Dorgo Tokaji Eszencia 2007 (375ml)

Disznókő is one of Tokaj’s historic estates, named for the boar-shaped rock on its hilltop at the southwestern entrance to the region. Its entire vineyard was ranked first class in 1772, in Tokaj’s original classification, among the earliest in the wine world. After the fall of communism, AXA Millésimes, the group behind Château Pichon Baron in Pauillac, bought the estate in 1992 and spent the following decades restoring it under the direction of Christian Seely. Dorgó is a historic cru within Disznókő, a high, volcanic plot that the estate now bottles under its own name. The whole hill is volcanic clay studded with perlite, the kind of ground that gives Tokaj’s Furmint its striking acidity and mineral drive. Eszencia is the rarest wine the region makes. Botrytis-shriveled aszú berries are piled into vats, and over time the weight of the fruit alone presses out a slow trickle of honey-thick nectar. At Disznókő that nectar ferments in small glass demijohns with no added yeast or sulfur, so slowly that it barely reaches a few degrees of alcohol and keeps an extraordinary concentration of sugar and acid. Now nearly two decades past the harvest, the 2007 has had time to deepen while its natural acidity keeps it vivid. It is the purest essence of Tokaj’s volcanic hills, drawn drop by drop from a single historic vineyard.