“For sweet wines, this is the centre of the world.” The man making this claim is no proud Magyar, but French. Indeed, not only French, but one born into a Bordeaux wine-making family – which gives Samuel Tinon’s words extra resonance.
But as Mr Tinon, speaking in a traditional village house in the Tokaj wine region of north-east Hungary, knows only too well: it is one thing to believe the region’s golden nectars – aszu wines produced from botrytised, or fungus-affected grapes – are world-beaters; it is another thing to persuade the world to buy them.
