Several readers have written in over the past week to see if we'd seen a certain feature article in the New York Times about the Hungarian wine region of Tokaj. (Note that the story is likely to go behind the Times' pay firewall within a few days, so may not be available by the time you click on the link.) Yes we did read it, and were as happy as anyone to see the region's offerings talked up in a famous overseas publication. But - and you just knew there was a but - we did note one serious problem with the piece, namely the startling lack of any mention of the winemaker now almost synonymous with super-premium aszú (sweet) Tokaji.

The man, and the wine in question is Szepsy. While other winemakers have been doing their part to get the region back on its feet after the Communist rot, István Szepsy has been the most tireless, and his wines, while sometimes hard to get a hold of, are second to none.

What's especially galling about the omission of Szepsy from the Times article is that he actually made its top pick, the 1999 6 Puttonyos "Lapis" from Királyudvar. Szepsy actually used to "co-rule" the winery before splitting with investor Anthony Hwang, who gets all the glory in the piece. (The photos above and below are from a visit we had with him while he used to be the király of Királyudvar.)

Meanwhile, the thing goes on to say that Royal Tokaji is the "most prominent name" in Tokaji aszú, which is like saying that the Daily News is the most prominent name in newspaper publishing in Manhattan. It just isn't.

Not that any of this should be all that surprising. If you click through to this elaborate multimedia version of the article, and know some basic Tokaji lingo, you'll quickly realize that the experts from the Times don't. Oddly, the writer of the piece doesn't even follow his own article's pronunciation tip for aszú, calling it "AHZ-oo" instead of "AHS-oo." DOO-de.

Nor should any of this be too painful for Szepsy. As one confidante of the winemaker reminded us today, if you look at what people are putting on wine lists in important restaurants outside of Hungary, Szepsy is always there. Plus, "No one drinks Tokaji outside of Hungary anyway."