Tokaji wines have won a record six Platinum medals at this year's Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA). While most of these went to Aszú wines of Barta, Dobogó, Harsányi, Kern and Sauska, each scoring 97 points, the Best-in-Show Award, along with a Platinum, was brought home by Juliet Victor's Sweet Szamorodni of 2017, the same winery that also had the highest-scoring dry Tokaji, the Bomboly single-vineyard Furmint 2017 – and not only in this competition, but in the history of DWWA. The only other Gold-medalist dry wine was Harsányi's Kútpatka single-vineyard Furmint 2017. Overall, it has been an extremely successful DWWA for Tokaj, with a record number of 45 winning Tokaji entries, out of which 33 scored 90 points or above. It is a point of interest that half of the Aszús awarded were of the 2016 vintage, a rather difficult year in Tokaj that, however, produced limited quantities of exceptional sweet wines. Also, two winning Aszús proved that Tokaj could produce world-class sweet wines even in such miserable years as 2014.
Out of the 19 producers that the Tokaji entries came from, Best of Hungary Kern, Préselő and Simkó are the lesser-heard-of names. Best of Hungary is actually not a winery, but a UK-based a distributor of traditional Hungarian food and wine products, whose winning wine was their first own-branded Aszú, made for them by a Tokaj-based winemaker. Pál Kern started his Tarcal-based Tokaji production, based on a mere 5 hectares, in 2014, having run a winery in Hungary's Lake Balaton area since 2012. Founded in 2013, Préselő is Zsolt Nagy's 8-hectare winery in Erdőbénye, their award-winning wine being their very first entry ever into DWWA. Unlike Kern or Préselő, Simkó is a long-established winemaking family in Sárospatak that sometimes still release wines under the brand name Evinor, and now seems to be emerging to the Tokaj mainstream. They too were a first-timer at DWWA.
Here is a summary of Tokaj's results:
Award | Score | Winery | Wine |
![]() | 97 | Juliet Victor | Szamorodni 2017 |
![]() | 97 | Barta | Öreg Király Dűlő Aszú 6 puttonyos 2016 |
![]() | 97 | Dobogó | Aszú 6 puttonyos 2013 |
![]() | 97 | Harsányi | Aszú 6 puttonyos 2016 |
![]() | 97 | Kern | Aszú 5 puttonyos 2014 |
![]() | 97 | Sauska | Aszú 5 puttonyos 2017 |
![]() | 96 | Carpinus | Aszú 6 puttonyos 2016 |
![]() | 96 | Dereszla | Aszú 5 puttonyos 2016 |
![]() | 96 | Dereszla | Aszú 5 puttonyos 2010 |
![]() | 96 | Grand Tokaj | Aszú 6 puttonyos 2013 |
![]() | 96 | Holdvölgy | Aszú 6 puttonyos 'Culture' 2016 |
![]() | 96 | Juliet Victor | Bomboly Furmint 2017 |
![]() | 95 | Disznókő | Szamorodni '1413' 2017 |
![]() | 95 | Gróf Degenfeld | Aszú 5 puttonyos 2016 |
![]() | 95 | Harsányi | Kútpatka Furmint 2017 |
![]() | 94 | Patricius | Aszú 6 puttonyos 2016 |
![]() | 94 | Royal Tokaji | Aszú 6 puttonyos 2016 |
![]() | 93 | Best of Hungary | Aszú 6 puttonyos 2015 |
![]() | 93 | Hétszőlő | Aszú 5 puttonyos 2010 |
![]() | 93 | Mad Wine | Mád Furmint 2015 |
![]() | 93 | Royal Tokaji | Furmint 2018 |
![]() | 92 | Disznókő | Aszú 5 puttonyos 2013 |
![]() | 92 | Hétszőlő | Nagyszőlő Aszú 6 puttonyos 2010 |
![]() | 92 | Holdvölgy | Szamorodni 'Eloquence' 2010 |
![]() | 92 | Holdvölgy | Vision 2014 |
![]() | 92 | Juliet Victor | Estate Furmint 2017 |
![]() | 92 | Royal Tokaji | Aszú 5 puttonyos 2016 |
![]() | 91 | Patricius | Furmint 'Selection' 2018 |
![]() | 91 | Sauska | Furmint 2019 |
![]() | 91 | Sauska | Birsalmás Furmint 2017 |
![]() | 90 | Dobogó | Úrágya Furmint 2018 |
![]() | 90 | Holdvölgy | Vision 2013 |
![]() | 90 | Mad Wine | Mád Late Harvest 2017 |
![]() | 89 | Carpinus | Furmint Grand Reserve 2018 |
![]() | 89 | Grand Tokaj | Late Harvest 2018 |
![]() | 89 | Gróf Degenfeld | Szamorodni Selection 2017 |
![]() | 89 | Préselő | Furmint 'Apukám Bora' 2018 |
![]() | 89 | Royal Tokaji | Late Harvest 2018 |
![]() | 89 | Simkó | Aszú 3 puttonyos 2014 |
![]() | 88 | Disznókő | Furmint 2019 |
![]() | 88 | Hétszőlő | Hétszőlő Hárslevelű 2017 |
![]() | 87 | Kern | Muscat Lunel Brut 2015 |
![]() | 87 | Mad Wine | Mád Hárslevelű 2018 |
![]() | 87 | Patricius | Late Harvest 'Katinka' 2018 |
![]() | 83 | Holdvölgy | Vision 2018 |
.