Tokaji

[3] The area where Tokaji wine is traditionally grown is a small plateau, 457 metres (1,500 ft) above sea level, near the Carpathian Mountains.

This allows the sun to penetrate the grape and evaporate much of the liquid inside, producing a higher concentration of sugar.

Prior to 1918 (the end of World War I and the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire), the finest eszencia Tokaji was not sold but was reserved for the Imperial cellars of the Habsburg monarchy.

[8] By the mid 18th century these finest eszencia Tokaji originally held by the Habsburgs were called "Imperial Tokay".

In 2008, a bottle of Imperial Tokay bearing the seal of the wine cellar of the Royal Saxon Court sold at auction at Christie's for £1,955.

However, mention of wine made from aszú grapes had already appeared in the Nomenklatura of Fabricius Balázs Sziksai which was completed in 1576.

After World War II, when Hungary became a Soviet-influenced state, Tokaji production continued with as many as 6,000 small producers, but the bottling and distribution were monopolized by the state-owned organization.

In 1703, Francis Rákóczi II, Prince of Transylvania, gave Louis XIV some Tokaji wine from his Tokaj estate as a gift.

Tokaji wine has received accolades from numerous great writers and composers including Beethoven, Liszt, Schubert, Goethe, Heinrich Heine, Friedrich von Schiller, Bram Stoker, Johann Strauss II, and Voltaire.

Pope Pius IV (1499–1565) at the Council of Trent in 1562, exclaimed: Summum pontificem talia vina decent!

"[12] Grand Rabbi Shmuel Schneersohn of Lubavitch was known to drink Kosher Tokaji wines on celebratory occasions, such as on completion of his famous series of discourses titled "Vekocho" in the year 1878.