The Tokaji 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.

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.

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.