Published by Jeremy.
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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.
Tokaji Eszencia is a Once-in-a-Lifetime Wine
It should be no surprise that I did tasting notes for this wine while enjoying it at the restaurant, and oh what a doozy this one is. This Tokaji Eszencia was deep brown in color with pronounced aromas of dried white fig, fresh dark fig, menthol, date, beeswax, chocolate, caramel, brown sugar, creme brulee, orange marmalade, and golden raisin to name a few.
On the palate, it was luscious with medium(+) acidity, low alcohol, full body, pronounced flavor intensity, and a long finish. We had notes of dried white fig, dark figs, orange marmalade, golden raisin, treacle, brown sugar, caramel, creme brulee, and macadamia nut.
Oh my. What a wine. When you first take a whiff of this one, we got an overwhelming bouquet of fig. Fresh fig. Dried fig. White fig. Dark fig. All the fig. If you would've said I was smelling a fig pudding, I would've believed you. But as we dove in more, we got a wealth of complexity with beeswax, chocolate and caramel notes, and caramelized sugar which gave way to citrus notes of golden raising and marmalade, before ending with a slight nuttiness, like macadamia, on the palate.
The light menthol note struck us a bit right when the wine was first poured, as we often get some of this with aged white wines in particular, and it dissipated rather quickly to give way to the more enjoyable aromas in this one (which, we should state again, was fig, fig, and more fig first and foremost).
Although we could only get an ounce given the hefty price point, we savored this wine for quite some time and it is one of those bottles that we're never, ever going to forget. It was just that good.
We, unfortunately, did not get to try this wine with a dessert pairing as the restaurant we sampled this at only had complementary desserts that featured nuts (and Angie has an allergy).
That said, we could see how this one could go with nut-forward dishes possibly with a fruit that complements the marmalade and raisin or fig notes in this one. To give an example, the restaurant had an almond crust cheesecake with sour cherries as well as a chestnut cake with chocolate that both would've (likely) paired beautifully with this one.
But for us, we had it solo, and, given the reputation and flavor concentration of this wine, sipping it on its own may be the best possible option, anyway.
Score: 5 / 5
We want several bottles of this one.
We could go on and on about this wine, but if you like a botrytised wine with aged characteristics, do not overlook this gem of a bottle. We would love to try it again. We would love to buy several bottles. Heck, we'd buy a case if we could. But this one may be a once-in-a-lifetime sample for us, and oh are we excited to have had the luxury.
Tokaji Eszencia is produced in Hungary. We tried this bottle locally and enjoyed it in 2026.
