Szepsy Szent Tamás Tokaji Aszú

Mission: to place Tokaj in a new dimension on the world stage.

Vintage: In 2017 the combination of a lot of sunshine, cold nights and cool dawns, and appropriate precipitation, had such a stimulating effect on the quality of Furmint vines living in the Szent Tamás and Betsek vineyards of the Szepsy estate that a vintage giving extraordinary wines could manifest. An unusually cold winter was followed by an early bud break, but the vines only burst into flower in the two vineyards right at the end of May. Finally, the fully ripe fruit, which was selected by hand, grape by grape, created concentrated, elegant and lively wines with beautiful aromas, marked acidity and high aging potential.

Vineyard: The Szent Tamás vineyard is located in the eastern part of Mád, where the Szepsy family cultivates about 11 hectares of land at altitudes of 140-230 metres above sea level, on the steepest parts of the eastern, south-eastern and southern slopes.

The soil here is strikingly layered (red clay, weathered zeolite, hard rhyolite, tuff) due to post-volcanic activity and this gives top wines from this vineyard the unparalleled mineral, complex and endless length along with several decades of potential.

Winemaking: After many years of continual variety and vineyard selection, Szepsy waited until 2017 for the perfect moment that enabled these grapevines with previously selected specific attributes to show off their flavours that present the most significant characteristics of the given vineyard like never before.

Szepsy followed Aszú-making traditions stretching back over 500 years during the creation of the wines. Both lots were fermented in two 250-l new barrels of 100% Zemplén oak. The base wine was poured onto the aszú berries during the period of intensive alcoholic fermentation. The maceration (soaking) of the aszú berries lasted for two days before pressing the berries in a traditional manual press. The wines were bottled in spring 2020.

Sweet white wine – 0.5 l/bottle

Grape variety: 100% Furmint

Origin: Mád, Szt. Tamás vineyard, parcel no. 2503

Alcohol: 11% vol.

Residual sugar: 265 g/l

Acid: 8.6 g/l

Total quantity produced: 950 bottles