Szolo - Dolce, Tokaj, Hungary (2021)

TASTING NOTES

Sweet but with loads of acidity - ginger and baked apple pie, jasmine, honeysuckle, and fresh orange dominate both the nose and palate, with a zippy finish and a touch of tannic structure. 

While declassified from the appellation, this lovely wine is still made from 100% botrytised berries, but aged 8 months in stainless steel instead of the 22 months in oak required to be called Aszú. What you get is a sweet wine bursting with freshness and pure fruit character. 

Tímea Éless is the force behind Szóló, a winery located in the northwest part of Tokaj.

Born and raised in the village of Tállya, she eventually left to attend university in Budapest where she made a life for herself. However, something remained amiss until 2009, when she jumped at the chance to take over her grandparent’s 0.3 hectare vineyard.

Timea was greatly inspired by the tenacity and humanity with which her grandparents’ approached their work in the vineyard and so, she moved back to her hometown with her husband, Tamás, and their two children to pursue winemaking.

Since then, they’ve acquired surrounding vineyards aged between 40 and 80 years, planted mostly with Furmint and Hárslevelű. She chose to highlight the properties of those single vineyards and the unique soil made of rocky rhyolitic tuff mixed with rich luvisol, which makes for grapes of outstanding quality and wines with precise minerality
and layered complexity. She has been farming organically since the beginning and recently converted fully to biodynamics.

In the winery, she relies on indigenous yeasts only, practices gentle extraction, and avoids filtering and fining so as to express the force and beauty of her birthplace.