Skoff Original, Walter Skoff – styrian top class

Anyone searching for a top award-winning Austrian vintner will find Walter Skoff. As a Sauvignon Blanc pioneer, he procured recognition for this grape variety and thus international recognition for the whole of Styria. Splendid wines, the best vineyards and a great passion for wine and terroir – father and son Walter and Joachim Skoff continue to remain right at the top of the wine league.

Joachim Skoff has travelled far and wide. He has worked as an assistant winemaker, amongst other jobs, in New Zealand, Chile and South Africa. A look in his father’s cellar would have been enough, though, to learn how to make an outstanding Sauvignon Blanc. Walter Skoff, his father, is namely Mr. Sauvignon Blanc. He is acquainted with the nuances of the Styrian terroir better than almost everyone, and knows how to tease the most exciting, glowing notes of fruitiness out of the Sauvignon Blanc. It is possible he inherited this from his own father who was the first to devote himself intensively to this grape variety, which was then still commonly known as Muskat Silvaner in German-speaking countries. The Skoff family has been in winemaking for at least five generations (Joachim Skoff is not entirely sure whether his great-great-grandfather took over the wine-growing from his father as proof for this just cannot be found).

The rise of the SKOFF ORIGINALWalter Skoff winery into the Austrian premier league goes hand-in-hand with the boom in Styrian winemaking; Walter Skoff laid the groundwork for this. He knows every vine by its first name. In the meantime cultivation now takes place in numerous prime vineyards. “We want our wines to express the uniqueness of each terroir”, says Joachim Skoff and explains: “Thanks to our long wine-making tradition we have developed a deep understanding for our soils and we know how to make our wines accordingly, taking advantage both of my father’s huge experience and my innovative ideas.” The classic stainless steel tank-aged wines, vinified as pure crus, are evidence of this

variety of vineyard sites as are likewise the company’s actual single-vineyard wines (also aged in the barrique or wooden barrel) and, of course, the premium line Royal which is made from the very best grapes of the respective locations. These wines, which consistently win awards such as lately in Vinaria magazine (the first two ranks for the Sauvignon Royal and Obegg) and of Chicago‘s Beverage Tasting Institute (first rank for the Sauvignon Royal) are drunk in many countries of the world. The Skoffs are proud that they are on the wine list in several two-, and three-, star restaurants in Tokyo. Not long ago, a Chinese television team stopped by at the Skoff winery to find out about the secret of Skoff’s outstanding Sauvignon Blanc wines. Says Joachim Skoff: “We do not copy other wines. We have found a style of our own which makes our wines unique.”