By Gal Zohar
Erica in full swing
Who said that wine drinking and sports can’t be real partners? Our blogger’s World Cup of Wine surely proved otherwise. Then again it all depends on what counts as real sport.
Thursday night saw some of the best food & wine bloggers in London gather not only to taste wine but mainly to decide which is the best wine producing country in the world! Big responsibility? Well no blogger we know will run away from a challenge.
The rules were simple. Countries went head to head, white to white and red to red. We poured and the bloggers had to decide who went through to the next round and who was on the next plane home.
Serious scoring
First to hit the pitch was the interesting line up of Chile Vs Italy. This turned out to be an easy one for the Azzurri as they won on both the white and red category. The most efficient player of the match was voted the “baby” Super Tuscan “Violetta” from Ceppaiano. Sour cherries and a hint of violets and you know it’s Sangiovese.
Next in line was a recreation of the 1976 Judgment of Paris. This time, revenge was complete. The French team controlled the pace and even managed to fetch the highest scored wine: els Pyreneus “Les Hauts de l’Agly”, a focused and elegant blend of Grenache, Syrah and Carignan.
An interesting matchup was up next when South Africa took on Argentina. Despite their Latin charm and a very enjoyable, fresh and crisp Torrontes from Argento this simply wasn’t enough to beat the hosts. The South African team were lead by SAAM’s Middelburg Chenin Blanc, a ripe, structured and lengthy wine and goes to the next round with plenty of confidence and optimism.
Last came up the tightest of all matches where Spain and Australia went head to head. Now it is difficult to think of any similarities between the two and this is probably why the scores were so close. Spain scored 137 point where as Australia notched up 143. d’Arenberg’s Hermitage Crab, a intriguing rich and complex blend of Marsanne & Viogner came up as almost everyone’s favourite and even picked up a 9.5/10 score, almost perfect!
Final score
After the initial excitement from the results the two semi finals were announced. Two real battles of titans will happen on the 13th of May. The first, an old rivalry where France will try to prove to Italy that they still rule the old world. In the second South Africa will challenge Australia and show that tradition and history counts much more than funky wine names.
This was a truly exciting night with some surprising results. We are impatiently looking forward to the semi finals and are working hard to make sure only the best wines will represent their country on this very special day.
Tags: Bloggers, wine tasting, World Cup of Wine
[...] week saw the beginning of the World Cup of Wine as Bibendum Wine, one of London’s most prominent wholesalers, invited food and wine bloggers to taste, compare [...]
Can’t wait for the semi finals a true new vs old world battle.
Gutted I couldn’t make the quarters, I’ll make sure I’m there for the semi’s though!
Erm…where were the Germans??? Not only perennial over acheivers in all forms of a “World Cup”, also the home to the finest white wines on the planet!
I can’t believe the Argies folded so easily, let’s hope that’s an omen for the real thing! Bring on the semis.