Essencia is the world’s most concentrated essence of its ripest grapes. Royal Tokaji has offered a few bottles of essencia only six times in its twenty-six-year history.

Essencia is the fermented liquid gold that very slowly oozes from bins of individually hand-picked grapes raisined by botrytis. One skilled picker may harvest 10kgs of these grapes in one day. The juice slowly accumulates in the bottom of the vat by the gentle pressure of the grapes’ own weight and pours like rich honey. It is essentially the essence of the grape, and yeast has a near hopeless task. From this rare liquid, the cellar master will select the very best to be bottled.

Winter was very mild followed by rain from spring until early summer. In August the weather changed dramatically September was cool and wet again, delaying ripening. A lovely and very long Indian summer from the beginning of October turned a good vintage into a great one. The miraculous weather provided perfect conditions for developing aszú berries and the harvest was of unmatched size and quality. The aszú wines have the lovely botrytis character of the great 1999 vintage which was the second vintage of Essencia in our history.

Deep gold color with a hint of amber. Fresh, ripe peach on the nose with complex honeyed, spicy, ginger notes and background presence of botrytis. Full but graceful to taste, intensely concentrated, rich and sweet, balanced with taunt acidity.

By-the-Spoon:

2008 Essencia is offered as a single bottle (375 ml) in red lacquer case with crystal sipping spoon. The spoon was designed exclusively for Royal Tokaji, enabling 25 1-tablespoon pours per bottle.