Xpat Wine Club With Izabella Zwack, Tokaj, 14 October 2006

"A good group of Xpats met with Izabella Zwack, and the British Ambassador and his wife, at the Dobogó Winery in Tokaj on Saturday 14 October.

Izabella, her team and the fine morning sunshine made harvesting in the fields a real pleasure. A hearty late lunch followed, together with a Tokaj wine tasting session. All guests departed in good spirits with a a bottle of Dobogó Mylitta as a special present from the winery.

About Dobogó Mylitta: "Dedicated to Izabella's Great Aunt Maria Zwack, the great love and muse of Endre Ady (one of Hungary's most famous poets). Vinification: Wine-making begins on the vine. The aim is to achieve the highest quality possible, and to this end we use only specially selected premier quality partly botrytised clusters. When maceration is completed we gently press the berries. The young wine is then transferred to partly new and partly one year old oak barrels where it is matured for ten months."

"Dobogó" (clopping) relates to ancient times when the hooves of horses pulling carts echoed throughout the Tokaj landscape. Vineyards providing the base stock for Dobogó Tokaji Aszú come from the historic slopes of Mád és Tállya. With a combination of morning dew followed by hours of sunshine and the beneficial effects of the grey mould, Botrytis Cinerea - the noble rotting sets in. The process, during which the grey mould concentrates the sugar and acid content in grapes, continues until late October.

Aszú grapes are picked over an extended period. Each time, only the properly rotted grapes are taken from the vine, the rest if left to mature. Once all aszú has been harvested, these are added to prepared base wine in proportions developed over the centuries in the Tokaj-hegyalja region."

Dobogó Winery Address: 3910 Tokaj, Dózsa Gy. út 1.