If the season is favourable, the over-ripe grapes crack in September,
when the watery particles evaporate, leaving the rasin-like grape with
its undissipated saccharine matter.
In order to make "Essenz," these dry grapes are separated from the rest,
placed in tubs with holes perforated at the bottom. The juice is allowed
to squeeze out by the mere weight of the fruit into a vessel placed
beneath. After several years' keeping this liquid becomes a drinkable
wine, but of course it is always very costly. This is really only a
liqueur. The wine locally called "Ausbruch" is the more generally known
sweet Tokay, a delicious wine, but also very expensive. It is said to
possess wonderfully restorative properties in sickness and in advanced
age.
Another quality, differently treated, but of the same vintage, is called
"Szamarodni," now known in the English market as "dry Tokay." This dry
wine preserves the bouquet and strength of the ordinary Tokay, but it is
absolutely without any appreciable "sweetness." In order to produce
Szamarodni the dry grapes must not be separated from the others. The
proportion of alcohol is from twelve to fifteen per cent.
When first I saw the vintage in the Tokay district, I was greatly
interested in the novelty of the whole scene. It is well worth the
stranger's while to turn aside from the beaten track and join for once
in this characteristic Hungarian festivity, for nowhere is the Magyar
more at home than in the vine-growing Hegyalia.
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