3 Platinum awards, 7 gold medals, 25 silver and 40 bronze medals – this year’s Hungarian participation in the largest wine contest of the world was more than fabulous. The 3 Platinum winners are: Béres Vineyard and Winery, Holdvölgy and Juliet Victor.

Over the course of two weeks, 280 of the world’s top wine experts blind tasted close to 17,000 wines. This culminated in 50 Best in Show medals, 148 Platinum, 480 Gold, 4,164 Silver and 7,376 Bronze medals being given out. France, Spain and Australia were the most successful countries, and Mexico was the biggest surprise with a 46% medal increase since 2018.

Hungarian Platinum winners

Out of the only 148 Platinum awards Hungary received 3. We are proud to announce that Béres 6 puttonyos Tokaji Aszú 2013, Holdvölgy Culture 6 puttonyos Tokaji Aszú 2012 and Juliet Victor Édes Szamorodni 2016 are our Platinum winners, all from the „wine region of the kings”, from Tokaj. The latest one, Juliet Victor is the youngest winery in Tokaj, what’s more they won with a Szamorodni, not an Aszú. Szamorodni is an ancientstyle of Tokaj with less sugar than that of an Aszú, and also with less botrytised berries.

Decanter evaluation: 97 scores
„Luxurious, viscous and silky, but with fabulous integration of acidity. The nose leads on acacia blossom, quince, saffron and honey, while the mouth-coating palate delights with elegant sweetness of mango, ginger and stone fruits.”

Hungarian Gold winners

This year Hungary brought home 7 gold medals, 6 wines from Tokaj and one sparkling wine from Somló. The Tokaj wines are: Füleky 6 puttonyos, Grand Tokaj Eszencia, Gróf Degenfeld Andante Furmint, Gróf Degenfeld Szamorodni, Holdvölgy Vision, Kvaszinger 6 puttonyos Tokaji Aszú. The bottle fermented sparkling wine was made by Kreinbacher Estate, a state-of-art winery of volcanis Somló with several international ackowledgements. This year their non vintage Classic Brut (72% Chardonnay, 28% Furmint) deserved the gold medal.

Decanter evaluation: 96 scores:
„Great elegance and complexity, with refined autolysis notes of biscuit and bread, plus deeper toasty flavours underneath the mouth-filling, intense, generous and lingering citrus fruits.”

Sing and „drink” the national anthem

Esszencia or Eszencia (both single and double s spelling is correct) is a uniqe style in Tokaj, it is considered the „nectare of Gods”, and it is even mentioned in the national anthem of Hungary. The aszú grapes are hand picked, stored, and the resulting free run juice is fermented over several years. It has very low alcohol (never above 6%) and extremely high sugar (above 450 g/l). This year Grand Tokaj’s Eszencia (34% Furmint, 33% Hárslevelű, 33% Muscat Blanc)won gold medal at Decanter World Wine Award.

Decanter’s evaluation: 96 scores
„Incredibly complex, rich, almost ethereal, with beautiful, syrupy fruit of peach, orange, caramelised almonds and honeycomb, completed by an incredible, never-ending finish.”