Kick-off

Finally! The Wine WC is starting today. By the way, WC stands for World Cup in this case, don't be tempted to leave comments suggesting other meanings for WC!

The rules are as simple as can be. 16 red wines are competing for the title. All wines have to be from the Swedish Systembolaget's beställningsortiment. No wine can cost more than 200 Swedish crowns. We have four Portuguese, four Italian, four French and four from the New World. Seeing as your faithful commentator is only knowledgeable in Portuguese wine, and his much esteemed Brutal Juiz, henceforth Brutal Judge (the English version maintains the richness of the original), is more into Italian wines, an e-mail was written seeking counsel from the biggest Swedish specialist. Those of you who can actually read Swedish will find the e-mail here. Those of you who cannot will find it there anyway...

I might as well give you the comprehensive list of wines:

Foradori 2006, Teroldego, Trentino-Alto Adige

Ca' di Pian 2007, Barbera d'Asti, Piemonte

Zanna 2006, Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, Abruzzi

Passo delle Mule 2008, Nero d'Avola, Sicilia

Passadouro 2006, Douro

FSF 2004, Setúbal

Dona Maria 2007, Alentejo 

Quinta das Baceladas 2004, Beiras

Château Picque-Caillou 2006, Bordeaux

Les Trois (Mont Tauch) 2006, Fitou

Domaine Saint Gayan Gigondas 2006, Rhône

Saint-Joseph Offerus (Chave) 2006, Rhône

Graham Beck The Ridge Syrah 2006, South Africa

Erasmo (Viña la Reserva de Caliboro) 2005, Chile

Cumulus Shiraz 2007, Australia 

McManis Cabernet Sauvignon 2009, USA

The calendar and order of the tastings are completely random. The Brutal Judge, being a matlab master, developed a code that really does surpass me and my understanding. All I had to do was push a button (Enter) and the wines all fell into place. The order is as follows:

# 1 : FSF vs. Foradori
# 2 : Château Picque-Caillou vs. Graham Beck The Ridge Syrah
# 3 : Dona Maria vs. Passo delle Mule
# 4 : Erasmo vs. Zanna
# 5 : McManis Cabernet Sauvignon vs. Domaine Saint Gayan
# 6 : Passadouro vs. Cumulus Shiraz
# 7 : Saint-Joseph Offerus vs. Ca di Pian
# 8 : Les Trois vs. Baceladas

The competition follows the format of the FIFA World Cup knockout stage. So, the winner of game 1 will play the winner of game 2 and so forth... The game rules are basic. The two judges, the Brutal Judge and myself, taste both wines and pick the winner. In case there is a draw, each judge assesses the wines following the criteria below:

4 points for taste;
3 points for bouquet;
3 points for complexity.

The wine that scores more points moves on to the next stage.

The kick-off is scheduled for six o'clock this afternoon. May the best wine win!