A Hungarian sweet wine, Tokaj Aszú might not be the first drink Irish whiskey lovers consider when it comes to a National Day of Celebration, and yet, at Athrú, National Tokaji Aszú day (10 December) is one we’ll be commemorating.

Why? Not just because we believe great drinks need to be acknowledged (although of course, we do firmly believe this). We’re celebrating because Tokaji Aszú has a significant role to play in the making of some of our delicious Athrú Irish single malt whiskeys. 

We source our Tokaji casks from the oldest winery in Hungary - Oremus. This was the vineyard from which Chaplain Laczkó Szepsi harvested the botrytised grapes to make the first Aszú ever, to present it to Prince Rákóczi’s wife Zsuzsanna Lorántffy for Easter in 1631.  

Rákóczi II introduced this wine to Peter the Great in 1707 while they were negotiating a treaty in Warsaw, Poland. After falling in love with the drink, Peter tried but failed to buy any vineyards in the region. However, his successor Catherine the Great was also a great lover of Tokaj wine and had vineyards planted for her in the region during the 1720s.

Interestingly, this period of time which saw the rise of this world-famous wine is also the time that the foundations were being laid for Hazelwood House - the place that would later become Athrú’s home.  

Popular with royalty and nobility, Tokaj wines were, and still are extremely sought after - Louis XIV described the drink as: "Tokaj, the wine of kings and king of wines", and in 2002, the winemaking conditions of the Tokaj region were recognised and it was awarded UNESCO World Heritage status. 

We first received our Tokaji casks in 2016, and set to work creating some exciting whiskeys influenced by this special wine. Our casks are a mixture of Tokaji Szerendneyi and Tokaji Burgundy, and the burgundy casks held both white and red wine in them prior to their arrival at our distillery. 

We filled the Tokaji Szerendneyi casks with our newmake spirit and also a 12-year-old Irish whiskey, while the burgundy casks were filled with a 12-year-old Irish whiskey. Then, we waited to see what characteristics these unusual casks would impart on our whiskey. 

Our head distiller, Ollie Alcorn noticed that mature whiskey finishes well in the Tokaji casks, but maturing newmake in them proves somewhat more difficult due to the delicate nature of Tokaji’s flavours competing with the strength of the newmake spirit.

Unlike sherry cask finishing on whiskey, these casks bring an altogether different experience - the flavours and aromas are more delicate, with notes of apple, pear, grapefruit, pineapple and even lemon. 

For the past five years, we have been maturing our single cask Irish whiskey in these Tokaji casks, and we also used them for our Keshcorran single malt, a whiskey that was developed and introduced as part of our Creation Trilogy.

This whiskey is aged for 12 years in American oak casks and finished for two in the finest Tokaji casks. In addition to the royal connections of Tokaji wines from the likes of Catherine the Great, our Keshcorran takes its name from the mystical fairy mountain near Sligo, the reputed birthplace of King Cormac, the first great high king of Ireland. 

Our 16 year old Tokaji single cask release also offers the opportunity to try this unusual cask. With just 250 bottles in existence, it is the most exclusive of our cask reserve bottlings. 

We’ve found the impact of the Tokaji casks on our whiskey to be very interesting, especially when it comes to finishing. We plan to continue to use them to mature our whiskey, but we also have some enticing combinations to experiment with, too. For now, we’re keeping these under wraps, but rest assured, Tokaji will be playing a big part in the making of our Athrú Irish single malt whiskey. 

To really get a taste for Tokaji, try our 16 Year Tokaji, our Keshcorran - or you could even have your own whiskey matured in a Tokaji cask.