Furmint

Furmint is a high-acid white grape native to the Tokaj region of north-east Hungary, where it is the backbone of Tokaji — both the steely, mineral bone-dry wines and the legendary botrytised sweet Tokaji Aszu. Thick-skinned, late-ripening and slow to lose its acidity, it yields wines built around lime, pear, quince and a distinctive smoky, waxy, stony character. Its loose bunches and thick-skinned berries are unusually well suited to noble rot (Botrytis cinerea), the mould that shrivels and concentrates the grapes for Tokaj's famous dessert wines. Whether dry and racy or sweet and amber, it is one of the great age-worthy whites of the world, capable of lasting decades or more in bottle.