The First Fifteen: Nelson's Wine Challenge for the RWC

In the spirit of the competition that will be paramount around the time of the Rugby World Cup, the Nelson Wineart organisation has laid down a challenge to the winemakers of Italy and the United States.

Both countries will be taking their rugby teams to the region for pool games but at the same time their winemaking fraterities have been invited to play the game and submit fifteen wines for a comparative tasting. Both have accepted the challenge.

Nelson Wineart has organised an independent judge from each country to taste all the wines and scores will be aggregated to find fifteen winners. Representing New Zealand in the judging stakes will be Sam Kim of WineOrbit, while Leslie Sbrocco and Riccardo Castaldi will run the touchline for the United States and Italy respectively. Ralph Kyte-Powell from Australia will be the chairman of judges and the ultimate match referee if anyone needs to go upstairs for the replay.

While the strength of Zinfandel packing down in the United States scrum may be of concern and the lightning speed of Italian Pinot Grigio on the wing is also a bit of a worry, New Zealand is resting its hopes on Nelson's Riesling's ability to get to the breakdown first and make stinging attacks from around the ruck, hopefully not on the blindside!

There will be a dinner to top off the event and a public, tutored tasting as well. More information from http://www.nelsonwineart.co.nz
What a great idea!

WineNZ Winter 2011