99 points, Wine Spectator - 12/31/1997

"“Coffee-colored, with a green rim, with a lovely citrus underpinning that keeps it from being

heavy. Like melted honey, with lime and pineapple, this is one of those marvelous gems thatmakes you swoon in delight. Tempting now into the 21st century. A collector's item to drink in small portions, by itself, to celebrate life”.


Eszencia the Tokaji nectar is truly the "Vinum Regum, Rex Vinorum" "The Wine of Kings, the king of Wines" was the name given to this wine by the French Louis XIV, (the Sun King), when he tasted this famous Hungarian wine. This is often described as one of the most exclusive wines in the world, although technically it cannot even be called a wine because its enormous concentration of sugar means that its alcohol level never rises above 4-6 percent. The sugar concentration of Eszencia is typically between 500 gram and 700 gram per litre.

The rarest, sweetest of all is pure Eszencia itself, which is the free-run juice that drips out from the base of the container holding the botrytized grapes. Eszencia is the juice of grapes that have no juice. It takes years to ferment and never reaches more than 6 percent alcohol. "One yeast, one bubble, one month at a time”.

Storage of Eszencia is facilitated by the fact that, unlike virtually all other wines, it maintains its quality and drinkability for 200 years or more.