The Wine and Leisure tasting panel descended upon the Austrian Annual Wine Trade Fair in Toronto today. Held at Rosehill, the event featured wines from dozens of Austrian wineries. The event was packed with invited trade guests. As expected, there were no substandard wines among the entire collection and we were very impressed with at least 10 of the wineries. It was fun, too, to rub shoulders with esteemed colleagues like Tony Aspler, who was very gracious to some of the younger crowd who sought his advice and opinions. Kudos to Tony. He's a class act.  John Szabo had his enormously refined nose in a glass of Riesling as I breezed by. He takes his wines seriously, that's part of why he's a Master Sommelier.  Other wine royalty included Margaret Swain, Igor (Master of Wine), and Jamie Drummond, sommelier at JK Wine Bar.

Some of the finest wine collections were by Stadlmann, Nigl, Stadt Krems, Angerer Kurt, Winzer Krems, Laurenz Five, Dürnberg and Skoff. It was good to see Skoff's sales and marketing manager, Wolfgang Krinninger, who really knows his stuff...  So, let's focus a bit on these last two wineries, whose products were especially impressive.  Dürnberg is from the Weinviertel in Austria. Winemaker Christoph Kőrner produces lively and elegant wines that are bursting with bouquet and flavor. I tried the Weissburgunder (Pinot Blanc) Select Klassik, the Chardonnay Klassik, and the Grüner Veltliner Steinwein Klassik. They were excellent, with special mention deserved by the Pinot Blanc.  Skoff, from Südsteiermark (South Styria), is reaching legendary status due to its simply stunning Sauvignon Blancs. From their cleverly named Skoffignon to their Sauvignon Blanc Klassik, the lofty Sauvignon Blanc Hochsulz, and the Sauvignon Blanc Obegg Reserve, you feel like you're climbing the stairway to heaven. Each wine in the flight gets better and better until you reach perfection at the top.