Tokaji

Tokaji is a Hungarian wine named after the town of Tokaj, some 200 km northeast of Budapest, not far from the Slovakian and Ukrainian borders. Proclaimed by Louis XIV to be "the wine of kings, the king of wines", Tokaji's vineyards covered 5,500 hectares in 2006, compared with over 7,000 hectares in the past.

The letter "i" at the end of the word tokaji means "from" the Tokaj region. This is necessary to avoid confusion with the name of an Alsatian grape variety (pinot gris, formerly known as "tokay pinot gris") which, according to legend, was brought back from Hungary by Lazarus of Schwendi. In reality, pinot gris originated in Burgundy. Alsace's pinot gris has no ampelographic or viticultural relationship with Tokaj's grape varieties.

Tokaji's white grape varieties are furmint, hárslevelü (linden leaf in Hungarian), sárgamuskotály (small-grained white muscat) and zéta (formerly known as oremus).