Essencia is the world’s most concentrated essence of its ripest grapes, it is the ’liquid gold’ that very slowly oozes from a pile of aszú grapes raisined by botrytis and climatic conditions.

In 2016 we had a mild and dry winter with no serious frosts. This was followed by a long spring, with lovely, warm days but cool, almost chilly nights. The flowering season was unusually long resulting in uneven fruit set in many vineyards and across all grape varieties. From the middle of August, the botrytis began to spread all over the region and highly affected the grapes. By summer time we were quietly confident of an ideal harvest, straightforward with high quality – but July and August brought intermittent rain and hail, reducing the crop and encouraging botrytis. Our expert pickers carefully selected the finest berries throughout September and October, and we were rewarded with a small Aszú harvest of exceptional quality.

Then the free-run juice – in this case from first-generation berries only – was collected. A gradual and very slow alcoholic fermentation took place spontaneously, lasting over 3 years.

Dark gold color with reddish notes. The nose opens quite rapidly and gives a lot of botrytis and extreme complexity with lots of medlars, rosehip jelly, peach, and pear. In the mouth citric, bold, and complex. Outstanding candied fruit character, corner jelly, and a nice touch of lemon balm herbs. Balanced with endless freshness and fruitiness where the high acidity balances the sweetness and contributes to a long and thrilling finish to the Essencia.