john Szabo

Master Sommelier John Szabo was the first Canadian to add the “MS” after his name in 2004. He’s seen the hospitality business from all sides including cooking and washing dishes, serving and sommellerie, importing, teaching, writing, speaking, consulting and judging wine internationally. He was listed as “Canada’s best-known sommelier” in Meininger’s Wine Business International. John is a partner and principal critic for WineAlign.com, Canada’s largest wine publication, and contributes occasionally for US-based Wine & Spirits Magazine as well as numerous trade and consumer publications and newspapers. Listen for John’s top LCBO picks regularly on 680 News Radio across Ontario. His books include Pairing Food and Wine For Dummies (Wiley, December 2012), and Sommelier Management (Canadian Association of Professional Sommeliers, Revised Edition 2013). But volcanoes are John’s current fatal attraction; his multi award-winning book, Volcanic Wines, Salt, Grit and Power, was released to critical acclaim in October 2016.

John teaches regularly for the Court of Master Sommeliers, as well as the Canadian Association of Professional Sommeliers and the Wine & Spirits Education Trust, and he consults on restaurant beverage programs, from small neighborhood operations to national chains. He counts Toronto's Pearson International Airport, the Trump International Hotel and Tower Toronto and the National Arts Centre among many past clients. And to get closer to the land, he is a partner in the small J&J Eger vineyard in Hungary.

johnszabo