Furmint

Furmint is the grape of Tokaj, and the reason Tokaji Aszú exists. It holds ferocious acidity even when very ripe, and its thin skin gives way readily to botrytis cinerea in the autumn mists where the Bodrog and Tisza rivers meet. Those two traits together let a wine carry enormous sugar without tasting heavy, which is a rare combination.

Aszú is made by kneading botrytised berries into a base wine and measuring the result in puttonyos. The style was documented in the seventeenth century, which makes it one of the oldest sweet wine traditions in Europe, older than Sauternes. Under Hungary's communist decades the wine was made to a state formula and the reputation collapsed. Private investment after 1989 rebuilt it.

The bigger recent change is dry furmint. Fermented dry it gives a firm, smoky, high-acid white with pear and quince and a distinctly stony finish, and it takes oak well. It is now the majority of Tokaj production. Slovakia has a small share of the historic Tokaj vineyard across the border and makes both styles.