Gabriele von Baumberg was quite a woman: a Viennese hostess and poetess, she was at the center of a group of liberal intellectuals at the turn of the nineteenth century. However, her marriage to the Hungarian radical poet Johann Bacsanyi—the man made the mistake of supporting Napoleon in attempting to rally the Hungarians against the Hapsburgs who ruled Austro-Hungary—resulted in them both being exiled for life to the provincial town of Linz.

Schubert seems to have been enamored of von Baumberg's poetry in August 1815, the summer after the final defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo: in that month he set five of her poems. Three are proto-Romantic, one is fairly risqué, and the fifth is a drinking song entitled Lob des Tokayers (In Praise of Tokay) (D. 248). Tokay, the Hungarian national wine, is therefore guilty by association with the cause of Hungarian freedom and the poem is a sort of sublimated revolutionary hymn. Substitute the word "Hungary" for the word "Tokay" in the opening lines— "Exquisite Tokay, prince among wines! You inspire my lute to rare flights of poetry, with long-desired bliss and newly awakened gaiety!"—and a deeper and more subversive meaning becomes clear.

Schubert's setting, however, has little to do with radical politics and everything to do with being an elevated drinking song for male voices and piano. Ripping along in hearty chorus and lusty solo over an excited piano accompaniment, Lob des Tokayers joins the ranks of the other 11 drinking songs of Schubert's 18th year.

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