Royal Tokaji Szt. Tamás, 6 Puttonyos, Tokaj – 2008 – Wine & Spirits – 94 Points
94 points
Royal Tokaji focuses most of its energy on aszú wines—a sweet style on which the region has based its fame. However, they’ve been working on dry wines for more than a decade; their flagship dry bottling, now called The Oddity, is regularly one of the region’s best. This rarer bottling, from the iron rich Szt. Tamas vineyard, shows how well furmint can age when it’s grown and harvested carefully: It’s a riveting wine, the apple and peach notes full and firm, girded with an earthy, volcanic-rock warmth. It lasts, emanating a warm, lively energy, and was still going strong ten days after the bottle was opened. Though this wine is not currently imported, it’s a good reminder to age dry furmints as well as the aszú; this would be a terrific match with roasted pheasant, and with cheese afterwards, too.
