Tokaj

Tokaj is one of the oldest and most prestigious wine regions in the world, located in north-eastern Hungary, where the volcanic hills of the Zemplén mountains descend towards the confluence of the Tisza and Bodrog rivers. In 2002 UNESCO declared the Tokaj wine region cultural landscape a World Heritage Site, recognising a winemaking tradition documented since the 12th century. Louis XIV of France called Tokaji Aszú the "wine of kings and king of wines", and for centuries it was the most coveted wine in Europe's royal courts.

Tokaj's leading grape is Furmint, a native, thin-skinned variety with vibrant acidity that finds its purest expression in the region's volcanic soils. The terroir's unique composition, with layers of rhyolite, andesite and loess over volcanic rock, gives the wines a penetrating minerality and a complexity that makes them unmistakable. The humid microclimate created by the rivers favours the appearance of Botrytis cinerea, essential for the area's famous sweet wines, although dry Furmint has gained extraordinary recognition in recent decades.

In 1993 the Tempos Vega Sicilia group acquired Oremus, one of Tokaj's historic wineries, with vineyards documented since 1616. It was Vega Sicilia's first international investment and reflected the vision of its president, David Álvarez, to make great white wines outside Spain. Under the group's direction, Oremus has restored century-old vineyards and raised the quality of its dry and sweet Furmints to among the region's leading references, combining Hungarian tradition with Vega Sicilia's exacting standards and winemaking rigour.