And The Winner is...

Thirteen countries, twelve taste-offs and twenty-four wines it's come to this. Our little World Cup of Wine didn't quite quite gather the prominence or the international attention of that gang of soccer players and fans in South Africa, but we managed a few good times, a number of fine sips and no hooliganism - or Vuvuzelas.

Australia

vs.

Spain

Considering Boo's and my personal tastes and current international trends, our North vs. South final may be entirely appropriate. I've been drinking Australia ever since I started thinking about wine as a serious libation of choice. And like the rest of the wine world, we've been looking to Spain as an inspiring source of fine - and well-priced - wine over the last couple of years.

So let's get to it...

522. 2006 Two Hands Gnarly Dudes Shiraz (Barossa Valley - Australia)

523. 2001 Montecillo Gran Reserva (DOC Rioja - Spain)

As befitting a final, these were no doubt our most expensive wines through the World Cup. Both clock in at about $40 - hardly an insignificant sticker price. At that level, I'm hoping for some depth and development in my wine and, luckily, both wines hit the mark.

The fact that both wines offered more than big fruit and a bit of body didn't make it an easy choice - we were definitely dealing with some New World vs. Old World profiles. I've generally assumed that I fall into the camp that likes nice forward fruit on the nose and palate and the Aussie, Two Hands, outshone the Montecillo on that front. In soccer parlance, it might be seen as a strong offensive attack as opposed to a big defence.

In the end, you need an offence to score the winning goal though and both Boo and I chose the Two Hands as our fave. Spain might have won the actual World Cup, but the Aussies took our wine championship!

Boo had to miss the actual game during the afternoon, but I taped the overtime so that he could sample our championship wines during the game. By then, I was still sporting his orange Roots t-shirt with Dutch writing. I never did find out what it actually said, so if anyone asked, I just said that it was Dutch for "Blow my Vuvuzela."

And on that happy note, we'll call an end to our World Cup of Wine. Spain came close to the hallowed double play, but the Aussie wines proved too tough an opponent in our wine glasses. The soccer game may have ended with Spain winning 1-0 in OT, but we scored our match 3-2 for the Aussies - no extra time needed.