Throughout the summer, Bay Area wine lovers will get a chance to experience the thrill of world-class competition while enjoying a global selection of wine in a unique event hosted by two local wine merchants.
Last Thursday, Vintage Berkeley kicked off the The 2010 World Cup of Wine at its Elmwood district branch. In this six-week competition, wines from regions around the world will compete for the championship in a single-elimination style tournament modeled loosely after the FIFA World Cup.
Each week multiple wine tastings are held where people sample various wines from the competing regions, said Jason Lefler, manager of Solano Cellars, the other merchant involved.
After sampling, participants vote for their preferred country to proceed on to the next round. The competition continues until the final match-up on July 15.
“It’s like a dream come true,” said Jehan Hakimian, a participant at one of the tasting events. “Combining soccer with wine is just an ingenious idea.”
For the tournament, Vintage Berkeley and Solano Cellars chose 16 of the top wine-producing regions from around the globe and placed them in a seeding system. Lefler said regions will span from local states – California and Washington – to countries such as France, Croatia and Australia.
“Loving wine can encourage one to think about other cultures and places every time a glass is poured,” Lefler said in an e-mail. “I liked the idea of piggybacking global enthusiasm for soccer and using it as a platform to get people to re-evaluate their opinions.”
At the kick-off event Thursday, first-ranked France faced off against 16th-ranked South Africa – with a surprisingly close outcome, according to Lefler. Initial votes resulted in a tie, so the winner was determined by participants’ choices on their top wines of the night. France won.
On Saturday night, more than 60 wine aficionados packed into the Solano Cellars store in Albany to sample six varieties of reds and whites from No. 7 Portugal and No. 10 Australia.
“The World Cup of Wine competition makes it much more interesting than a typical wine tasting,” said taster Phil Hilton, as he sipped a Portuguese wine at Saturday’s tasting. “There’s an air of competition about it that gives it a new edge.”
After nearly two hours of sipping, sniffing, swirling and savoring, the participants picked Portugal to advance to the next round.
“I don’t really follow World Cup soccer, but it’s an interesting idea,” said Sarah Ovink, a participant at the event. “It’s a good way to try wines from different regions I don’t usually try.”
Wine tasting at Solano Cellars and Vintage Berkeley is a definitely a different experience from typical wine tasting events, according to Lefler.
“If it works out the way I hope, it will broaden people’s horizons and encourage them to experiment more with the unfamiliar,” he said.