, four top growths of Tolcsva, but several smaller parcels promise to add enormously to the quality of future wines. Just outside Satoraljaujhely new vines are being planted in the parcel from which Oremus derives its name, and from which in 1630 Calvinist pastor and vintner Laczko Szepsi is recorded as having crushed the first Aszu wine. Three acres in the Mariassy, a sheltered heat and humidity trap just outside Tokaj, are also going in. The first vintage under the current regime was 1993 but, like all of the other foreign investors, the owners of Oremus were required to purchase large stocks of older wine vinified under the Communist-era regime. Bacso, who from 1990 to 1993 directed the then-monolithic state monopoly, seems to have viewed this requirement as a special challenge to taste with tenacity and select the best. Many older wines I tasted are still for sale, and demonstrated that great wines, though doubtless the rare exceptions, were bottled even in the "bad old days."
1983 Tokaji Aszu Eszencia
Color: Sweet White

Score: 0.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Honey and molasses on the nose, almost a bit treacly. Superconcentrated and dense, but without any lift or much diversity to it. (Bottled in 1995.)

Producer Commentary:
The owners of Vega Sicilia are building for Oremus director/winemaker Andras Bacso the winemaking facility of his dreams. With luck, this amazing example of modernity in the service of tradition will be ready for the 1999 crush. The juice and wine will move entirely by gravity. Sophisticated rotating fermenters for the extraction of raisined fruit (added to must, not finished wine) and refrigerated storage for freshly picked Aszu are among the modern touches. Bacso believes strongly in the wines' two years' stay in Gonci barrels, one-third of them replaced each year by a local tonnelier working with oak from the Zemplin Hills. "With a really exceptional Aszu year, I'll experiment with longer aging," he explains. Even the simplest dry wine here rests in barrel for three to five months, naturally clarifying in the pure, fungus-filtered air of Oremus ancient cellars. Bacso, cellarmaster Lajos Kun and enologist Peter Molnar strive to achieve a fine balance of sweetness with acids and alcohol. A typical 5-puttonyos wine, for instance, won't have much over the minimum requirement of 120 grams per liter residual sugar. The rest will have been converted to alcohol, with a 12.5% level typical, of which 1% is lost through the barrels during elevage. Fruit from multiple parcels in different villages and microclimates is assembled to achieve the most complex wine and the best balance of fruit and botrytis in a given vintage. Most of Oremus' 130 acres are in Mandulas Kutpatka, Seredi-Vay and Szentver, four top growths of Tolcsva, but several smaller parcels promise to add enormously to the quality of future wines. Just outside Satoraljaujhely new vines are being planted in the parcel from which Oremus derives its name, and from which in 1630 Calvinist pastor and vintner Laczko Szepsi is recorded as having crushed the first Aszu wine. Three acres in the Mariassy, a sheltered heat and humidity trap just outside Tokaj, are also going in. The first vintage under the current regime was 1993 but, like all of the other foreign investors, the owners of Oremus were required to purchase large stocks of older wine vinified under the Communist-era regime. Bacso, who from 1990 to 1993 directed the then-monolithic state monopoly, seems to have viewed this requirement as a special challenge to taste with tenacity and select the best. Many older wines I tasted are still for sale, and demonstrated that great wines, though doubtless the rare exceptions, were bottled even in the "bad old days."
2000 Tokaji Aszu Eszencia
Color: Sweet White

Score: 0.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Flavor (and texture!) of peach preserves augmented by iodine-shrimp shell mineral notes, honey and vanilla. Incredibly rich and thick. Potential 2 stars.

Producer Commentary:
Oremus director Andras Bacso is a man whose vision for Tokaj, after years spent struggling to reform the old system from within, has been exonerated and on whom Nature has belatedly smiled. A dream facility, focusing his vision of an ancient winemaking regimen by way of the control, cleanliness and refinement that only high technology can deliver, was completed in time to receive the vinous wealth of 1999, rendering from it an absolutely stellar collection. Moreover, thanks to the cooler, more water‑retentive soils in many of Oremus' Tolcsva sites, including the top‑rated neighboring vineyards of Mandulas and Kutpatka, Bacso was able to achieve what he believes to be not just richer but even better wines in the freakishly hot 2000 vintage. Meantime, the Oremus vineyard itself, near the northern extreme of the Tokaj region at Satoraljaujhely, has been replanted to muscat and zeta (a.k.a. "Oremus"). Given this site unique, fine‑grained, weathered volcanic soil and its varietal mix, one can anticipate results very different from those in the other Oremus vineyards. Whether any vineyard‑designated wine will be bottled is an open question, maintain Bacso and his cellarmaster Lajos Kun. Nor is replanting at Oremus confined to the eponymous vineyard. Furmint from the Mariassy vineyard outside the town of Tokaj will reach production in three or four years, and major projects involving further land acquisition are underway around Tolcsva, including experimental plantings of a new crossing and of one or two ancient varieties. At present, Oremus owns 250 total acres of vineyard. They expect to top out at the winery's capacity of approximately 285 acres. At Oremus, Aszu berries are macerated in a mix of two-thirds clarified fresh must and one-third fermenting must, both rich in yeasts, a "recipe" Basco found documented from the 18th century and conducive to complex flavor byproducts and high levels of glycerine, if not to ease or speed of extraction. The use of finished wine to extract Aszu is only traditional, he says laughingly, "if by that you mean a tradition of the last 50 years." Oremus wines are also treated to a high percentage of new wood. Old barrels, claims Basco, were just another unfortunate expedient of recent hard times. Given the high protein levels in botrytized juice, he insists, new wood is essential for proper vinification and natural clarification of the young wine. (Represented by Europvin/Christopher Cannan Selections; various importers including Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, NY)
1975 Tokaji Aszu Eszencia
Color: Sweet White

Score: 0.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Black tea, plum preserves, toasted almond and a smoky, pungent note of seaweed. Incredibly thick, oily and glyceral. Yet elegant, even bright, with citrus accenting the plum paste and honey. The finish has no superficial sweetness, just an amazingly complex melange of dried fruits and nut and mineral essences.

Producer Commentary:
The owners of Vega Sicilia are building for Oremus director/winemaker Andras Bacso the winemaking facility of his dreams. With luck, this amazing example of modernity in the service of tradition will be ready for the 1999 crush. The juice and wine will move entirely by gravity. Sophisticated rotating fermenters for the extraction of raisined fruit (added to must, not finished wine) and refrigerated storage for freshly picked Aszu are among the modern touches. Bacso believes strongly in the wines' two years' stay in Gonci barrels, one-third of them replaced each year by a local tonnelier working with oak from the Zemplin Hills. "With a really exceptional Aszu year, I'll experiment with longer aging," he explains. Even the simplest dry wine here rests in barrel for three to five months, naturally clarifying in the pure, fungus-filtered air of Oremus ancient cellars. Bacso, cellarmaster Lajos Kun and enologist Peter Molnar strive to achieve a fine balance of sweetness with acids and alcohol. A typical 5-puttonyos wine, for instance, won't have much over the minimum requirement of 120 grams per liter residual sugar. The rest will have been converted to alcohol, with a 12.5% level typical, of which 1% is lost through the barrels during elevage. Fruit from multiple parcels in different villages and microclimates is assembled to achieve the most complex wine and the best balance of fruit and botrytis in a given vintage. Most of Oremus' 130 acres are in Mandulas Kutpatka, Seredi-Vay and Szentver, four top growths of Tolcsva, but several smaller parcels promise to add enormously to the quality of future wines. Just outside Satoraljaujhely new vines are being planted in the parcel from which Oremus derives its name, and from which in 1630 Calvinist pastor and vintner Laczko Szepsi is recorded as having crushed the first Aszu wine. Three acres in the Mariassy, a sheltered heat and humidity trap just outside Tokaj, are also going in. The first vintage under the current regime was 1993 but, like all of the other foreign investors, the owners of Oremus were required to purchase large stocks of older wine vinified under the Communist-era regime. Bacso, who from 1990 to 1993 directed the then-monolithic state monopoly, seems to have viewed this requirement as a special challenge to taste with tenacity and select the best. Many older wines I tasted are still for sale, and demonstrated that great wines, though doubtless the rare exceptions, were bottled even in the "bad old days."
1998 Tokaji Furmint
Color: White

Score: 0.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: From young vines in the MandulÃ¡s vineyard. This underwent malolactic fermentation. Lemon zest and narcissus florality. Quite dense and mouthfilling. Juxtaposes creaminess with a slight underlying abrasiveness typical for the variety. Finish is smoky with a persistent, faintly bitter citrus rind and persimmon character.

