2016 Tokaji Aszu 6 Puttonyos

100% Furmint. The purity of this wine is remarkable. Like a clarinet, holding a note through the sunrise. Long, creamy but crystal-cut with the most remarkable intensity of apricot craquelure. Quite stunning. (TC)

If the Béres 6 Puttonyos was all flowers and honey, this is the spice baby. Much more savoury, tucked in, a dark-stone, wet-stone cylinder of minerality and fierce intention running through the core. Super-concentrated peach and apricot fruit, with a lime-spiked acidity so tense and high-wire that it feels more like an electric current than acidity. Sherbet-shocks of super-sweet acidity. The intensity of this wine is so piercing that my top lip broke out in a sweat. Essence of clementine, white pepper, cracked coriander, cumin. Long, long, long vibrato finish. (TC)

The 2016 Tokaji Aszú 6 Puttonyos has a waxier, more resinous nose compared to the 2013 5 Puttonyos that I tasted alongside, and does not quite deliver the same precision. There is a light adhesive scent that loiters in the background. The palate is better, offering tangy marmalade, bitter orange and peach on the entry. This is an assertive and striking Tokaji, although the bitterness on the aftertaste means that it will show much better partnered with, say, a 36-month-old Comté.