Some 142 distillers submitted almost 1,200 distillates for blind tasting. The majority of the distillers were Austrian, but every fourth participating facility now comes from abroad.

  
Distillers of the year 2005


At the official award ceremony of Destillata in Grafenegg Castle near Krems, the spotlight was focused on one distiller: following his successes of 2003 and 2004, Siegfried Herzog of Saalfelden in Salzburg collected his third Destillata overall win in a row. Second place was claimed by the long-time great Tyrolean distiller Christoph Kössler (Landeck); followed by his fellow-countryman Bernhard Leitner from Grins.

  
National winners Germany, Hungary and Italy  

This year there were foreign distillers from Germany (12) and Italy (13), Hungary (7), Switzerland and Croatia, and three national winners were elected: Edmund Marder collected the title for Germany, Tibor Vértes was the top Hungarian distiller and Florian Rabanser carried off the Italian national prize to South Tyrol.

  
Best cherry brandy comes from Switzerland  

One award for Spirit of the Year went to Switzerland: the Arnold Dettling AG from Brunnen impressed the jury with the Lauerz cherry brandy and achieved the highest rating of 20 points.