Producer Commentary:
The owners of Vega Sicilia are building for Oremus director/winemaker Andras Bacso the winemaking facility of his dreams. With luck, this amazing example of modernity in the service of tradition will be ready for the 1999 crush. The juice and wine will move entirely by gravity. Sophisticated rotating fermenters for the extraction of raisined fruit (added to must, not finished wine) and refrigerated storage for freshly picked Aszu are among the modern touches. Bacso believes strongly in the wines' two years' stay in Gonci barrels, one-third of them replaced each year by a local tonnelier working with oak from the Zemplin Hills. "With a really exceptional Aszu year, I'll experiment with longer aging," he explains. Even the simplest dry wine here rests in barrel for three to five months, naturally clarifying in the pure, fungus-filtered air of Oremus ancient cellars. Bacso, cellarmaster Lajos Kun and enologist Peter Molnar strive to achieve a fine balance of sweetness with acids and alcohol. A typical 5-puttonyos wine, for instance, won't have much over the minimum requirement of 120 grams per liter residual sugar. The rest will have been converted to alcohol, with a 12.5% level typical, of which 1% is lost through the barrels during elevage. Fruit from multiple parcels in different villages and microclimates is assembled to achieve the most complex wine and the best balance of fruit and botrytis in a given vintage. Most of Oremus' 130 acres are in Mandulas Kutpatka, Seredi-Vay and Szentver, four top growths of Tolcsva, but several smaller parcels promise to add enormously to the quality of future wines. Just outside Satoraljaujhely new vines are being planted in the parcel from which Oremus derives its name, and from which in 1630 Calvinist pastor and vintner Laczko Szepsi is recorded as having crushed the first Aszu wine. Three acres in the Mariassy, a sheltered heat and humidity trap just outside Tokaj, are also going in. The first vintage under the current regime was 1993 but, like all of the other foreign investors, the owners of Oremus were required to purchase large stocks of older wine vinified under the Communist-era regime. Bacso, who from 1990 to 1993 directed the then-monolithic state monopoly, seems to have viewed this requirement as a special challenge to taste with tenacity and select the best. Many older wines I tasted are still for sale, and demonstrated that great wines, though doubtless the rare exceptions, were bottled even in the "bad old days."
1997 Tokaji Furmint
Color: White

Score: 0.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: This did not do malo. Aroma of lemon rind and wet stones. Brighter and juicier in the mouth than the '98. Lemon and salty minerality in the finish.

Producer Commentary:
The owners of Vega Sicilia are building for Oremus director/winemaker Andras Bacso the winemaking facility of his dreams. With luck, this amazing example of modernity in the service of tradition will be ready for the 1999 crush. The juice and wine will move entirely by gravity. Sophisticated rotating fermenters for the extraction of raisined fruit (added to must, not finished wine) and refrigerated storage for freshly picked Aszu are among the modern touches. Bacso believes strongly in the wines' two years' stay in Gonci barrels, one-third of them replaced each year by a local tonnelier working with oak from the Zemplin Hills. "With a really exceptional Aszu year, I'll experiment with longer aging," he explains. Even the simplest dry wine here rests in barrel for three to five months, naturally clarifying in the pure, fungus-filtered air of Oremus ancient cellars. Bacso, cellarmaster Lajos Kun and enologist Peter Molnar strive to achieve a fine balance of sweetness with acids and alcohol. A typical 5-puttonyos wine, for instance, won't have much over the minimum requirement of 120 grams per liter residual sugar. The rest will have been converted to alcohol, with a 12.5% level typical, of which 1% is lost through the barrels during elevage. Fruit from multiple parcels in different villages and microclimates is assembled to achieve the most complex wine and the best balance of fruit and botrytis in a given vintage. Most of Oremus' 130 acres are in Mandulas Kutpatka, Seredi-Vay and Szentver, four top growths of Tolcsva, but several smaller parcels promise to add enormously to the quality of future wines. Just outside Satoraljaujhely new vines are being planted in the parcel from which Oremus derives its name, and from which in 1630 Calvinist pastor and vintner Laczko Szepsi is recorded as having crushed the first Aszu wine. Three acres in the Mariassy, a sheltered heat and humidity trap just outside Tokaj, are also going in. The first vintage under the current regime was 1993 but, like all of the other foreign investors, the owners of Oremus were required to purchase large stocks of older wine vinified under the Communist-era regime. Bacso, who from 1990 to 1993 directed the then-monolithic state monopoly, seems to have viewed this requirement as a special challenge to taste with tenacity and select the best. Many older wines I tasted are still for sale, and demonstrated that great wines, though doubtless the rare exceptions, were bottled even in the "bad old days."
1999 Tokaji Furmint Noble Late Harvest
Color: Sweet White

Score: 0.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Beautiful aroma of pear drops and pit fruits. The palate is saturated with pear, apricot, quince and honey. Finely judged balance of sweetness to the acids. Creamy and rich, yet elegant and light on its feet. Terrifically long, with subtle smoky and toasted nut notes chiming in on a chorus of confiture. 2 stars.

Producer Commentary:
Oremus director Andras Bacso is a man whose vision for Tokaj, after years spent struggling to reform the old system from within, has been exonerated and on whom Nature has belatedly smiled. A dream facility, focusing his vision of an ancient winemaking regimen by way of the control, cleanliness and refinement that only high technology can deliver, was completed in time to receive the vinous wealth of 1999, rendering from it an absolutely stellar collection. Moreover, thanks to the cooler, more water‑retentive soils in many of Oremus' Tolcsva sites, including the top‑rated neighboring vineyards of Mandulas and Kutpatka, Bacso was able to achieve what he believes to be not just richer but even better wines in the freakishly hot 2000 vintage. Meantime, the Oremus vineyard itself, near the northern extreme of the Tokaj region at Satoraljaujhely, has been replanted to muscat and zeta (a.k.a. "Oremus"). Given this site unique, fine‑grained, weathered volcanic soil and its varietal mix, one can anticipate results very different from those in the other Oremus vineyards. Whether any vineyard‑designated wine will be bottled is an open question, maintain Bacso and his cellarmaster Lajos Kun. Nor is replanting at Oremus confined to the eponymous vineyard. Furmint from the Mariassy vineyard outside the town of Tokaj will reach production in three or four years, and major projects involving further land acquisition are underway around Tolcsva, including experimental plantings of a new crossing and of one or two ancient varieties. At present, Oremus owns 250 total acres of vineyard. They expect to top out at the winery's capacity of approximately 285 acres. At Oremus, Aszu berries are macerated in a mix of two-thirds clarified fresh must and one-third fermenting must, both rich in yeasts, a "recipe" Basco found documented from the 18th century and conducive to complex flavor byproducts and high levels of glycerine, if not to ease or speed of extraction. The use of finished wine to extract Aszu is only traditional, he says laughingly, "if by that you mean a tradition of the last 50 years." Oremus wines are also treated to a high percentage of new wood. Old barrels, claims Basco, were just another unfortunate expedient of recent hard times. Given the high protein levels in botrytized juice, he insists, new wood is essential for proper vinification and natural clarification of the young wine. (Represented by Europvin/Christopher Cannan Selections; various importers including Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, NY)
2003 Tokaji Eszencia
Color: Sweet White

Score: 94.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: (3% alcohol; 536 g.l r.s.; 15.8% g/l acidity; underwent a four-year elevage in barrels and carboys): Burnished orange-mahogany color. Subdued but lively nose hints at orange zest and caraway seed. Hugely concentrated, sweet and thick as a solid; a real essence of aszÃº berries owing to its superb balance of huge sweetness and equally marked acidity. This utterly palate-saturating sweet wine finishes with outstanding length and lift.

Producer Commentary:
Other wines tasted:2012 MandolÃ¡s Furmint Dry.
1999 Tokaji Aszu 6 Puttonyos
Color: Sweet White

Score: 0.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Complex aromas of pink grapefruit, honey and diverse fruit distillates. In the mouth, beneath rich, thick layers of honey, citrus, and creme brulee is buried a striking, deep vein of black and blue fruits. Even more meaty and substantial than the corresponding 5-puttonyos; fabulously honeyed in texture, but bracing like all of the best '99s. Mouthwateringly citric in the long finish. 2 stars.

