13/7/11 It has been a long time since we first tasted the sweet wine called Tokaj in Australia, way back in the mid 80's, at Rutherglen, in the Victorian wine region. Twelve years ago we had the opportunity to try it in its natively grown area, Tokaj in Hungary and after an easy but proper border crossing today we again headed for the smallish town of Tokaj. It has been over 1000 years that the type of Botrytis that occurs
in the area has
been flavouring its wines. We arrived in Tokaj
to find that it was festival time, rock festival, with the campground
tent to tent packed and the streets full of wine drinking youngsters
semi naked in the high 30's temperatures. Wine was being sold in used
plastic containers, soft drink bottles of all sizes, for a minimal,
almost nominal price. We were lucky to find the last empty room in our
pension, with a fold out bed, for an unreasonable price, but enjoyed
the atmosphere of the place. An afternoon Tokaj tasting, but we were to
bed much earlier than the 2am rolling in of the other pension
residents.