Careful and vigilant attention. Being in conscious harmony with nature and grapes. Meticulous planning of the harvest season. Rigorous picking and sorting by hand only. These are the most important factors during our entire viticultural and winemaking process. The year 2023 was extremely challenging due to hectic weather conditions and required our efforts and attention, even more. But despite difficulties a rich layered and concentrated CULTURE 6 puttonyos tokaji aszú will be created again, the 18th time in a row since 2006.
COLD WEATHER TO LAST
2023 January was especially mild with three times higher amounts of rain and snow than usual. Although it definitely made pruning more difficult, our team managed to finish it in time at the beginning of March. More importantly, the water was utilized well by the soil for the upcoming growing season.
March was oddly cool and foggy, most of the time temperatures were 5-8 °C lower than usual, which delayed the start of sap flow in vines. Rainy days slowed the progress with vineyard work such as binding as well.
DELAY IS THE WORD
Unfortunately April did not ease the cold. At the beginning of the month, it was still snowing, creating a solid snow layer, causing further backlash in plant development. Budding occured only on the 24th of April in the historical first growth Becsek, which was 3 weeks behind the ordinary date. Budding appeared hectic, not just within parcells, but rows of vines as well. It prognosticated future vitcultural challenges regarding decisions on optimal harvest dates.
May was rainy and windy, which hindered vineyard work such as shoot sorting, vine trunk cleaning and fertilizing. The latter was highly important amid heavy rains and winds which escalated the risk of grape diseases. With conscious planning our team was able to defeat them in time.
Summer season continued quite the same. June was more chilly and rainy than previous years showed (the amount of rain was 60 mm higher) and temperatures were only rising slowly. Blooming started reluctantly on the 5th of June at the historical first growth Becsek with Kövérszőlő, 1 week later than last year, when blooming happened on the 30th of May. Similarly to the budding period, blooming did not appear at the same time throughout the Estate, but on different dates within parcells and grape vines. At this point we already knew that harvest time would be more difficult requiring deeper and more precise analysis.
RIGOROUS SORTING IS THE KEY
After all these previous challenges we were not surprised that dry harvest also began later this year, on the 7th of September at the first growth Dorgó with the Zéta grape provided by 17 years old vines. Despite a substantial amount of rain and high temperatures, we managed to pick beautiful dry bunches - alongside constant analysis - in the upcoming 5 weeks including all grape types of the Estate.
As September continued, circumstances remained the same with a lot of rain and the warmest month experienced in Hungary since 1901 according to data of the Hungarian Meteorological Service. Berries started to crack and botritis (noble rot) was on the rise too. Although it was favorable for sweet lots, it definitely aggravated the collection of dry fruits. Our constant endeavour to only use the most healthy and quality bunches required more precise sorting and all in all more time during the dry harvest which lasted till the 10th of October.
Despite early botritis sugar levels were increasing slowly, reaching the ideal conditions suitable for HOLDVÖLGY quality only at the beginning of October thanks to a late warm weather. Aszú harvest started on the 2nd of October picking furmint and zéta grapes and continued till the 18th of October, but not as smoothly as planned. Mád was hit by heavy rainfalls (more than 40 mm in a few days) in mid October which intensified the spread of botritis and the dilution of berries. Our team had to revisit all of our parcells ensuring that the grapes were picked at perfect ripeness for our late harvests, szamorodni and aszú wines. These affected the winemaking process as well meaning more work during the entire processing of the bunches and berries, including pressing and handling grape juice. The harvest of 2023 ended on the 10th of November at the historical Holdvölgy vineyard.
THE 18TH VINTAGE OF CULTURE TOKAJI ASZÚ
Despite the challenges throughtout the year, the grape bunches and berries were healthy and immaculate, but due to quantity problems caused by weather conditions only a few of our wines can be created. We are glad that collecting highly concentrated berries for the CULTURE 6 puttonyos tokaji aszú was achievable again. This shows that it is worth investing into the historical first growth vineyards of Mád.
Our CULTURE 6 puttonyos tokaji aszú from the vintage 2023 is already offered En Primeur via our PRECULTURE programme. Contact: export@holdvolgy.com
VINTAGE EVALUATION BY OUR WINEMAKER
Without the right sugar levels, the ideal alcohol-scent-palate-content balance can not be reached. In 2023 it was a real challenge because of the stagnation of the sugar content, so we had to be incredibly patient and wait for the right moment to harvest.
Wines made from early ripening grapes will be fresh, highly intense, middle bodied with beautiful acidity. Our dry parcel selected lots will reflect the features of terroir more than ever before presenting dynamic and complex scents, tight acidity. Sweet wines will please us with great and vibrant characters, especially when it comes to our aszú wine. Body and roundness come from the astonishing depth and concentration of the berries, while acidity makes it ethereal and infinite while tasting.
HOLDVÖLGY WINES TO BE RELEASED FROM VINTAGE 2023:
VISION dry estate selection
MEDITATION dry furmint
EXPRESSION dry hárslevelű
HOLD AND HOLLO UPPP off-dry sparkling wine
HOLD AND HOLLO DRY blend
HOLD AND HOLLO SWEET blend
INTUITION No2. dry muscat à petits grains
INTUITION No4. dry kabar
INTUITION No8. fordítás
CULTURE 6 puttonyos tokaji aszú