Producer Commentary:
Oremus director Andras Bacso is a man whose vision for Tokaj, after years spent struggling to reform the old system from within, has been exonerated and on whom Nature has belatedly smiled. A dream facility, focusing his vision of an ancient winemaking regimen by way of the control, cleanliness and refinement that only high technology can deliver, was completed in time to receive the vinous wealth of 1999, rendering from it an absolutely stellar collection. Moreover, thanks to the cooler, more water‑retentive soils in many of Oremus' Tolcsva sites, including the top‑rated neighboring vineyards of Mandulas and Kutpatka, Bacso was able to achieve what he believes to be not just richer but even better wines in the freakishly hot 2000 vintage. Meantime, the Oremus vineyard itself, near the northern extreme of the Tokaj region at Satoraljaujhely, has been replanted to muscat and zeta (a.k.a. "Oremus"). Given this site unique, fine‑grained, weathered volcanic soil and its varietal mix, one can anticipate results very different from those in the other Oremus vineyards. Whether any vineyard‑designated wine will be bottled is an open question, maintain Bacso and his cellarmaster Lajos Kun. Nor is replanting at Oremus confined to the eponymous vineyard. Furmint from the Mariassy vineyard outside the town of Tokaj will reach production in three or four years, and major projects involving further land acquisition are underway around Tolcsva, including experimental plantings of a new crossing and of one or two ancient varieties. At present, Oremus owns 250 total acres of vineyard. They expect to top out at the winery's capacity of approximately 285 acres. At Oremus, Aszu berries are macerated in a mix of two-thirds clarified fresh must and one-third fermenting must, both rich in yeasts, a "recipe" Basco found documented from the 18th century and conducive to complex flavor byproducts and high levels of glycerine, if not to ease or speed of extraction. The use of finished wine to extract Aszu is only traditional, he says laughingly, "if by that you mean a tradition of the last 50 years." Oremus wines are also treated to a high percentage of new wood. Old barrels, claims Basco, were just another unfortunate expedient of recent hard times. Given the high protein levels in botrytized juice, he insists, new wood is essential for proper vinification and natural clarification of the young wine. (Represented by Europvin/Christopher Cannan Selections; various importers including Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, NY)
1999 Tokaji Aszu 6 Puttonyos
Color: Sweet White

Score: 0.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: (a special cuvee which will acquire its own name prior to release) White peach, flowers and subtle lime citricity in the nose. Fresh white peach, floral and lime sorbet flavors offer themselves on the palate. This displays a truly amazing counterpoint of delicacy and fine acidity with creaminess and viscosity. It may not be the last word in complexity today (although how much might still be covered in baby fat?) but the gravity-defying balance and endlessly billowing finish are almost astonishing, and spitting demands considerable willpower. (Oremus's Tokaji Aszu 4 Puttonyos rated a star from cask, and their 5 Puttonyos 2 stars, but I did not have the opportunity to taste either of these from bottle this summer.) 2 stars.

Producer Commentary:
For Andras Bacso and his cellarmaster Lajos Kun, 1999 was like a dream come true, since few have labored longer or harder for worldwide recognition of Tokaj's re-emergence. (Represented by Europvin/Christopher Cannan Selections; numerous importers, including Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, NY)
1972 Tokaji Aszu 6 Puttonyos
Color: Sweet White

Score: 0.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Aromas of caramel, old Calvados and furniture polish. Very creamy in the mouth, with flavors of caramelized apple and baked apricot. As with the '81, this finishes with surprising freshness and cut. Fresh citrus and caramelized pitted fruits in the finish.

Producer Commentary:
The owners of Vega Sicilia are building for Oremus director/winemaker Andras Bacso the winemaking facility of his dreams. With luck, this amazing example of modernity in the service of tradition will be ready for the 1999 crush. The juice and wine will move entirely by gravity. Sophisticated rotating fermenters for the extraction of raisined fruit (added to must, not finished wine) and refrigerated storage for freshly picked Aszu are among the modern touches. Bacso believes strongly in the wines' two years' stay in Gonci barrels, one-third of them replaced each year by a local tonnelier working with oak from the Zemplin Hills. "With a really exceptional Aszu year, I'll experiment with longer aging," he explains. Even the simplest dry wine here rests in barrel for three to five months, naturally clarifying in the pure, fungus-filtered air of Oremus ancient cellars. Bacso, cellarmaster Lajos Kun and enologist Peter Molnar strive to achieve a fine balance of sweetness with acids and alcohol. A typical 5-puttonyos wine, for instance, won't have much over the minimum requirement of 120 grams per liter residual sugar. The rest will have been converted to alcohol, with a 12.5% level typical, of which 1% is lost through the barrels during elevage. Fruit from multiple parcels in different villages and microclimates is assembled to achieve the most complex wine and the best balance of fruit and botrytis in a given vintage. Most of Oremus' 130 acres are in Mandulas Kutpatka, Seredi-Vay and Szentver, four top growths of Tolcsva, but several smaller parcels promise to add enormously to the quality of future wines. Just outside Satoraljaujhely new vines are being planted in the parcel from which Oremus derives its name, and from which in 1630 Calvinist pastor and vintner Laczko Szepsi is recorded as having crushed the first Aszu wine. Three acres in the Mariassy, a sheltered heat and humidity trap just outside Tokaj, are also going in. The first vintage under the current regime was 1993 but, like all of the other foreign investors, the owners of Oremus were required to purchase large stocks of older wine vinified under the Communist-era regime. Bacso, who from 1990 to 1993 directed the then-monolithic state monopoly, seems to have viewed this requirement as a special challenge to taste with tenacity and select the best. Many older wines I tasted are still for sale, and demonstrated that great wines, though doubtless the rare exceptions, were bottled even in the "bad old days."
1981 Tokaji Aszu 6 Puttonyos
Color: Sweet White

Score: 0.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Aromas of maple syrup and resin. Fat and rich on entry yet dense and compact and with considerable finishing brightness.

Producer Commentary:
The owners of Vega Sicilia are building for Oremus director/winemaker Andras Bacso the winemaking facility of his dreams. With luck, this amazing example of modernity in the service of tradition will be ready for the 1999 crush. The juice and wine will move entirely by gravity. Sophisticated rotating fermenters for the extraction of raisined fruit (added to must, not finished wine) and refrigerated storage for freshly picked Aszu are among the modern touches. Bacso believes strongly in the wines' two years' stay in Gonci barrels, one-third of them replaced each year by a local tonnelier working with oak from the Zemplin Hills. "With a really exceptional Aszu year, I'll experiment with longer aging," he explains. Even the simplest dry wine here rests in barrel for three to five months, naturally clarifying in the pure, fungus-filtered air of Oremus ancient cellars. Bacso, cellarmaster Lajos Kun and enologist Peter Molnar strive to achieve a fine balance of sweetness with acids and alcohol. A typical 5-puttonyos wine, for instance, won't have much over the minimum requirement of 120 grams per liter residual sugar. The rest will have been converted to alcohol, with a 12.5% level typical, of which 1% is lost through the barrels during elevage. Fruit from multiple parcels in different villages and microclimates is assembled to achieve the most complex wine and the best balance of fruit and botrytis in a given vintage. Most of Oremus' 130 acres are in Mandulas Kutpatka, Seredi-Vay and Szentver, four top growths of Tolcsva, but several smaller parcels promise to add enormously to the quality of future wines. Just outside Satoraljaujhely new vines are being planted in the parcel from which Oremus derives its name, and from which in 1630 Calvinist pastor and vintner Laczko Szepsi is recorded as having crushed the first Aszu wine. Three acres in the Mariassy, a sheltered heat and humidity trap just outside Tokaj, are also going in. The first vintage under the current regime was 1993 but, like all of the other foreign investors, the owners of Oremus were required to purchase large stocks of older wine vinified under the Communist-era regime. Bacso, who from 1990 to 1993 directed the then-monolithic state monopoly, seems to have viewed this requirement as a special challenge to taste with tenacity and select the best. Many older wines I tasted are still for sale, and demonstrated that great wines, though doubtless the rare exceptions, were bottled even in the "bad old days."
2003 Tokaji Aszu 6 Puttonyos
Color: Sweet White

Score: 91.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: (10% alcohol, 226 g/l r.s. and 9.8% g/l acidity): Deep, bright orange. Wild, almost funky nose offers scents of apricot, honey, flint, game and truffle accented by mint and cumin, along with a slightly advanced nutty quality. Superconcentrated and thick but with strong acidity and a piquant note of orange peel giving a freshness to the middle palate that I would never have expected following the nose. Finishes tactile, chewy, dense, very thick and quite long but could use a bit more nuance for a 6 puttonyos wine.

