My tasting notes on a nice and dry Sárgamuskotály (Yellow Muscat) made by Sauska from the Tokaj region in South-West Hungary.


Sauska is well known in the wine world for its red wines from Villány, our own little Bordeaux region in the South-West of Hungary, a lot less people know that Sauska also has a cellar in the ”sweet wine” region Tokaj which is located in the North-East of Hungary.

Sauska uses both the indigenous and international grape varieties and really shows what the terroir can do in a wine. For example they have two blends called Cuvéé 7, both are from the red wine region Villány but come from a different village and terroir in the village; Villány and Siklós.

They use prime numbers in their red wines from Villány, the lower the number the closer the wine is to perfection with 5 being the lowest so far.

In their white wines they use a similar system but they have added 100 to it, at the moment 105 is their most prestigious dry blend.

Now let us talk about the wine it self, the grapes come from two slopes, the Medve-dűlő (loosely translated into the bear vineyard/slopes) and the Padihegy. 2014 was very dry in Tokaj and the bunches started growing nicely during the first months of summer. Sauska decided to keep more leaves on the vines for shadow in order to maintain acidity. By the end of the summer Tokaj got hit by a heat wave, speeding up the ripening quite a bit. The grapes were harvested roughly mid October.

The grapes were hand picked and selected, they’ve preserved the freshness and aromas by cooling and soaking them in dry ice for 24 hour. After 24 hours the grapes got pressed and fermented in stainless steel tanks on a temperature of 16° Celsius. The wine then got aged in stainless steel tanks and was bottled in the February 2015.

The wine has an intensive nose, a bit of citrus fruits, passion fruit, little hints of pinne apple, the flavors are nicely balanced with enjoyable acids and a medium long finish.

Side information about the wine :

Winery : Sauska

Year : 2014

Type : Sárgamuskotály (Yellow Muscat)

Vineyards : Medve-Dűlő and Padihegy

Where to buy : The 2014 version still might be available at the winery, but you can buy the latest vintage (2015 when this article was written) in Bortásaság

Price : 2000 Hungarian forints which is roughly 6.50 euros at this time.

Score : 89