Furmint, Tokaj, Hungary

Furmint made as an orange wine instead of the infamous sweet Aszú wines of Tokaj is like, duh! Of course! Why haven’t we had more of these?! This powerful and perfumed, amber-hued gem is just, well, perfect. Szóló is a small, family-run winery lead by Tímea Éless in the village of Tállya. She inherited a small plot of vines from her grandmother and decided this was a gift too great to pass on. At Szóló, she focuses on biodynamic farming and making wines of truly profound concentration. That is, when she’s not helping her employees learn to drive, receive training in horticulture, and throwing winter parties to foster community-building with others around her. ‘Kraft’ is made with full bunch carbonic maceration of partly botrytized grapes. Say what? The full bunches of grapes are thrown into a tank, where oxygen is replaced by co2 and the berries start to ferment from within, eventually bursting to release their precious juices. And precious indeed, as botrytis-effected grapes (otherwise known as noble rot, a mold that pierces the skins of the berries causing the juice inside to concentrate) yield much less juice, albeit truly an elixir at this point. After 7 months of aging, ‘Kraft’ is dressed for success and ready to party. Dried mango and pineapple snacks, apricot cream, briny lemons, flinty minerality, hay, bergamot and Carlo’s House of Spice. Bring this stunning beauty to a poetry reading full of black turtlenecks, smokey cat-eyes, and incense.