Producer Commentary:
Other wines tasted: 2012 MandolÃ¡s Furmint Dry.
1998 Tokaji Aszu 4 Puttonyos
Color: Sweet White

Score: 0.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: A shockingly deep amber, particularly compared to the youthfully pale '99s, this wine shows in flavor, too, that there was heavy botrytis in '98, just not always of the most noble sort. The nose is faintly fungal for all its honey and dried pit fruits. On the palate, the sweetness struggles to balance bitter elements. Chocolate and coffee notes in the finish add interest but also signify the rapidity with which this raw material matured.

Producer Commentary:
Oremus director Andras Bacso is a man whose vision for Tokaj, after years spent struggling to reform the old system from within, has been exonerated and on whom Nature has belatedly smiled. A dream facility, focusing his vision of an ancient winemaking regimen by way of the control, cleanliness and refinement that only high technology can deliver, was completed in time to receive the vinous wealth of 1999, rendering from it an absolutely stellar collection. Moreover, thanks to the cooler, more water‑retentive soils in many of Oremus' Tolcsva sites, including the top‑rated neighboring vineyards of Mandulas and Kutpatka, Bacso was able to achieve what he believes to be not just richer but even better wines in the freakishly hot 2000 vintage. Meantime, the Oremus vineyard itself, near the northern extreme of the Tokaj region at Satoraljaujhely, has been replanted to muscat and zeta (a.k.a. "Oremus"). Given this site unique, fine‑grained, weathered volcanic soil and its varietal mix, one can anticipate results very different from those in the other Oremus vineyards. Whether any vineyard‑designated wine will be bottled is an open question, maintain Bacso and his cellarmaster Lajos Kun. Nor is replanting at Oremus confined to the eponymous vineyard. Furmint from the Mariassy vineyard outside the town of Tokaj will reach production in three or four years, and major projects involving further land acquisition are underway around Tolcsva, including experimental plantings of a new crossing and of one or two ancient varieties. At present, Oremus owns 250 total acres of vineyard. They expect to top out at the winery's capacity of approximately 285 acres. At Oremus, Aszu berries are macerated in a mix of two-thirds clarified fresh must and one-third fermenting must, both rich in yeasts, a "recipe" Basco found documented from the 18th century and conducive to complex flavor byproducts and high levels of glycerine, if not to ease or speed of extraction. The use of finished wine to extract Aszu is only traditional, he says laughingly, "if by that you mean a tradition of the last 50 years." Oremus wines are also treated to a high percentage of new wood. Old barrels, claims Basco, were just another unfortunate expedient of recent hard times. Given the high protein levels in botrytized juice, he insists, new wood is essential for proper vinification and natural clarification of the young wine. (Represented by Europvin/Christopher Cannan Selections; various importers including Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, NY)
2006 Tokaji Aszu 5 Puttonyos
Color: Sweet White

Score: 90.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: (13% alcohol; 11.3 g/l r.s.; a blend of 50% furmint, 30% hÃ¡rslevelÃ» and the rest zÃ©ta and muscat): Full, bright orange-copper color. Aromas of orange peel, toffee, maple syrup and sweet butter, plus some high-toned oak; no shortage of fruit here. Quite concentrated and dense with extract, showing a slightly bitter orange peel edge and steely acidity to the layered flavors of dried apricot, pineapple, anise and botanical herbs. Finishes long, ripe and tactile, with lingering notes of peach nectar and game. There's something cool here that contributes energy to this wine.

Producer Commentary:
Other wines tasted: 2012 MandolÃ¡s Furmint Dry.
1999 Tokaji Aszu 5 Puttonyos
Color: Sweet White

Score: 0.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Expressive citrus, honey and resin aromas. Extraordinarily vivid citrus character in the mouth, along with pears, honey and resin. Loaded with fat and glycerine, yet supercharged with acidity. Penetrating, honeyed, mouthwateringly citric finish. 2 stars.

Producer Commentary:
Oremus director Andras Bacso is a man whose vision for Tokaj, after years spent struggling to reform the old system from within, has been exonerated and on whom Nature has belatedly smiled. A dream facility, focusing his vision of an ancient winemaking regimen by way of the control, cleanliness and refinement that only high technology can deliver, was completed in time to receive the vinous wealth of 1999, rendering from it an absolutely stellar collection. Moreover, thanks to the cooler, more water‑retentive soils in many of Oremus' Tolcsva sites, including the top‑rated neighboring vineyards of Mandulas and Kutpatka, Bacso was able to achieve what he believes to be not just richer but even better wines in the freakishly hot 2000 vintage. Meantime, the Oremus vineyard itself, near the northern extreme of the Tokaj region at Satoraljaujhely, has been replanted to muscat and zeta (a.k.a. "Oremus"). Given this site unique, fine‑grained, weathered volcanic soil and its varietal mix, one can anticipate results very different from those in the other Oremus vineyards. Whether any vineyard‑designated wine will be bottled is an open question, maintain Bacso and his cellarmaster Lajos Kun. Nor is replanting at Oremus confined to the eponymous vineyard. Furmint from the Mariassy vineyard outside the town of Tokaj will reach production in three or four years, and major projects involving further land acquisition are underway around Tolcsva, including experimental plantings of a new crossing and of one or two ancient varieties. At present, Oremus owns 250 total acres of vineyard. They expect to top out at the winery's capacity of approximately 285 acres. At Oremus, Aszu berries are macerated in a mix of two-thirds clarified fresh must and one-third fermenting must, both rich in yeasts, a "recipe" Basco found documented from the 18th century and conducive to complex flavor byproducts and high levels of glycerine, if not to ease or speed of extraction. The use of finished wine to extract Aszu is only traditional, he says laughingly, "if by that you mean a tradition of the last 50 years." Oremus wines are also treated to a high percentage of new wood. Old barrels, claims Basco, were just another unfortunate expedient of recent hard times. Given the high protein levels in botrytized juice, he insists, new wood is essential for proper vinification and natural clarification of the young wine. (Represented by Europvin/Christopher Cannan Selections; various importers including Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, NY)
1993 Tokaji Aszu 5 Puttonyos
Color: Sweet White

Score: 0.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: A strikingly different animal from the 1994. Baked apple and honey aromas. An almost Mosel-like study in sweet apple and bitter apple pit flavors. Fat and creamy but without the refreshing brightness of the 1994. Caramelized apple finish with a faintly raw manifestation of botrytis character.

Producer Commentary:
The owners of Vega Sicilia are building for Oremus director/winemaker Andras Bacso the winemaking facility of his dreams. With luck, this amazing example of modernity in the service of tradition will be ready for the 1999 crush. The juice and wine will move entirely by gravity. Sophisticated rotating fermenters for the extraction of raisined fruit (added to must, not finished wine) and refrigerated storage for freshly picked Aszu are among the modern touches. Bacso believes strongly in the wines' two years' stay in Gonci barrels, one-third of them replaced each year by a local tonnelier working with oak from the Zemplin Hills. "With a really exceptional Aszu year, I'll experiment with longer aging," he explains. Even the simplest dry wine here rests in barrel for three to five months, naturally clarifying in the pure, fungus-filtered air of Oremus ancient cellars. Bacso, cellarmaster Lajos Kun and enologist Peter Molnar strive to achieve a fine balance of sweetness with acids and alcohol. A typical 5-puttonyos wine, for instance, won't have much over the minimum requirement of 120 grams per liter residual sugar. The rest will have been converted to alcohol, with a 12.5% level typical, of which 1% is lost through the barrels during elevage. Fruit from multiple parcels in different villages and microclimates is assembled to achieve the most complex wine and the best balance of fruit and botrytis in a given vintage. Most of Oremus' 130 acres are in Mandulas Kutpatka, Seredi-Vay and Szentver, four top growths of Tolcsva, but several smaller parcels promise to add enormously to the quality of future wines. Just outside Satoraljaujhely new vines are being planted in the parcel from which Oremus derives its name, and from which in 1630 Calvinist pastor and vintner Laczko Szepsi is recorded as having crushed the first Aszu wine. Three acres in the Mariassy, a sheltered heat and humidity trap just outside Tokaj, are also going in. The first vintage under the current regime was 1993 but, like all of the other foreign investors, the owners of Oremus were required to purchase large stocks of older wine vinified under the Communist-era regime. Bacso, who from 1990 to 1993 directed the then-monolithic state monopoly, seems to have viewed this requirement as a special challenge to taste with tenacity and select the best. Many older wines I tasted are still for sale, and demonstrated that great wines, though doubtless the rare exceptions, were bottled even in the "bad old days."
1975 Tokaji Aszu 5 Puttonyos
Color: Sweet White

Score: 0.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Sweet cherry and baked tomato aromas are a bit reminiscent of a liquorous pinot. Toasted nuts and caramel along with a resinous, smoky, high-toned note not unlike really fine old Calvados-clearly a case of very attractive oxidation. Long smoky, nutty finish.

