Tokaji was the wine of emperors and tsars long before anyone had heard of Sauternes, famously toasted by Louis XIV as the king of wines and the wine of kings. Oremus is one of the great names keeping that legend alive today. This is a full guide to Oremus and the range we stock at House of Decant.

The Oremus estate sits in the village of Tolcsva, in the heart of Hungary's Tokaj region, and since 1993 it has been owned and revived by the Alvarez family, the people behind Spain's legendary Vega Sicilia. That pedigree tells you how seriously the wines are taken: this is one of the historic addresses of sweet wine, restored to full glory by one of the wine world's most exacting families.

The Alchemy of Aszu

Great Tokaji depends on a friendly fungus. In the damp autumns of the Bodrog valley, botrytis, the noble rot, shrivels the Furmint grapes on the vine, concentrating their sugar and adding a haunting complexity. These shrivelled aszu berries are then blended back into a base wine and aged for years in cellars furred with black mould. The result is a wine of extraordinary intensity, sweet yet lifted by a racing, mouthwatering acidity that is the signature of Tokaj.

The Range We Stock

We carry Tokaji across its spectrum of sweetness. The Aszu 3 Puttonyos is the gentle, poised introduction, sweet but bright and beautifully balanced. The Aszu 5 Puttonyos is richer and more intense, all apricot, marmalade and saffron, one of the world's great dessert wines. And for the truly curious, the legendary Eszencia is the rarest wine in Tokaj, the free-run nectar of the aszu berries, so concentrated it barely ferments, a spoonful of pure liquid history.

How to Drink It

Serve Tokaji well chilled and in small glasses; these are wines to sip, not swig. The classic pairings are among wine's great pleasures: Aszu with tarte tatin or a ripe blue cheese, where the sweetness and the salt strike sparks off each other. But do not save it only for pudding. A small glass of Aszu on its own, at the end of an evening, is a quietly magical thing, and a well-kept bottle will age for decades.

Tokaji is one of the summits of sweet wine. For the wider style see our guide to sweet white wine, and for dessert wine in general, our dessert wine guide.

In an age that often mistrusts sweetness, Tokaji is a reminder that some of the greatest wines ever made are golden and sweet. Oremus makes them with the patience and precision the legend deserves, and a single glass is enough to understand why emperors once fought over it.