On Nov 21, 3:34*pm, DaleW > wrote:
> Saturday I attended a benefit for the social action programs at a local church. "An Evening in Hungary", a combination dinner/auction/concert, with my friend Alex as chief chef, and Betsy, her sister, and brother-in-law among musicians.

> 1993 Ch. Pajzos Tokaji Esszencia*(500 ml)
> Cal loves Esszencia, and I promised I'd bring this for the musicians. Everyone was appreciative, but I was a little disappointed. Intensely sweet of course, with fig, *raisin, orange peel, and caramel among notes, but while intense I didn't think this especially complex. B
> .

I found your tasting notes for this wine interesting. It is available
online, and perhaps in many large stores in 100 ml bottles also, so
this will allow a few people to taste a modern essencia without paying
a high price for a larger bottle. This wine is at the lower end of
modern essencia richness. The back label of the 100 ml bottle
indicates that the residual sugar is only 56.5 g/100 ml. More telling,
the alcohol content is listed as 7% by volume. The highest end
essencias usually are of much higher residual sugar content and the
wine will ferment to only 2 or 3 % alcohol by volume, sometimes less.
Pajzos made a lot of both essencia and aszu essencia in 1993, and both
are fairly easy to find. One must read the fine print very carefully
since sometimes search engines and even some wine store websites will
point you to the aszu essencia when you are looking for the essencia.
Also it is likely that a few wine stores may make a pricing mistake
and price the aszu essencia for the essencia price or vv.

It is going to take decades for the best modern essencias to show what
they can do with long age. I have my doubts about some that are made
in too modern a style.
Many of the best true essencias made in recent years come from the
1999 and 2000 vintages. In general the 2000s will now drink better
than the 1999s which may be better in the long term but may be a
little harsh this early. The Royal Tokay 1999 can still be bought in
the US. The 1999 Szepsy is likely to be one of the most age worthy
essencias made in recent times, but it likely needs the most age you
can give it to be at the best. The only place I could find it online
was in France and in a store in Poland that did not ship. The year
2000 was extremely hot and some of the grapes became extremely ripe.
Conditions might be compared with those for 1959 Sauternes or 1976
German TBA. The 2000s essencias in general are likely to drink better
early on, but still may age well.

When it comes to really old essencia, such as from the 1800s, there
are likely some aszu essencias mislabeled as essencia. However for
these old wines exported, it has been well documented that some export
firms in Hungary and Poland sometimes added brandy to stabilize the
wine, as essencia is extremely difficult to filter even using modern
methods. If all of the yeast was not removed, the essencia could start
to re-ferment a bit which could cause leakage or perhaps cause bottle
breakage. Thus an alcohol content of over about 10% by volume for such
an old essencia could mean that it either is a mislabeled aszu
essencia or that it is a true essencia slightly fortified with brandy.
Most modern essencia is filtered to stabilize it, especially if the
wine is to be exported. This is likely much better than heat
treatment. I wonder if radiation treatment would be better than heat
treatment or filtering. Also some have suggest one-way valves on the
corks to allow pressure release in case the wine starts to re-
ferment.