World of Tokaj

Wine growing in Tokaj region goes back to the Roman times, when the area belonged to the Roman province of Pannonia. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the vine growing tradition was continued by Slavs. It is believed that the name of the village and mountain Tokaj has a Slavic origin. It is derived from the word "Stokaj, " referring to a confluence of two rivers, in this case the rivers Bodrog and Tisa. The wine tradition in Košice has deep roots in the Middle Ages. The wine trade brought great profits to the city of Košice until the 14th century. Louis XIV himself once declared Tokaj to be the "The king of wins and the wine of kings" and issued a decree in 1347 that in Košice it was allowed to sell their domestic, Košice wine. Slovakia has a smaller part of the Tokaj wine-growing region. It is one of the five areas in the world where it is possible to grow vines to produce naturally sweet wines.