Of these wines, 12 Austrian Pinot Noirs were rated among the top 20! And the competition was tough: the Austrians successfully triumphed not only over many familiar names from Burgundy, but also over wines from the New World.

The tasting panel included Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Dr. NK Yong, Jenny Tan and renowned wine sommeliers and Pinot Noir specialists - all part of the "Who's Who" of the Asian wine scene. Because the panel worked with different rating systems, the organizers had requested that the wines be ranked from 1st place to 34th place. The final results reflected order of preference - the higher the ranking (eg, 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc) - the more often the wine had been favoured by the judges.

"The results of this tasting show how much of an impression we're making on the international stage with our high class red wines," said an enthusiastic Willi Klinger, the general manager of the Austrian Wine Marketing Board. "For a long time, we were known around the world for our white wines only, but now we are more and more being associated with our world-class red wines as well."

Pictured: Bottles of Austrian Pinot Noir. For a list of the Top 20 wines and the tasting panel click here