2011 Uragya Furmint

Szepsy, considered by many to be "Mr. Tokaj," was prepared to start bottling and selling wines under his own name after changes in the political system in 1990 but initially the local wine authorities thought his wines were not sufficiently typical (his wines apparently were too fresh and clean, and his sweet bottlings did not display the oxidative character typical of the category).He served as the first managing director of the Royal Tokaji Wine Company and was subsequently responsible for rehabilitating Királyudvar with joint venture partner Anthony Hwang beginning in 1997, before turning over winemaking responsibilities to his co-winemaker Zoltán Demeter at the end of 2005).Based in the town of Mad, he now makes 50,000 bottles a year on average under his own label, from 52 hectares of vines in 22 areas in 6 villages.Szepsy's aszú wines are about as good as this category gets and his dry wines are also among the purest and best in the region.He vinifies the latter wines in large Hungarian oak barrels and does not like the malolactic fermentation to occur--"but what can you do when it does?"