Our Estate

Tokaji

THE TOKAJ WINE REGION

The Tokaj wine region lies 220 km north-east of Budapest at the confluence of the Tisza and Bodrog rivers.
The Zemplén Mountains are volcanic, rising in typically sudden cones from the north edge of the Great Plain. Two rivers, the Bodrog and the Tisza, converge at the southern tip of the range, where Tokaj Hill rises above the villages of Tokaj and Tarcal. From the Plain come warm summer winds, from the mountains shelter, and from the rivers the rising autumn mists that promote Botrytis.
Tokaji was the first wine knowingly to be made from botrytized or „noble rotten” grapes. The conditions that cause the rot, the shrivelling of the grapes, and the intense concentration of their sugar, acidity and flavour are unique to the Tokaj region.

History of Tokaji

Tokaji wines have enjoyed a long, glorious history. Louis XIV of France described them as “The Wine of Kings and King of Wines”, whilst Catherine the Great of Russia stationed a contingent of Cossack soldiers in the region to protect the vineyards and escort the wine on its journey to St. Petersburg. Many European monarchs are known to have enjoyed Tokaji wines. Louis XV and Frederick the Great treated guests such as Voltaire to Tokaji. Napoleon III ordered 30–40 barrels of Tokaji for the Imperial Court each year. Gustav III of Sweden drank only Tokaji. The Emperor Franz Joseph sent Queen Victoria a gift of Tokaji every year on her birthday - a dozen bottles for each year of her age. Over the years Tokaji has been a favourite wine of great writers and composers including Beethoven, Liszt, Schubert, Goethe, Johann Strauss, Joseph Haydn and Bram Stoker, the creator of Dracula. But a Phylloxera outbreak, two world wars, and the nationalisation of the wine industry left the elixir largely forgotten by the end of the 20th century. In the past two decades, enterprising winemakers have put Tokaj back on the map. Today visitors can sample not only the classic Aszú-style sweet wines but also tongue-tingling dry whites like Furmint and Hárslevelű, savoury signals of this historic region’s exciting outlook.

Tokaji - Protected designation of origin (PDO)

Product names registered as PDO are those that have the strongest links to the place in which they are made. The label PDO (protected designation of origin) identifies a product that originates in a specific place, region or country, the quality or characteristics of which are essentially or exclusively due to a particular geographical environment with its inherent natural factors (raw materials, environmental characteristics, location) and human factors (traditional and craft production) and the production, transformation and elaboration phases of which all take place in the defined geographical area, in respect of rigid production regulations established in the procedural guidelines of production. Tokaji wines registered as PDO are those that have the strongest links to the place in which they are made.

The Winery

The Royal Tokaji Winery, founded in 1990, has become one of the most admired wineries in Tokaj. At the outset, Royal Tokaji decided to concentrate on producing single-vineyard wines, made from the First Growth vineyards of Mézes Mály, Nyulászó, Szt. Tamás and Betsek. Acknowledged as one of the region's top winemakers, we combine traditional techniques with modern technology to create the award-winning Royal Tokaji range of wines. Royal Tokaji is the acknowledged leader of the renaissance of this legendary Hungarian wine, which, in the words of the wine author and company co-founder Hugh Johnson, is "a wine that would make angels sing out loud in praise".
Our goal is to revive and bring back to international acclaim the wines of one of history’s most renowned wine regions.

Royal Tokaji remains in private ownership and today our wines are exported to more than 30 countries. The wines of Royal Tokaji have won over 100 international awards and continue to seduce wine lovers throughout the world.
Royal Tokaji celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2010 by opening a new state of the art winery in Mád. The new winery was designed by the leading Hungarian architect Csaba Bodonyi. It is already acclaimed as the most important in the Tokaji region.

OUR Team

Our small team takes immense pride in producing wines enjoyed around the world.
Every person has a crucial part to play in making our wines the very best they can be”.

Zoltán Adorján Kovács

Zoltán Kovács has a passion for vines and the wines they produce. Originally from Transylvania – historically part of Hungary – Zoltán has spent the past 20 years in the Tokaj region leading the renaissance of its legendary wines.
At Royal Tokaji he combines his respect for the incomparable tradition of the region with an understanding of the latest winemaking techniques to create the wines of Royal Tokaji, internationally recognised as one of the world’s finest producers.

Máté Varga

Our winemaker was born in Tolcsva, in Tokaj-Hegyalja. His love for wine and grapes started as a child, his family has been cultivating grapes for several generations. As a little boy, he only went to the vineyard to play, but as the years went by, playing around in the vineyard became a hobby.
He considers himself very lucky that his hobby has become his work.
The foothills of Tokaj have a great historical past and tradition in viticulture and winemaking.
His ultimate goal is to combine the experiences of the past with modern technology to make wonderful Aszú wines and to fully explore the huge potential of the dry wines of the region. With his wines he tries to honour the past, stand for the present and build the future.
It is a profession that requires continuous development as each vintage is full of new and exciting challenges.

Balázs Török

Balázs’s love of wine began at his family’s winery where he started working at a young age. He studied at the University of Agriculture and Life Sciences in Budapest, graduating in viticulture and oenology. He completed his apprenticeship at a prominent winery in the Tokaj wine region and gained further experience working as a winemaker at two prestigious wineries in California. He joined the Royal Tokaji team in 2022 with the aim of sharing and expanding his knowledge.

Péter Majoros

His interest and enthusiasm for vine growing comes from the fact that he has been living in the Tokaj wine region since birth. He studied in Budapest, where he attended Corvinus University of Budapest and graduated as an engineer of viticulture and oenologist first, then he got his master degree in plant protection
Afterwards, he gained experience at a large wine company in the Tokaj wine region, then worked for two wineries of an international corporation in California, United States.
In 2020 Peter joined the Royal Tokaji team, where, as a viticulturist, his key objective is to ensure that the production of grapes for the company’s internationally acclaimed wines is of the highest standard.