Counting down

Friday, April 23rd, 2010

In less than 50 days the footballing world will descend on South Africa for the greatest show on earth.

Right now, there’s no escaping it. Not in newspapers or magazines, on the radio or at the movies… Turn on the TV and the chances are pretty good that something football World Cup related will be flighted within minutes: either special phone deals by exclusive providers to the 2010 Fifa event, the steps of the diski dance, fast food deals, or the pride and patriotism heartstring tug, imploring fans to shelve club, regional or national allegiances to promote continental – African – cohesion. 

Anything and everything that can be linked to football, is – and my personal favourite right now is Wosa’s Sommelier World Cup! The first round kicked off in the Netherlands on 29 March and heats are held in a range of countries right through until the final in October.

Qualified sommeliers from Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, the UK, USA, South Korea, Russia and Canada will be taking each other on, testing both knowledge and taste buds. Familiarity with South African wine is a pre-requisite and the competitors will have to answer quiz questions as well as pass a blind tasting.

Holding all the yellow and red cards are the well-qualified referees – Southern Sun Hotel’s Group sommelier Miguel Chan, Rust en Vrede’s Neil Grant, Winery of Good Hope’s Mia Martensson and ex-President of the Swedish Sommelier’s Association, Asa Karlsson.

Each national finalist will visit the South African winelands for a week, visiting wine farms for exclusive tastings, meeting winemakers and eating at some of the country’s top restaurants. And at stake is the unique opportunity to claim bragging rights to being the World Cup Sommelier – something that only comes around once every four years.