Producer Commentary:
The owners of Vega Sicilia are building for Oremus director/winemaker Andras Bacso the winemaking facility of his dreams. With luck, this amazing example of modernity in the service of tradition will be ready for the 1999 crush. The juice and wine will move entirely by gravity. Sophisticated rotating fermenters for the extraction of raisined fruit (added to must, not finished wine) and refrigerated storage for freshly picked Aszu are among the modern touches. Bacso believes strongly in the wines' two years' stay in Gonci barrels, one-third of them replaced each year by a local tonnelier working with oak from the Zemplin Hills. "With a really exceptional Aszu year, I'll experiment with longer aging," he explains. Even the simplest dry wine here rests in barrel for three to five months, naturally clarifying in the pure, fungus-filtered air of Oremus ancient cellars. Bacso, cellarmaster Lajos Kun and enologist Peter Molnar strive to achieve a fine balance of sweetness with acids and alcohol. A typical 5-puttonyos wine, for instance, won't have much over the minimum requirement of 120 grams per liter residual sugar. The rest will have been converted to alcohol, with a 12.5% level typical, of which 1% is lost through the barrels during elevage. Fruit from multiple parcels in different villages and microclimates is assembled to achieve the most complex wine and the best balance of fruit and botrytis in a given vintage. Most of Oremus' 130 acres are in Mandulas Kutpatka, Seredi-Vay and Szentver, four top growths of Tolcsva, but several smaller parcels promise to add enormously to the quality of future wines. Just outside Satoraljaujhely new vines are being planted in the parcel from which Oremus derives its name, and from which in 1630 Calvinist pastor and vintner Laczko Szepsi is recorded as having crushed the first Aszu wine. Three acres in the Mariassy, a sheltered heat and humidity trap just outside Tokaj, are also going in. The first vintage under the current regime was 1993 but, like all of the other foreign investors, the owners of Oremus were required to purchase large stocks of older wine vinified under the Communist-era regime. Bacso, who from 1990 to 1993 directed the then-monolithic state monopoly, seems to have viewed this requirement as a special challenge to taste with tenacity and select the best. Many older wines I tasted are still for sale, and demonstrated that great wines, though doubtless the rare exceptions, were bottled even in the "bad old days."
2000 Mandolas Furmint Dry
Color: White

Score: 0.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Aromas of dried peach and apricot, with a faintly smoky aura. Glyceral-rich and doughy, with pit fruit, resin and toasted almond flavors. The texture and the balance of fats (metaphorically speaking) and acids are reminiscent of really good white Burgundy. This barrel-fermented, batonnage-d wine (along with the stylistically disparate 2000 from Degenfeld) has convinced me that dry furmint has real potential. 1 star.

Producer Commentary:
Oremus director Andras Bacso is a man whose vision for Tokaj, after years spent struggling to reform the old system from within, has been exonerated and on whom Nature has belatedly smiled. A dream facility, focusing his vision of an ancient winemaking regimen by way of the control, cleanliness and refinement that only high technology can deliver, was completed in time to receive the vinous wealth of 1999, rendering from it an absolutely stellar collection. Moreover, thanks to the cooler, more water‑retentive soils in many of Oremus' Tolcsva sites, including the top‑rated neighboring vineyards of Mandulas and Kutpatka, Bacso was able to achieve what he believes to be not just richer but even better wines in the freakishly hot 2000 vintage. Meantime, the Oremus vineyard itself, near the northern extreme of the Tokaj region at Satoraljaujhely, has been replanted to muscat and zeta (a.k.a. "Oremus"). Given this site unique, fine‑grained, weathered volcanic soil and its varietal mix, one can anticipate results very different from those in the other Oremus vineyards. Whether any vineyard‑designated wine will be bottled is an open question, maintain Bacso and his cellarmaster Lajos Kun. Nor is replanting at Oremus confined to the eponymous vineyard. Furmint from the Mariassy vineyard outside the town of Tokaj will reach production in three or four years, and major projects involving further land acquisition are underway around Tolcsva, including experimental plantings of a new crossing and of one or two ancient varieties. At present, Oremus owns 250 total acres of vineyard. They expect to top out at the winery's capacity of approximately 285 acres. At Oremus, Aszu berries are macerated in a mix of two-thirds clarified fresh must and one-third fermenting must, both rich in yeasts, a "recipe" Basco found documented from the 18th century and conducive to complex flavor byproducts and high levels of glycerine, if not to ease or speed of extraction. The use of finished wine to extract Aszu is only traditional, he says laughingly, "if by that you mean a tradition of the last 50 years." Oremus wines are also treated to a high percentage of new wood. Old barrels, claims Basco, were just another unfortunate expedient of recent hard times. Given the high protein levels in botrytized juice, he insists, new wood is essential for proper vinification and natural clarification of the young wine. (Represented by Europvin/Christopher Cannan Selections; various importers including Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, NY)
2007 Tokaji Aszu 3 Puttonyos
Color: Sweet White

Score: 90.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: (based on 50% furmint): Full bright gold. Aromas of apricot, orange marmalade, clove, dill and inviting gamey botrytis on the nose. Slightly bitter-edged orange and grapefruit flavors show a saline complexity. Not a glyceral wine but has plenty of chewy texture; bitter-edged in a positive way, showing ripe, juicy acidity. Very fresh wine with lovely saline persistence. A very good example of a 3 Puttonyos wine, a classification that is no longer legal.

Producer Commentary:
Other wines tasted:2012 MandolÃ¡s Furmint Dry.
1999 Tokaji Aszu 3 Puttonyos
Color: Sweet White

Score: 0.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Pear, white peach, honey and almond aromas. Brash and fresh in the mouth; white peach and yellow cherries shot through with lemon juice. Oily and creamy, yet sharp as a tack. The finish of citrus and pit fruits goes on and on. 2 stars.

Producer Commentary:
Oremus director Andras Bacso is a man whose vision for Tokaj, after years spent struggling to reform the old system from within, has been exonerated and on whom Nature has belatedly smiled. A dream facility, focusing his vision of an ancient winemaking regimen by way of the control, cleanliness and refinement that only high technology can deliver, was completed in time to receive the vinous wealth of 1999, rendering from it an absolutely stellar collection. Moreover, thanks to the cooler, more water‑retentive soils in many of Oremus' Tolcsva sites, including the top‑rated neighboring vineyards of Mandulas and Kutpatka, Bacso was able to achieve what he believes to be not just richer but even better wines in the freakishly hot 2000 vintage. Meantime, the Oremus vineyard itself, near the northern extreme of the Tokaj region at Satoraljaujhely, has been replanted to muscat and zeta (a.k.a. "Oremus"). Given this site unique, fine‑grained, weathered volcanic soil and its varietal mix, one can anticipate results very different from those in the other Oremus vineyards. Whether any vineyard‑designated wine will be bottled is an open question, maintain Bacso and his cellarmaster Lajos Kun. Nor is replanting at Oremus confined to the eponymous vineyard. Furmint from the Mariassy vineyard outside the town of Tokaj will reach production in three or four years, and major projects involving further land acquisition are underway around Tolcsva, including experimental plantings of a new crossing and of one or two ancient varieties. At present, Oremus owns 250 total acres of vineyard. They expect to top out at the winery's capacity of approximately 285 acres. At Oremus, Aszu berries are macerated in a mix of two-thirds clarified fresh must and one-third fermenting must, both rich in yeasts, a "recipe" Basco found documented from the 18th century and conducive to complex flavor byproducts and high levels of glycerine, if not to ease or speed of extraction. The use of finished wine to extract Aszu is only traditional, he says laughingly, "if by that you mean a tradition of the last 50 years." Oremus wines are also treated to a high percentage of new wood. Old barrels, claims Basco, were just another unfortunate expedient of recent hard times. Given the high protein levels in botrytized juice, he insists, new wood is essential for proper vinification and natural clarification of the young wine. (Represented by Europvin/Christopher Cannan Selections; various importers including Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, NY)
1997 Tokaji Aszu 3 Puttonyos
Color: Sweet White

Score: 0.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Fresh peach and lemon in the nose and mouth, with pleasantly tart fruit skin character. Elegant, bright wine with penetrating, citric, smoky, chalky-mineral length. 1 star. I tasted relatively few Tokaji Aszu of 3 puttonyos, but in plentiful years at least the larger estates will try to bottle some because, I am told, they fit the taste and price expectations of Hungarian clients. There is, I think, something to be said for this drier and more affordable category.

