The flavours are of dried fruit, golden sultanas or apricots, with citrussy notes that can range from grapefruit to mellow orange-peel, and there are often flowery aromas as well. Best of all, the vineyards produce dramatically different results, as you would expect in any area where terroir really means something. Just take two of my favourites: Nyulaszo 1995 (six puttonyos) is lean and tending towards an almost mineral crispness, while Szt Tamas (same year and same puttonyos) is lush and generous.Uppermost quality in sweet wine never comes cheap, but these treasures come with price-tags that will make you gulp. The entry-level Royal Tokaji Blue Label 1996 Aszu is most widely available and cheapest, at around £15 to £18. My two favourites, Nyulaszo and Szt Tamas, weigh in at £36.30 and £58.95. And remember, these are 50cl bottles, the standard size.But if the prices make you gulp, a sip will make you swoon, sigh and smile.

And the wines would make a perfect present for someone too young to drink them now, because the acid and sugar mean they last almost indefinitely. So think about it, when you feel like a self-indulgent treat that is truly unique in the wine-drinker’s range of possibilities. Berry Bros & Rudd (0870 900 4300) sells all the Royal Tokaji wines, and you can ring the company (020 7495 3010) for other stockists. Also look for wines from the other company whose wines I have tasted, Disznoko and Oremus Ignorance was OK It wasn’t a patch on enlightenment.. Salmon has gone from nobility to ubiquity, and all in around 30 years. Once, a whole poached fish would be the centrepiece of a banquet.

Now fillets are popped under the grill without a second thought. Antibiotics and chemicals are often used to prevent disease when the fish are packed into confined areas. Deprived of their natural diet of prawns, the salmon are given artificial colouring to turn their flesh pink. And some farms boost the oil content of the feed to promote fast growth, resulting in fatty fish.All of which has left the UK’s salmon a pale imitation of its former self.

Nick Nairn, the Scottish celebrity chef, has been one of the industry’s many critics, blaming overcrowding in the cages for the poor quality, along with the producers who were sucked into a price war against imports from Chile and Norway, rather than competing on quality. “Scottish standards dropped in the mid-1990s when they were fighting off cheap Norwegian imports,” he says “It became too cheap, dropping to £1 a pound They were selling it for less than it cost to produce. You knew it by the tell-tale fat.”But now, says Nairn, it’s time to look, and cook, again. This change of heart happened when he came across organic fish from Shetland and Orkney. “The Scottish are learning that it’s a waste of time producing cheap fish,” says Nairn. “But supermarkets will do what the customer says, so the customer’s demands for quality has a big part to play.