We had friends visiting from New York this weekend who, fresh off a Winelands tour, couldn’t wait to drink their fill of L’Ormarins MCC at the Queen’s Plate.

They’re starved for the good stuff in the US, and when it comes to great wines, South Africa has a reputation for producing some of the best in the business.

When it comes to extremely expensive wine, however, that title goes to Hungary.

Hungarian winemakers Royal Tokaji is selling their limited edition Essencia 2008 decanter at a whopping $40 000 a bottle. That’s well over half a million rand for a bottle of wine.

I’m hoping CNN can shed some light on why anyone would pay that amount of money for booze.

Only 20 of the unique 1,5 litre magnums, designed by Hungarian-based artist James Carcass, exist, 18 of which were released last year.

It was described as the “world’s most expensive wine” at the time of its launch, and while this statement is difficult to quantify, the Essencia 2008 magnum decanter was certainly the most expensive wine put up for sale in 2019.

Each of the decanters, which come in a lacquered black box with a switch that illuminates the bottle, is specially hand-blown, meaning no two are completely identical.

Yeah, I’m sure the decanter is gorgeous. What makes the wine special?

Only the best aszú grapes are used for Essencia, which is made entirely from the juice of aszú berries (the other wines produced in the region have a base wine added to dilute their sweetness).

Visitors can arrange private tours of the winery, located around a two and a half hour drive from Budapest, in order to taste it.

“Essencia in itself is a miracle of nature,” says Orsi Szentkiralyi, a London-based Hungarian wine professional. “It’s very labor intensive and takes many years of careful work in the cellar.

“It only reaches a couple of degrees of alcohol but has lots and lots of natural sweetness. It’s so rich it’s normally served on a spoon instead of a glass.”

It takes about a kilogram of very ripe aszú grapes to produce just a teaspoon of wine, while around 20 kilograms of grapes shrivelled to aszú berries are required for a 37,5-centilitre bottle of wine, which usually contains around 3% alcohol.

It also has an interesting history.

“Doctors used to prescribe it to their patients. If you were lucky enough to be able to afford it, you would be prescribed a teaspoon of Essencia in the morning and a teaspoon at night.”

“Pope Pius X kept it in his bedchamber and survived far longer than anyone expected because he was drinking Essencia.”

Perhaps the most famous reference is in Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” in which the character Jonathan Harker is served a bottle of Tokaji on his first night at Count Dracula’s castle.

Apart from its history, which is cool, I’m not loving the idea of this particular wine. I want a proper glass, with a reasonable amount of decent wine in it, possibly a block or two of ice if it’s white wine, and some good company to round it all off.

Then again, I’m not rich enough to travel halfway around the world for a teaspoon of wine, so what do I know?

[source:cnn]