The Hungarian Kiss: The Most Stunning Rotten Grapes you’ve (Probably) Never Tasted

Nick-named “The King of Wines” and “Wine of Kings”, tokaj aszú once filled the posh glasses of royalty and aristocrats all over Europe. Sadly, many wine snobs today haven’t ever had, or maybe even heard of this very special wine from northern Hungary.
Hungarian wine? Are you joking? Before we started travelling, we didn’t know much about Hungary except for goulash, paprika, and the inimitable Bela Lugosi. But this one fact is true: Hungary makes some of the best white wines in the world. Learning this was extremely upsetting. All those bottles we could have finished had we known sooner.  Youth is truly wasted on the young…

Hungarian wine grapes in the beginning stages of the noble rot.

​Tokaj aszú is a VERY special wine. More posts on it will be coming, so we’ll be brief here. The base of this wine consists of some dry local varietals (e.g., Furmint, Hárslevelű, and Sárga Muskotály). To this is added grapes who have “the noble rot” (i.e., botrytis cinerea). This is a gentle way of saying that these poor grapes got infected with a special mold which caused them to shrivel up. As the grapes are affected by this wrinkly fungal shrinkage, the flavors and sweetness intensify. Having sampled some straight off the vine, let us assure you that the taste is extreme. Then, when all is ready, the master Hungarian winemakers mix baskets (i.e., puttonyos) of these moldy little raisins into the dry wine base. The more puttonyos listed on the bottle (i.e., usually 3-6) the more of that sweet funky raisin action can be found. If you can imagine a more intense French sauternes, you are getting in the general ballpark of the flavor of tokaj aszú

A traditional wine cave in Tokaj Hungary. Notice the dark walls? The black is a special mold that is essential to traditional Hungarian winemaking processes.

​We were on holiday in Teplitz, which is a beautiful spa town in northern Czech Republic, when we came up with this recipe. It is a beautiful town, and famous for two geniuses meeting there for the first time: Goethe (of Faust fame) and none other than Ludwig von Beethoven. They met, strolled about the town, and had lovely chats. So, it was in this locale (and running low on tokaj aszú) that we decided to turn tokaj aszú into a cocktail. Some may call this heresy, but it seemed like a good and reasonable idea at the time. The flavor is so intense, though, that it took a bit of trial and error. We eventually hit on the “simple is better” approach and formulated this recipe for what we shall call an Hungarian Kiss.
 
Hungarian Kiss Recipe

• 1 oz tokaj aszú wine (at least 4 puttonyos -with 5 being our personal favorite for this application)
• 4 oz champagne or dry sparking white wine

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Two boozes. That’s it. Is it even a cocktail?  When you have two genius ingredients, who cares? After all, Beethoven and Goethe were able to have a great time walking around Teplitz and chatting about whatever the hell two world-class geniuses talk about.  They certainly didn’t need a third wheel cocking-up the conversation, and this drink certainly doesn’t need any silly lemon wedge or mummified cherry. Enjoy!
 
Tasting Notes
This drink is sparkling liquid sunshine. Though simple to make, it tastes sophisticated, almost celebratory. This a good drink to whip out when you’re trying to impress a date or celebrate something special.

The acidity of the aszú blends extremely well with the dry champagne. To our taste buds, it seems to make the acid even more complex and lingering on the tongue. The bubbly also cuts some the pronounced sweetness of the aszú and morphs this into a far-too-easy-to-drink libation with hints of honey, apricot jam, mild pineapple, and maybe even a bit of saffron. A plus to this recipe is that you can make the admittedly spendy bottle of tokaj aszú stretch a bit further and keep enjoying it.
NOTE: If you have a hard time finding tokaj aszú, you might have some luck at Total Wine and More in the US or either Sainsburys or Waitrose supermarkets in the UK.

Hungarian Kiss is only two ingredients - so not a real cocktail. However, this is something to whip up on a first date or couples dinner club night.