The annual Austrian Wine Tasting took place in London recently and it is one of those fixtures I aim to get along to because it is always so interesting.

I turned up all smiles at the doors of the Institute of Directors having completely forgotten that jeans do not meet the IOD dress code. I had more than a few seconds of panic when I thought I was about to be denied my fix of grüner veltliner and zweigelt.

Happily, all I had to do was sign a waiver, promising that I would stay only within the confines of the tasting. No problem there! This was going to be an all-day affair and I had no intention of wandering into any room that wasn't filled with the smells of Austria's finest.

You might thing that I am mad to be so wildly enthusiastic about Austrian wines, but I'm not alone. In 2002, Austria exported 24,000 litres of wine into the UK. In 2007 that figure has increased to 131,000 litres. That's a leap of almost 20 per cent in just five years.

The grüner' factor is a significant one when it comes to assessing Austria's newfound success. Back in 2002 there was a major tasting of some of the best Austrian grüner veltliners and chardonnays alongside some of the Burgundian and Californian chardonnay big-shots.

All the wines were tasted blind and the results caused something of a furore. In overall points, grüner veltliner claimed the top two places, while the third went to an Austrian chardonnay. I can't believe that anyone would have predicted such an outcome.

Grüner is to Asutria what sauvignon blanc is to New Zealand. It is what everyone thinks of first. It is hardly surprising. It is planted in a third of the country's vineyards and is capable of producing a wide variety of wine styles. It can be light, fruity and refreshing at one end of the scale, while at the other it can deliver phenomenal complexity and richness and the capacity to age for years and years to come.

It is a variety that seizes the personality of the soils in which it is grown and expresses them as vividly in the glass as you could hope for. Vines which are planted in loamy, clay soils tend to deliver grapes whose wines are more buxom in style. For those that are looking for something with more minerality then vines that are planted on stonier soils will deliver what you are after.

Two of the best areas to go grüner-hunting are the Wachau and Kamptal. The vineyards of the Wachau are planted on the steep terraces of the Danube to the west of Vienna. The region itself is reasonably small; it has just 3,500 acres of vineyards.

For many though, it is the top spot for Austrian wines due, in part, to its unique climate which is regulated by the Danube and which gives the grapes that all important day-time warmth and the cooler nights that brings aromatic complexity and freshness to the wines.

Grüner wines from the Kamptal are among the most concentrated in the country. North and east of the Wachau, Kamptal is Austria's largest wine-growing region. The soils here are predominantly a mix of clay and silt. It is this that gives the wines their depth.

It is only in the tasting of these wines that you get a true sense of their potential and it is why I have always been such a huge fan of the Wines of Austria tasting.

This year I was especially thrilled to see an almost-local' firm had some of the finest wines of the entire tasting on show.

The Wine Keller is a firm that I first came to hear of a couple of years ago, and when I've been lucky enough to stumble upon a restaurant wine list with a quality choice of Austrian and German wines, it's often the case that they are being bought from this brilliant, specialist wine merchant.

Based just off the A404 in Maidenhead they have an utterly captivating wine list. There wasn't a solitary wine in their entire line-up that wasn't great. If you're looking for something special; a bit different, I highly recommend them to you.

The website allows you to search by grape. Don't be expecting a line-up of the world's most widely planted. Instead, you can pick from a handful of exciting grüners. Don't fancy that? What about some spicy red zweigelt? Just because they're not massively familiar doesn't mean they're not worth a try.

I could recommend a dozen wines and more from this firm but I don't have the space. Instead I'm going to pick out two estates whose wines are as charming as any I have tasted for months.

Weingut Allram is situated in the Kamptal and is owned and run by Michaela Hass and her husband Erich. Since inheriting the vineyard from Michaela's parents, the couple have invested substantially; extending their vineyard ownership and modernising and developing the winery. They have opted to operate organically too. It's all paying off. The wines are just stunning. They're expressive, engaging and have fantastic purity of fruit. Prices start from as little as £7.65 and I think that is an absolute steal.

My second recommendation is a winery that I'm not ashamed to say has had coverage in this column before. The Wachau-based Tegernseerhof winery was one of the top-finds of 2007. We might be three months into 2008, but I am still banging their drum. The wines are sublime. There's the grüners and the rieslings that I've mentioned before and this time I'm going to add the equally fabulous Zweigelt Rosé (£7.95) to your list of wines to try. It's that bright fruit that I keep coming back to and which keeps me so enthused with Austrian wines.

The next time you are on your way between the M40 and the M4 consider dropping in to the Wine Keller. I'm utterly confident that you will not be disappointed.

The Wine Keller, Little Orchard, Cox Green Lane, Maidenhead Berkshire SL6 3EL Tel: 01628 620143 E-mail: info@thewinekeller.co.uk Web: www.thewinekeller.co.uk