Rugby is a sport for wine drinkers and football is a sport for beer drinkers. At least that’s what they say in France. Oscar Wilde supposedly expressed it a little differently: “Rugby is a game for barbarians played by gentlemen. Football is a game for gentlemen played by barbarians”.
Be that as it may, and leaving aside the constant battering of each other, rugby seems to be much more controlled and civilized. The players even listen to what the referee says. In both South Africa and France, rugby is roughly as popular a sport as football.
So what wine did the South Africans celebrate with?
Well, we don’t know, but they could choose from several different wines made by rugby players. For example Kanonkop previously made by rugby legend Jan Boland Coetzee, La Boucher in Stellenbosch (Eddie ‘Kwagga’ Boucher), Welbedacht Wine Estate in Wellington (Schalk Burger father and son), The Beast Wine Collection (Tendai ‘The Beast’ Mtawarira), Annandale Estate in Stellenbosch (Hempies du Toit), and surely many more.
Or a South African in France: The Rugby Field Vineyard La Grand Melée (French for scrum) at Chateau de Valcombe with the Du Plessis brothers, as well as Domaine Montgros in Languedoc (Pieter de Villiers). Or from a number of vineyards run by French rugby players, e.g. the gigantic producer Domaine Gérard Bertrand, Domaine de la Garance (Pierre Quinonero), Château Haut-Francarney in Bordeaux (Olivier Brouzet) and others.
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Travel: Come with us at BKWine on a wine tour to South Africa in February to discover their amazing wines, and maybe some rugby.
New Zealand: Even a silver medal is something to celebrate, so the All Blacks can also feel proud. It seems less common for rugby players to venture into wine here, but one is John Ashworth at Junction Wine in Hawkes Bay.
Travel: There’s guaranteed to be more wine than rugby on BKWine’s New Zealand wine tour, so come along even if you’re not a rugby fan.
