> Instead
> of botrytized grapes I'll use raisins. Instead of a Hungarian oak cask
> I'll use a carboy and Hungarian oak cubes. The main question right now
> is: what should the base wine be like?

Franco,
I don't want to rain on your parade but Hungary was under communist
rule for quite a while and if they could have made Tokaji Aszu that way
a lot of people all over the world would have been doing it a long time
ago. They didn't; if anything current methods are sometimes less
correct now. Anyways here is the deal.

Aszu describes the shriveled berry; it's not the grape variety. Each
Puttonyo is a six gallon container. That container of berries gets
'mashed' (in the old days by foot) until a dough is created; the skins
have to be just right for this to happen. A gonc is a 30 to 35 gallon
barrel to which the dough is added. the normal levels are from 3 to 6
puttonyos. I have had 3, 4 and 5 puttonyos and can tell you if I ever
made anything that good I might just quit. Most were made under
communism, (you can tell by the way the crown looks on the label).

They mix all of this together in large tubs and then into the barrel it
goes. They can last several hundred years, really.

The base wines is usually Furmint but can also have some Harslevelu and
Muscatel. It's just plain jane wine grapes; Furmint is not anything
special as far as I am concerned; I would say it's kind of like a good
Chenin Blanc. (Not that I have had many, it's hard to get Hungarian
wines over here in the US unless you are talking Bulls Blood.)

Instead of raisins which could give you a cooked taste you might want
to freeze some white grapes and remove the water by dripping; or use a
really good white concentrate. You need to get to 40 to 60% strength,
the trick would be deciding how much to add if you use concentrate.

The way I read this they dump the 30-35 gallons of plain white must
into a tub and add x puttonyos to that. That gets mixed up and once
fermentation starts they put it in some sort of bag and tread it again;
that goes to the barrel and sooner (actually much later), Tokaji Aszu.


This is not going to be Tokaji Aszu but so what; it could be great.

The best book I have seen on this is my Hungarian neighbors, "The Wine
Book" by Dorozynski and Bell. I borrowed it and need to get it back to
him...

Hope that helps,

Joe