Royal Tokaji Wine Co. Tokaji Asz 5 Puttonyos 2018

Tokaji holds a genuinely unique place in wine history: in 1700, under Prince Rákóczi II of Transylvania, the Tokaj region became the very first in Europe to have its vineyards officially classified by quality — "first growth, second growth, third growth" — a full century and a half before Bordeaux's famous 1855 classification. For centuries it was the "cult wine" of emperors and tsars, until decades of Communist-era state control stripped away all vineyard distinction, with grapes dumped into giant collective tanks. Royal Tokaji was founded in 1990 by legendary wine writer Hugh Johnson and a small group of investors, determined to restore Hungary's lost wine legacy the moment the Iron Curtain fell — piecing together tiny plots purchased from cash-strapped local growers, including a stake in Mézes Mály, one of only two historic First Growth vineyards in all of Tokaj. The winemaking follows methods virtually unchanged since the 1600s: individually hand-harvested, botrytis-affected Aszú berries are macerated in fermenting base wine for several days, pressed, and then matured in small oak casks for a minimum of eighteen months before release.

The result is a wine of real depth and balance: intense, perfumed fruit — white peach, ripe plum, and apricot — meets citrusy marmalade, with the hallmark Tokaji tension between luscious sweetness and racing acidity that's kept this style collectible for 300 years. Critics have repeatedly scored it in the mid-90s, with Decanter praising its "complex, creamy and long" finish.