It's a beautiful summer evening, there's more football on than you can shake a stick at. Love or loathe the World Cup, it's a perfect opportunity to try wines from new places, experiment and join in the worldwide fun! And with many supermarkets offering great deals at the moment, don't miss out on the chance to save anything from 5% to 25% by buying 6 bottles at a time. You know you'll drink them before the fun is over.
 My Group A wine wineer would probably be Croatia. They are reputedly making great wines, but they're not widely available. You might get lucky in store at M&S, though there's no stock on-line of the Golden Valley Grasevina 2012. As far as the rest of group A is concerned, you can forget about decent wine from Mexico or Cameroon, and until recently, I'd have said the same for group favourites, Brazil. Admittedly, if I'm supporting Brazil in the final, I'll be much more likely to reach for the Caipirinha cocktail than a Brazilian wine. Though, there's never been a more apt time to try it. The UK is now the number 1 export market for Brazilian wine, and with sales sky-rocketing over 220% in the last 4 months, it's easy to see why this might be the time to take the plunge. Simply put, you'll find it much easier to get a hold of. Waitrose (25% off 6 bottle offer till 17/6) have launched 5 new Brazilian wines, from own label Chardonnay and Merlot at £8.99 to a Chardonnay for £13.49 M&S have launched 3 wines from Brazil, including a sparkling dry style for £8.99  Of all the Brazilian wines on offer, the one I'm most likely to try will be the £7.99 sparkling "I heart Brasil" Moscato available from Tesco. Summery sweet with floral, grape and sometimes more tropical fruit aromas, sparkling moscato (think Asti for the Italian version), is a real winner alongside a slice of cake, or on it's own. Even better, it's much lower in alcohol than many other wines, at 8.5% abv, so it's probably the ideal tipple if you've got work in the morning. Remember, you could still be over the limit for driving if you drink too much during the late night fixtures... |  Group C doesn't really hold it's own in the World Cup of wine. Simply put, Colombia is all about coffee, despite it's reputation for other intoxicants. Ivory Coast is not going to threaten colonists France for wine supremacy, and while they've tried, Japan, just isn't producing wine to speak of. If you want to show them some love, why not get some Sake or, the plum liqueur known as plum wine Umeshu. Sake (known as Japanese rice wine) is growing in popularity and more styles are becoming available. You can read all about my trip to Japan last summer, along with all the drinks I tried in this blog. And so the Group C wine drinker is left with Greece. Greek wine is gaining in popularity, though, it's never topped the polls at my Purple Teeth Tasting Parties. Tesco have a £4.99 sweet Greek red on offer for those who prefer to avoid bone dry wines. Mavrodaphne of Patras is a 15% abv rich dessert style wine, that has a bronze medal. At that price, it's certainly worth a punt, if you like fruitcake flavours. It's £6.69 at Waitrose, and £5.50 at Sainsbury's, where you'll also find traditional Greek Retsina at the same price, should you fancy a taste of pine resin. For a wider selection of Greek wine styles, you'll have to head to M&S. They have 6 on offer. The Red on Black Agiorgitiko (£8.99) from the Nemea region has a bronze medal, and it's the only one I've actually tasted. The review is here along with many other wines! There's also a Wine Challenge commended red Xinomavro (£10.49), 3 whites and a rosé, so you should find something to suit your palate in store, though, the online wine shop is out of stock of most of these. If you do have a good local wine store, my Greek tip is the white wine from Santorini, Assyrtiko. There is one available from Ocado (price now £11.99) I reviewed last year and it makes a refreshing change from Sauvignon Blanc. |
You can read my Group D English wine picks here. I'd love to hear what you're drinking to support your favourite team. Feel free to share on our Facebook page, Twitter or via the comments form.
Cheers!
Cheers!
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