After hearing many good things about wines from Aldi I decided it was time to try some. I ended up with a Spanish Albarino for $15, and a Cabernet from Argentina for $18. Then it struck me, Spain and Argentina. It’s the World Cup!

So, over the next few weeks I’ll be having my own world cup. Now, I should be doing this with one grape variety – mixing varieties is a bit like different codes of football – but I won’t, instead it’s whatever wine I like the look of and I don’t expect to see every World Cup country. We can forget Iceland, Denmark and Sweden – too cold. I’ve never heard of Belgian wine, but maybe one of those Trapist beers could count. Let’s ignore Morocco, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and Egypt as I don’t want to offend any follows of Allah. That goes for Iran too, even if it’s the birthplace of Shiraz.

That leaves 23 countries. If anyone can tell me where to get wine from Mexico, South Korea, Japan, Costa Rica, Senegal, Colombia, Nigeria – no, let’s say that’s mainly Muslim – Panama, Peru or Poland I’ll give it a go.

I’m confident I can lay my hands on wine from France, Germany, England, Portugal, Switzerland, Russia, Serbia and of course Australia. Brazil and Uruguay are maybes, and we already have Spain and Argentina.

But before we look at the wines, let’s consider the prices. We’re not talking under $20 here. The Top 8 most expensive teams are, according to sportskeeda.com as follows:

8: Portugal £418.05 million

7: Argentina £623.7 million

6: Belgium £678.6 million

5: England £786.6 million

4: Germany £794.7 million

3: Brazil £882.9 million

2: Spain £930.6 million

1: France £972.45 million

While Australia is ranked 27^that 43.6 million pounds, according to Business Insider. Talk about value.

Our first contest is Spain vs Australia. The aforementioned Alborino, from Rias Baixas Altos de Torana puts in a fresh and spirited performance, with highlights of chalk and citrus/apricots. But the Tarawarra Chardonnay is the better performer, being more dynamic in the middle and with a better finish. It’s 3-2 to Australia.

Next up, it’s Argentina vs someone. Not sure yet, but given the Argentinian cabernet is rated at 15% alcohol I’m sure there’ll be a penalty.

OK, so Argentina lost 4 – 3 to France in a spirited game that showed the power of racial diversity. However, if this wine had been on the field it would have given the Bordeaux FC a run for its money. It’s big and powerful, without being brash.

Back to the World Cup.

England play Colombia tonight. I’m fairly certain the English would win a sparkling wine competition. Let’s hope the same goes for football.

https://www.ft.com/content/28894d82-cea9-11e6-b8ce-b9c03770f8b1

Australia is out. Not such a surprise. As are Spain, Germany and Argentina, which is. Amazingly Russia remains. Is Putin up to something? I’ve heard Crimean wine is good and he brought that region back in to Russia. All makes sense, somehow.

By the way, the title in Cyrillic is how to ask for a glass of wine in Russian.