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Puttonyos is the unit given to denote the level of sugar and hence the sweetness of Hungarian dessert wine, called Tokaji (or tokay). It is traditionally measured by the number of hods of sweet botrytised or nobly rotted grapes (known as Aszú) added to a barrel of wine, but is now measured in grams of residual sugar. The puttony was actually the 25 kg basket or hod of Aszú grapes, and the more added to the barrel of wine, the sweeter the eventual wine. Measurement goes from 3 to 6 Puttonyos. A Tokaji made entirely from Aszú grapes is known as Eszencia.
Contents
Residual sugar levels (grams per litre)
New regulations
From the 2013 harvest the new regulation requires minimum 120 g/l residual sugar in every Aszú wines. The producer still may use the puttonyos number on the label. The ageing criteria has also changed from minimum 2 years barrel and 1 year bottle ageing to minimum 18 months barrel ageing.