Producer Commentary:
Oremus director Andras Bacso is a man whose vision for Tokaj, after years spent struggling to reform the old system from within, has been exonerated and on whom Nature has belatedly smiled. A dream facility, focusing his vision of an ancient winemaking regimen by way of the control, cleanliness and refinement that only high technology can deliver, was completed in time to receive the vinous wealth of 1999, rendering from it an absolutely stellar collection. Moreover, thanks to the cooler, more water‑retentive soils in many of Oremus' Tolcsva sites, including the top‑rated neighboring vineyards of Mandulas and Kutpatka, Bacso was able to achieve what he believes to be not just richer but even better wines in the freakishly hot 2000 vintage. Meantime, the Oremus vineyard itself, near the northern extreme of the Tokaj region at Satoraljaujhely, has been replanted to muscat and zeta (a.k.a. "Oremus"). Given this site unique, fine‑grained, weathered volcanic soil and its varietal mix, one can anticipate results very different from those in the other Oremus vineyards. Whether any vineyard‑designated wine will be bottled is an open question, maintain Bacso and his cellarmaster Lajos Kun. Nor is replanting at Oremus confined to the eponymous vineyard. Furmint from the Mariassy vineyard outside the town of Tokaj will reach production in three or four years, and major projects involving further land acquisition are underway around Tolcsva, including experimental plantings of a new crossing and of one or two ancient varieties. At present, Oremus owns 250 total acres of vineyard. They expect to top out at the winery's capacity of approximately 285 acres. At Oremus, Aszu berries are macerated in a mix of two-thirds clarified fresh must and one-third fermenting must, both rich in yeasts, a "recipe" Basco found documented from the 18th century and conducive to complex flavor byproducts and high levels of glycerine, if not to ease or speed of extraction. The use of finished wine to extract Aszu is only traditional, he says laughingly, "if by that you mean a tradition of the last 50 years." Oremus wines are also treated to a high percentage of new wood. Old barrels, claims Basco, were just another unfortunate expedient of recent hard times. Given the high protein levels in botrytized juice, he insists, new wood is essential for proper vinification and natural clarification of the young wine. (Represented by Europvin/Christopher Cannan Selections; various importers including Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, NY)
1996 Tokaji Furmint Noble Late Harvest
Color: Sweet White

Score: 0.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: This wine from around 40% botrytized fruit spent nine months in barrel. Aromas of yeast, caraway, musk and candied lemon. Pungent sweetness, like black tea, lemon and honey. Grainy but rich in the mouth. Long, nutty, marrowy and impressively mineral finish.

Producer Commentary:
The owners of Vega Sicilia are building for Oremus director/winemaker Andras Bacso the winemaking facility of his dreams. With luck, this amazing example of modernity in the service of tradition will be ready for the 1999 crush. The juice and wine will move entirely by gravity. Sophisticated rotating fermenters for the extraction of raisined fruit (added to must, not finished wine) and refrigerated storage for freshly picked Aszu are among the modern touches. Bacso believes strongly in the wines' two years' stay in Gonci barrels, one-third of them replaced each year by a local tonnelier working with oak from the Zemplin Hills. "With a really exceptional Aszu year, I'll experiment with longer aging," he explains. Even the simplest dry wine here rests in barrel for three to five months, naturally clarifying in the pure, fungus-filtered air of Oremus ancient cellars. Bacso, cellarmaster Lajos Kun and enologist Peter Molnar strive to achieve a fine balance of sweetness with acids and alcohol. A typical 5-puttonyos wine, for instance, won't have much over the minimum requirement of 120 grams per liter residual sugar. The rest will have been converted to alcohol, with a 12.5% level typical, of which 1% is lost through the barrels during elevage. Fruit from multiple parcels in different villages and microclimates is assembled to achieve the most complex wine and the best balance of fruit and botrytis in a given vintage. Most of Oremus' 130 acres are in Mandulas Kutpatka, Seredi-Vay and Szentver, four top growths of Tolcsva, but several smaller parcels promise to add enormously to the quality of future wines. Just outside Satoraljaujhely new vines are being planted in the parcel from which Oremus derives its name, and from which in 1630 Calvinist pastor and vintner Laczko Szepsi is recorded as having crushed the first Aszu wine. Three acres in the Mariassy, a sheltered heat and humidity trap just outside Tokaj, are also going in. The first vintage under the current regime was 1993 but, like all of the other foreign investors, the owners of Oremus were required to purchase large stocks of older wine vinified under the Communist-era regime. Bacso, who from 1990 to 1993 directed the then-monolithic state monopoly, seems to have viewed this requirement as a special challenge to taste with tenacity and select the best. Many older wines I tasted are still for sale, and demonstrated that great wines, though doubtless the rare exceptions, were bottled even in the "bad old days."
1999 Tokaji Aszu 4 Puttonyos
Color: Sweet White

Score: 0.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Tea, honey and grapefruit aromas. Honey and apricot in the mouth, with black tea accents and the strong citricity that marks most of the best youthful '99s. A subtle, smoky, meaty undertone grows in the finish. 1 star.

Producer Commentary:
Oremus director Andras Bacso is a man whose vision for Tokaj, after years spent struggling to reform the old system from within, has been exonerated and on whom Nature has belatedly smiled. A dream facility, focusing his vision of an ancient winemaking regimen by way of the control, cleanliness and refinement that only high technology can deliver, was completed in time to receive the vinous wealth of 1999, rendering from it an absolutely stellar collection. Moreover, thanks to the cooler, more water‑retentive soils in many of Oremus' Tolcsva sites, including the top‑rated neighboring vineyards of Mandulas and Kutpatka, Bacso was able to achieve what he believes to be not just richer but even better wines in the freakishly hot 2000 vintage. Meantime, the Oremus vineyard itself, near the northern extreme of the Tokaj region at Satoraljaujhely, has been replanted to muscat and zeta (a.k.a. "Oremus"). Given this site unique, fine‑grained, weathered volcanic soil and its varietal mix, one can anticipate results very different from those in the other Oremus vineyards. Whether any vineyard‑designated wine will be bottled is an open question, maintain Bacso and his cellarmaster Lajos Kun. Nor is replanting at Oremus confined to the eponymous vineyard. Furmint from the Mariassy vineyard outside the town of Tokaj will reach production in three or four years, and major projects involving further land acquisition are underway around Tolcsva, including experimental plantings of a new crossing and of one or two ancient varieties. At present, Oremus owns 250 total acres of vineyard. They expect to top out at the winery's capacity of approximately 285 acres. At Oremus, Aszu berries are macerated in a mix of two-thirds clarified fresh must and one-third fermenting must, both rich in yeasts, a "recipe" Basco found documented from the 18th century and conducive to complex flavor byproducts and high levels of glycerine, if not to ease or speed of extraction. The use of finished wine to extract Aszu is only traditional, he says laughingly, "if by that you mean a tradition of the last 50 years." Oremus wines are also treated to a high percentage of new wood. Old barrels, claims Basco, were just another unfortunate expedient of recent hard times. Given the high protein levels in botrytized juice, he insists, new wood is essential for proper vinification and natural clarification of the young wine. (Represented by Europvin/Christopher Cannan Selections; various importers including Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, NY)
1968 Tokaji Aszu 4 Puttonyos
Color: Sweet White

Score: 0.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Deep reddish-amber color. Lovely sweet aromas of cinnamon, cooked cherries and resin. Creamy, nutty and sedate in the mouth, with mocha and coffee flavors emerging with aeration. Finish of toasted walnut, black cherry jam and coffee. (Bottled in 1994.)

