There are a few bottles of wine out there that are unicorns for us. Not just because we haven't tried them yet, but also because we've never found them anywhere to begin with.
This goes beyond bottles that are uber prestigious, like a Chateau d'Yquem Sauternes which we can find somewhat regularly but just haven't tried yet, and transcend to a level where we've never seen a bottle anywhere, ever. Not at a bottle shop. Not at a wine bar. Not on a restaurant menu. Nowhere.
Tokaji Eszencia (sometimes spelled essencia) is one such bottle. Made only in select years from highly botrytised grapes, Eszencia goes well beyond the normal 5 and 6 puttonyo scale for sweetness into a league of its own. Taking years, even upwards of a decade, to ferment, these bottles can often be found with sufficient age indication as well.
So when we saw Vinarium Hungaricum's Nectar of Tokaji Eszencia available at Pittsburgh's Titusz, an Austrian/Hungarian restaurant whose bar programmed is managed by an Master Somm candidate friend of ours, we had to get in to try this wine after dinner right away.
It was worth every penny.
