Istvan Szepsy - Tokaji "Kiraly" Harslevelu 2008 6x 75cl Bottles

Harslevelu, the classic Hungarian variety normally used in dry and sweet Tokaj to add exotic aroma and broad body. This wine is the perfect example of how fantastic dry Tokaji wine can be. Colour: lively golden yellow Nose: elegant and expressive and its honey, pear and baked apple notes inviting you you taste it. Palate: creamy and refreshing with its beautiful ginger, pear and apple flavours. A very complex wine. Enjoy just by itself or with flavourful, spicy food. A brilliantly balanced wine, seamlessly combining enduring ripe yellow fruit perfumes and flavours with a delicate velvety texture and a delicious minerally crisp elegance. There are winemakers and there are alchemists; how else could you explain the pureness of Szepsy's wines, the elegance of his fruit and the harmony
of structure? And yet, like most great wine-makers, his wines are not about what he does as much as what he does not do. There is no over-working the fruit at this estate, no unbalanced wines due to 'ambitious' winemaking. The philosophy is all about preserving the quality of the fruit and not about enhancement by artifice or sleight of hand. If Szepsy's fruit traces the purest possible line from the vineyard to the bottle, the man himself can boast a lineage that goes back close to the origins of Tokaji: He is the direct descendant of Szepsy Lacko Mate who, in 1631 was the first person to write down the Tokaji making process. Szepsy has around 50 hectares under vine in largely rocky, volcanic soil. Though traditional in his approach, he constantly searches for new refinements in
his quest for perfection. Fermentation and maturation takes place in wood. His yields have been described by none other than Michel Bettane of the Revue du Vin de France as ridiculously low (we could add, off course that they are Mad!). The wines have an almost sacred reputation and justifiably so as this example will prove.