Producer Commentary:
The owners of Vega Sicilia are building for Oremus director/winemaker Andras Bacso the winemaking facility of his dreams. With luck, this amazing example of modernity in the service of tradition will be ready for the 1999 crush. The juice and wine will move entirely by gravity. Sophisticated rotating fermenters for the extraction of raisined fruit (added to must, not finished wine) and refrigerated storage for freshly picked Aszu are among the modern touches. Bacso believes strongly in the wines' two years' stay in Gonci barrels, one-third of them replaced each year by a local tonnelier working with oak from the Zemplin Hills. "With a really exceptional Aszu year, I'll experiment with longer aging," he explains. Even the simplest dry wine here rests in barrel for three to five months, naturally clarifying in the pure, fungus-filtered air of Oremus ancient cellars. Bacso, cellarmaster Lajos Kun and enologist Peter Molnar strive to achieve a fine balance of sweetness with acids and alcohol. A typical 5-puttonyos wine, for instance, won't have much over the minimum requirement of 120 grams per liter residual sugar. The rest will have been converted to alcohol, with a 12.5% level typical, of which 1% is lost through the barrels during elevage. Fruit from multiple parcels in different villages and microclimates is assembled to achieve the most complex wine and the best balance of fruit and botrytis in a given vintage. Most of Oremus' 130 acres are in Mandulas Kutpatka, Seredi-Vay and Szentver, four top growths of Tolcsva, but several smaller parcels promise to add enormously to the quality of future wines. Just outside Satoraljaujhely new vines are being planted in the parcel from which Oremus derives its name, and from which in 1630 Calvinist pastor and vintner Laczko Szepsi is recorded as having crushed the first Aszu wine. Three acres in the Mariassy, a sheltered heat and humidity trap just outside Tokaj, are also going in. The first vintage under the current regime was 1993 but, like all of the other foreign investors, the owners of Oremus were required to purchase large stocks of older wine vinified under the Communist-era regime. Bacso, who from 1990 to 1993 directed the then-monolithic state monopoly, seems to have viewed this requirement as a special challenge to taste with tenacity and select the best. Many older wines I tasted are still for sale, and demonstrated that great wines, though doubtless the rare exceptions, were bottled even in the "bad old days."
2010 Late Harvest
Color: Sweet White

Score: 88.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: (40% each furmint and hÃ¡rslevelÃ», the rest zÃ©ta and muscat; barrel-fermented in 100% oak, then racked into one-third new, one-third once-used and one-third twice-used barrels): Good deep yellow. Slightly earthy aromas of musky mirabelle, flowers and resiny oak; not 100% pristine. Conveys a strong honeyed botrytis character to its flavors of dried plum, flowers and marzipan and finishes persistent and slightly bitter, with firm acidity. The crop level was down 30% to 40% due to flooding during the summer, according to Szabolcs Ujfalusy.

Producer Commentary:
Other wines tasted: 2012 MandolÃ¡s Furmint Dry.
2015 Tokaji Dry Mandolas
Color: White

Score: 90.0

Drinking window: 2018 - 2025

Tasting notes: The 2015 Oremus Tokaji Dry Mandolas is a typical modern dry Furmint with notes of peach, apricot, lemon curd, herbs and caramel. This lovely wine, made by the Vega Sicilia-owned Oremus estate in Hungary’s Tokaj-Hegyalja, features a bright savory quality that allows it to match well with some elements of Sichuan cuisine, especially those dishes that are more delicately spicy).

Producer Commentary:
The Peacock Room is a beautiful new restaurant in Shanghai that offers high quality, precise Sichuan cuisine in a remarkably supercool, sleek and modernist setting.
2011 Mandolas Furmint Dry
Color: White

Score: 87.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: (this is the estate's only dry wine, accounting for one-third to one-half of total annual production of 120,000 to 150,000 bottles): Pale straw-yellow. Slightly dull pear and stone fruit aromas are carrying a full load of vanillin oak. Round, supple and oaky in a slightly featureless chardonnay way. The oak element gives the warm finish a slight dry edge. Since 1999, Oremus has fermented its sweet wines in oak, seasoning its barrels with this dry wine.

Producer Commentary:
Other wines tasted: 2012 MandolÃ¡s Furmint Dry.
1995 Tokaji Aszu 6 Puttonyos
Color: Sweet White

Score: 0.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Aromas of dried peach and persimmon. Thick and dense and very caramelly in the mouth, yet with some of the lovely citricity and sweetness-acid interplay of the 1994 5 puttonyos.

Producer Commentary:
The owners of Vega Sicilia are building for Oremus director/winemaker Andras Bacso the winemaking facility of his dreams. With luck, this amazing example of modernity in the service of tradition will be ready for the 1999 crush. The juice and wine will move entirely by gravity. Sophisticated rotating fermenters for the extraction of raisined fruit (added to must, not finished wine) and refrigerated storage for freshly picked Aszu are among the modern touches. Bacso believes strongly in the wines' two years' stay in Gonci barrels, one-third of them replaced each year by a local tonnelier working with oak from the Zemplin Hills. "With a really exceptional Aszu year, I'll experiment with longer aging," he explains. Even the simplest dry wine here rests in barrel for three to five months, naturally clarifying in the pure, fungus-filtered air of Oremus ancient cellars. Bacso, cellarmaster Lajos Kun and enologist Peter Molnar strive to achieve a fine balance of sweetness with acids and alcohol. A typical 5-puttonyos wine, for instance, won't have much over the minimum requirement of 120 grams per liter residual sugar. The rest will have been converted to alcohol, with a 12.5% level typical, of which 1% is lost through the barrels during elevage. Fruit from multiple parcels in different villages and microclimates is assembled to achieve the most complex wine and the best balance of fruit and botrytis in a given vintage. Most of Oremus' 130 acres are in Mandulas Kutpatka, Seredi-Vay and Szentver, four top growths of Tolcsva, but several smaller parcels promise to add enormously to the quality of future wines. Just outside Satoraljaujhely new vines are being planted in the parcel from which Oremus derives its name, and from which in 1630 Calvinist pastor and vintner Laczko Szepsi is recorded as having crushed the first Aszu wine. Three acres in the Mariassy, a sheltered heat and humidity trap just outside Tokaj, are also going in. The first vintage under the current regime was 1993 but, like all of the other foreign investors, the owners of Oremus were required to purchase large stocks of older wine vinified under the Communist-era regime. Bacso, who from 1990 to 1993 directed the then-monolithic state monopoly, seems to have viewed this requirement as a special challenge to taste with tenacity and select the best. Many older wines I tasted are still for sale, and demonstrated that great wines, though doubtless the rare exceptions, were bottled even in the "bad old days."
1995 Tokaji Eszencia
Color: Sweet White

Score: 0.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Peach preserves and apricot nectar on the nose, shot through with fresh lime and orange. For all of its thickness and sugar, this is bracing and invigorating. No wonder this beverage was legendary for its restorative powers. I felt a tickle in my throat the morning I visited Oremus, but it vanished after I tasted this wine. This incredible elixir will be sold in 250-ml. bottles. 2 stars.

Producer Commentary:
Oremus director Andras Bacso is a man whose vision for Tokaj, after years spent struggling to reform the old system from within, has been exonerated and on whom Nature has belatedly smiled. A dream facility, focusing his vision of an ancient winemaking regimen by way of the control, cleanliness and refinement that only high technology can deliver, was completed in time to receive the vinous wealth of 1999, rendering from it an absolutely stellar collection. Moreover, thanks to the cooler, more water‑retentive soils in many of Oremus' Tolcsva sites, including the top‑rated neighboring vineyards of Mandulas and Kutpatka, Bacso was able to achieve what he believes to be not just richer but even better wines in the freakishly hot 2000 vintage. Meantime, the Oremus vineyard itself, near the northern extreme of the Tokaj region at Satoraljaujhely, has been replanted to muscat and zeta (a.k.a. "Oremus"). Given this site unique, fine‑grained, weathered volcanic soil and its varietal mix, one can anticipate results very different from those in the other Oremus vineyards. Whether any vineyard‑designated wine will be bottled is an open question, maintain Bacso and his cellarmaster Lajos Kun. Nor is replanting at Oremus confined to the eponymous vineyard. Furmint from the Mariassy vineyard outside the town of Tokaj will reach production in three or four years, and major projects involving further land acquisition are underway around Tolcsva, including experimental plantings of a new crossing and of one or two ancient varieties. At present, Oremus owns 250 total acres of vineyard. They expect to top out at the winery's capacity of approximately 285 acres. At Oremus, Aszu berries are macerated in a mix of two-thirds clarified fresh must and one-third fermenting must, both rich in yeasts, a "recipe" Basco found documented from the 18th century and conducive to complex flavor byproducts and high levels of glycerine, if not to ease or speed of extraction. The use of finished wine to extract Aszu is only traditional, he says laughingly, "if by that you mean a tradition of the last 50 years." Oremus wines are also treated to a high percentage of new wood. Old barrels, claims Basco, were just another unfortunate expedient of recent hard times. Given the high protein levels in botrytized juice, he insists, new wood is essential for proper vinification and natural clarification of the young wine. (Represented by Europvin/Christopher Cannan Selections; various importers including Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, NY)
1994 Tokaji Aszu 5 Puttonyos
Color: Sweet White

Score: 0.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Lovely aroma of dried apricots, honey, pungent black tea, toasted almonds and fresh yeastiness. Thick and creamy in the mouth, yet has a wonderfully juicy, fresh tropical fruit core: mango, pineapple and honey. Long, brightly citric, smoky, clove‑tinged finish, with the sweetness quite buffered. Includes around 20% hÃ¡rslevelo blended in with the furmint.

