“Tokaji Aszú, Hungary’s king of wines, wove its sweet magic from first course to last,” writes Galloway.
Early morning mists over Tokaj bring the dew needed for noble rot
“Who can take a sunrise,
Sprinkle it with dew,
Cover it with chocolate and a miracle or two?”
Sammy Davis Junior sang of a rainbow wrapped in a sigh, and soaked in the sun to make a groovy lemon pie.
And Jonny Lake and Isa Bal MS, the chef-somm dream team at Michelin-starred Trivet in London Bridge, pulled a similar Candy Man trick with yoghurt cake, sour cherries, olive caramel and gelato at a Sweet Tokaj Gala Lunch in November, pairing a 5-course menu with ten of the best Tokaj Aszú and Szamarodni.
The sunrises in Tokaj, north east Hungary, are pretty special too. And in late autumn the morning mists rise from the Bodrog and Tisza rivers rise to sprinkle dew on the grapes as they raisin on the vine, ultimately delivering the botrytised sweet wines known as Aszú. Their trademark lick of acidity and citrus flavour profile means they would pair perfectly with a groovy lemon pie.
Trivet Restaurant, Snowfields, London Bridge, 8 November 2023
Not just for afters
The lunch was a chance to prove (again) that sweet wines aren’t just for dessert and cheese courses. While they shine in this setting, and most sommeliers will guide guests towards them at this point in the meal, the sweet wines of Tokaj with their signature complexity, intensity, acid and sugar, will complement savoury flavours too, bringing out the best in rich, salty and spicy foods and also offsetting any hints of bitterness (for example olives/olive oil, saffron, bitter leaves like radicchio).
The bitter palate is one of the more tricky ones to work with, in the kitchen and in the glass. It can add a surprisingly successful note of contrast in both sweet and savoury dishes, just as a pinch of chilli or a splash of lemon juice are used as part of the seasoning repertoire. Acidity and sweetness are key to balancing bitterness.
Fennel focaccia with pork three ways: lardo, smoked bacon and cured Mangalitsa ham
So Lake’s pillowy warm focaccia drenched in intensely green and herbal Capezzana extra-virgin olive oil was served with pork three ways: a lardo, a smoked back bacon and cured Mangalitsa ham. Fennel seeds and a slight sweetness in the bread matched the herbal intensity in the 2021 Balassa Szamarodni while the Sauska Aszú 5 Puttonyos 2019 with the Mangalitsa was like the most perfect honeydew melon and (not Parma) salty ham starter.
Szamarodni (the word means ‘as it comes’, and applies to the last of the grapes picked at the end of harvest, after the prized botrytised fruit has been been selected) can be sweet or dry and is an unusual wine to most palates, sometimes aged in barrel under flor for an oxidised sherry-like wine, or in a more common, sweeter style. Both are culinary wines, great matches with meatier, spicy dishes or even seafood.
Saffron risotto with crispy scallops
A ’Sárga’ (yellow) risotto had saffron at its core, topped with crisp, fried diver-caught scallops. The hint of earthy bitterness from the saffron, a splash of acidity in the rice and lots of butter for luxurious mouthfeel brought out the best in the Béres Aszú 5 Puttonyos 2011, cutting through the richness and echoing the sweet depth of flavour in the shellfish. The higher acidity in the Hétszölö Tokaji 5 Puttonyos 2010 added a lively crispness of its own.
Winter sweetbreads, smoked maitake mushroom, pickled lingonberries and wild cumin sauce
3-D main course pairing
Most main-course cooking is so much more than a one-dimensional savoury element, and Trivet’s winter sweetbreads with smoked mushroom, pickled lingonberries and wild cumin (not forgetting the braised radicchio) proved this point, takes playful twists and turns. Through smoky, sweet and savoury, with pops of pickle bound together in a cumin sauce, the two 6 Puttonyos Tokaji from Patricius and Szepsy (both 2017) threaded the elements together like a liquid gold necklace. Luscious sweetness soothed the radicchio, acidity soaked up the sweet, fatty density of the offal, meeting the sharp berries on their own turf and flowing harmoniously alongside the warm spices in the sauce.
Lake and Bal met 20 years ago working at The Fat Duck (where Lake was executive head chef and Bal the head sommelier). They bounce ideas for dishes and pairings off one another, the Canadian-born Lake with North American sensibilities Master Sommelier Bal with his Turkish take on things. And thus was imagined a Turkish breakfast in dessert form, a southern European festival of yoghurt, sesame, sour cherry and black olive caramel.
Turkish breakfast: yoghurt sesame cake, sour cherry, black olive caramel, gelato
While you might be back to thinking that dessert = dessert wine, this plate was a masterclass in persuading umami, bitter olive, burnt sugar and sharp dairy flavours to enjoy each other’s company harmoniously alongside the citrus top-notes of the Royal Tokaji Aszú 5 Puttonyos 2017. The gloriously sweet and earthy Dereszla 5 Puttonyos 2019 shows salty, savoury notes that echo the liquorice intensity of the black olive caramel perfectly.
Three very different cheeses finished the meal, to showcase the ability of Aszú to match with creamy soft cheeses (Le Barisien), nutty aged Montgomery Cheddar and intense, salty Roquefort.
Three cheeses: Le Barisien, Montgomery Cheddar, Roquefort Papillon with green tomato and melon jam, caraway rye crackers
Here the Füleky Tokaj Aszú 2013 brought bright acidity and dried fruit intensity to the raw, triple-cream Barisien, earthy notes in the cheese binding with the wine. The Zsirai Tokaji Aszú 6 Puttonyos 2019 combines steely minerality with rich, honeyed sweetness, echoing the caramelised sugar notes in the Cheddar and the tangy blue to great effect.
Trivet produced a feast for the senses, a modern symphony conducted by sure hands, a journey through many foreign lands but paired with the wines of just one. Tokaji Aszú, Hungary’s king of wines, wove its sweet magic from first course to last.
Sunrises, rainbows, sunshine and sighs of pleasure. The Candy Man delivered.
All pictures © Wines of Hungary UK
