Zoltan Szabo

 

Zoltan is the quintessential North American success story: from non- English-speaking busboy to star sommelier in under a decade. He has done more to raise the profile of the sommelier profession than busloads of stiff, tastevin-toating wine stewards, bringing a fresh, appealing, wholly inclusive approach to sharing his enthusiasm for wine. Zoltan has been recognized repeatedly by his colleagues, winning Toronto Star sommelier of the year in 2003, top spot at Tony Aspler's Ontario Wine Awards blind tasting competition in 2005. He was most recently was named "promoter of the year 2006" for the Ontario Wine Industry during their annual Cuvée gala in recognition of his significant support of local artisans of the grape.

He has appeared in dozens of publications and interviews and has become the poster boy of the modern sommelier: fun, confident, highly knowledgeable and down to earth. He has been dubbed the Clive Owen and the 007 of wine as well as Toronto's sexiest sommelier. Professionally, Zoltan has created and oversees many award winning wine programs for some of the finest restaurants in Toronto garnering him additional accolades from the local media and the Wine Spectator. He is a contributing editor for CityBites Magazine, Drinks editor of Asian Gourmet, and contributes tasting notes to a variety of prominent publications and organizations Vines Magazine and the Ontario Restaurant News.

These days Zoltan spends the majority of his time as a guest speaker at wine-soaked events, delivers Wine Council of Ontario training seminars with partner John Szabo and travels the world as an international wine judge. Otherwise you can often catch him at one of his favorite local haunts enjoying a glass of unusual, cutting edge vino.

 

Please visit Zoltan's website at www.zoltanszabo.ca

 

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