Producer Commentary:
The owners of Vega Sicilia are building for Oremus director/winemaker Andras Bacso the winemaking facility of his dreams. With luck, this amazing example of modernity in the service of tradition will be ready for the 1999 crush. The juice and wine will move entirely by gravity. Sophisticated rotating fermenters for the extraction of raisined fruit (added to must, not finished wine) and refrigerated storage for freshly picked Aszu are among the modern touches. Bacso believes strongly in the wines' two years' stay in Gonci barrels, one-third of them replaced each year by a local tonnelier working with oak from the Zemplin Hills. "With a really exceptional Aszu year, I'll experiment with longer aging," he explains. Even the simplest dry wine here rests in barrel for three to five months, naturally clarifying in the pure, fungus-filtered air of Oremus ancient cellars. Bacso, cellarmaster Lajos Kun and enologist Peter Molnar strive to achieve a fine balance of sweetness with acids and alcohol. A typical 5-puttonyos wine, for instance, won't have much over the minimum requirement of 120 grams per liter residual sugar. The rest will have been converted to alcohol, with a 12.5% level typical, of which 1% is lost through the barrels during elevage. Fruit from multiple parcels in different villages and microclimates is assembled to achieve the most complex wine and the best balance of fruit and botrytis in a given vintage. Most of Oremus' 130 acres are in Mandulas Kutpatka, Seredi-Vay and Szentver, four top growths of Tolcsva, but several smaller parcels promise to add enormously to the quality of future wines. Just outside Satoraljaujhely new vines are being planted in the parcel from which Oremus derives its name, and from which in 1630 Calvinist pastor and vintner Laczko Szepsi is recorded as having crushed the first Aszu wine. Three acres in the Mariassy, a sheltered heat and humidity trap just outside Tokaj, are also going in. The first vintage under the current regime was 1993 but, like all of the other foreign investors, the owners of Oremus were required to purchase large stocks of older wine vinified under the Communist-era regime. Bacso, who from 1990 to 1993 directed the then-monolithic state monopoly, seems to have viewed this requirement as a special challenge to taste with tenacity and select the best. Many older wines I tasted are still for sale, and demonstrated that great wines, though doubtless the rare exceptions, were bottled even in the "bad old days."
1995 Tokaji Aszu 5 Puttonyos
Color: Sweet White

Score: 0.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Black tea, honey and resin aromas. Creamy and thick, but at the same time bracing. Full of peach and apricot preserve, with lightly astringent notes of fruit skin. The richer, denser '95 6-Puttonyos bottling, on which I reported in Issue 86, exhibits more complex smoke, spice and caramel notes and merits 1 star.

Producer Commentary:
Oremus director Andras Bacso is a man whose vision for Tokaj, after years spent struggling to reform the old system from within, has been exonerated and on whom Nature has belatedly smiled. A dream facility, focusing his vision of an ancient winemaking regimen by way of the control, cleanliness and refinement that only high technology can deliver, was completed in time to receive the vinous wealth of 1999, rendering from it an absolutely stellar collection. Moreover, thanks to the cooler, more water‑retentive soils in many of Oremus' Tolcsva sites, including the top‑rated neighboring vineyards of Mandulas and Kutpatka, Bacso was able to achieve what he believes to be not just richer but even better wines in the freakishly hot 2000 vintage. Meantime, the Oremus vineyard itself, near the northern extreme of the Tokaj region at Satoraljaujhely, has been replanted to muscat and zeta (a.k.a. "Oremus"). Given this site unique, fine‑grained, weathered volcanic soil and its varietal mix, one can anticipate results very different from those in the other Oremus vineyards. Whether any vineyard‑designated wine will be bottled is an open question, maintain Bacso and his cellarmaster Lajos Kun. Nor is replanting at Oremus confined to the eponymous vineyard. Furmint from the Mariassy vineyard outside the town of Tokaj will reach production in three or four years, and major projects involving further land acquisition are underway around Tolcsva, including experimental plantings of a new crossing and of one or two ancient varieties. At present, Oremus owns 250 total acres of vineyard. They expect to top out at the winery's capacity of approximately 285 acres. At Oremus, Aszu berries are macerated in a mix of two-thirds clarified fresh must and one-third fermenting must, both rich in yeasts, a "recipe" Basco found documented from the 18th century and conducive to complex flavor byproducts and high levels of glycerine, if not to ease or speed of extraction. The use of finished wine to extract Aszu is only traditional, he says laughingly, "if by that you mean a tradition of the last 50 years." Oremus wines are also treated to a high percentage of new wood. Old barrels, claims Basco, were just another unfortunate expedient of recent hard times. Given the high protein levels in botrytized juice, he insists, new wood is essential for proper vinification and natural clarification of the young wine. (Represented by Europvin/Christopher Cannan Selections; various importers including Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, NY)
2000 Tokaji Aszu 5 Puttonyos
Color: Sweet White

Score: 0.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Notes of grilled pineapple, grapefruit and honey in the nose. Creamy and fat in the mouth, broad and enveloping in its honey, vanilla and grilled citrus character, this contrasts strikingly with the dynamic play of acids of the 1999s. Pungently spicy, with a hint of caramel in the finish. 1 star.

Producer Commentary:
Oremus director Andras Bacso is a man whose vision for Tokaj, after years spent struggling to reform the old system from within, has been exonerated and on whom Nature has belatedly smiled. A dream facility, focusing his vision of an ancient winemaking regimen by way of the control, cleanliness and refinement that only high technology can deliver, was completed in time to receive the vinous wealth of 1999, rendering from it an absolutely stellar collection. Moreover, thanks to the cooler, more water‑retentive soils in many of Oremus' Tolcsva sites, including the top‑rated neighboring vineyards of Mandulas and Kutpatka, Bacso was able to achieve what he believes to be not just richer but even better wines in the freakishly hot 2000 vintage. Meantime, the Oremus vineyard itself, near the northern extreme of the Tokaj region at Satoraljaujhely, has been replanted to muscat and zeta (a.k.a. "Oremus"). Given this site unique, fine‑grained, weathered volcanic soil and its varietal mix, one can anticipate results very different from those in the other Oremus vineyards. Whether any vineyard‑designated wine will be bottled is an open question, maintain Bacso and his cellarmaster Lajos Kun. Nor is replanting at Oremus confined to the eponymous vineyard. Furmint from the Mariassy vineyard outside the town of Tokaj will reach production in three or four years, and major projects involving further land acquisition are underway around Tolcsva, including experimental plantings of a new crossing and of one or two ancient varieties. At present, Oremus owns 250 total acres of vineyard. They expect to top out at the winery's capacity of approximately 285 acres. At Oremus, Aszu berries are macerated in a mix of two-thirds clarified fresh must and one-third fermenting must, both rich in yeasts, a "recipe" Basco found documented from the 18th century and conducive to complex flavor byproducts and high levels of glycerine, if not to ease or speed of extraction. The use of finished wine to extract Aszu is only traditional, he says laughingly, "if by that you mean a tradition of the last 50 years." Oremus wines are also treated to a high percentage of new wood. Old barrels, claims Basco, were just another unfortunate expedient of recent hard times. Given the high protein levels in botrytized juice, he insists, new wood is essential for proper vinification and natural clarification of the young wine. (Represented by Europvin/Christopher Cannan Selections; various importers including Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, NY)
2005 Tokaji Aszu 5 Puttonyos
Color: Sweet White

Score: 89.0

Drinking window: 0 - 0

Tasting notes: Deep orange-gold. Aromas of pineapple, mandarin orange and green mango are complemented by deeper-pitched notes of coffee, toffee and honey. Sweet, thick and creamy, but with strong acidity giving cut to the nutty, salty palate. Still, I'd like to have seen some more lift to the wine's fruit.

Producer Commentary:
Other wines tasted:2012 MandolÃ¡s Furmint Dry.

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