Tokaj-Hegyalja

The Tokaj wine area is a historically significant wine region in northeastern Hungary and southeastern Slovakia. It is also one of Hungary's seven largest wine districts. Hegyalja means "foothills" in Hungarian, and this was the region's original name. The region is made up of 28 named communities and 11,149 hectares of categorized vineyards, 5,500 of which are currently planted. Tokaj Wine Region Historic Cultural Landscape was designated as a World Heritage Site in 2002. Its popularity, however, predates this distinction because it is the birthplace of Tokaji asz wine, the world's oldest botrytized wine. Because to the Treaty of Trianon, Slovakia currently owns a lesser portion of the ancient wine area.

Tokaj wine is a premium product with a significant attraction to the worldwide market due to its distinct flavour. The conflict began in 1964, when the then-Czechoslovakia shipped its enormous output of Tokaj wine to Austria, a market that had hitherto been supplied entirely by Hungary. The conflict of interests was resolved by a bilateral agreement in which Slovakia was only permitted to sell its excess Tokaj wine to Hungary at the expense of a Czech beer-related concession on the side of Hungary.

The Hungarian and Slovak governments achieved an agreement in June 2004 on the usage of the Tokaj name in Slovakia. This arrangement allows wine produced on 5.65 km2 of land in Slovakia to bear the Tokaj name. However, the Slovak side failed to follow through on their legally bound commitment to implement the same requirements contained in Hungarian wine regulations since 1990. It is yet to be determined who will monitor and enforce these laws. The disagreements prompted Slovakia to join an international litigation over the brand name "Tokaji" filed by Hungary and five other nations (Italy, France, Australia, Serbia, and Slovenia).

Location: Hungary