Ta1_09

Sweet bomb-peak in the historical Tokaji Aszú wines

Molnar M¹, László E¹, Molnár A^1,2,3, Varga T^1,2,3

¹INTERACT AMS Laboratory, Debrecen, Hungary, ²University of Debrecen, Doctoral School of Physics, Debrecen, Hungary, ³Isotoptech Zrt., Debrecen, Hungary

Tokaji Aszú is one of the most important and traditional wines in the world, produced since the XVI. Century. It is a special wine produced in the Tokaj wine region (Hungary); it is the nectar of individually hand-picked “aszú”berries botrytised on the wine stock. It is made by bathing the dough in high quality must or wine of the same year from the Tokaj wine region. Following fermentation, it is maturing and refining in oak casks placed in a constant-temperature cellar. Besides the unique quality, this also explains the high price of Tokaji Aszu wines, as it is an extremely labour-intensive process. Thanks to its high sugar and acid content it is already highly enjoyable at the age of 150 years, which is why Tokaji Aszu is very popular among wine collectors. In this study we have investigated sets of several decades collection of Tokaji Aszu wine from different wine yards. Aszú samples were analyzed by AMS ¹⁴C technique to prove the power of high resolution dating/age determination by AMS technique on prestigious old wines. Atmopsheric ¹⁴C bomb-peak (1963-2020) allows one-year resolution wine „dating”. Besides the wine ¹⁴C analyses, we have investigated their ³H signal too, to have an independent proxy regarding the bomb-signal. On the other hand, we compared the Aszú-bomb-curve to the local (Hungarian) atmospheric ¹⁴C records from tree rings and direct air sample observations.