Germany's top winemakers are making the most of their country hosting the football World Cup – by putting together a hilariously unsuccessful football team.
'Weinelf' is the name of a team of some of the most respected names in German winemaking, including Armin Diel of Schlossgut Diel and Gunter Künstler of Weingut Künstler.
And so far they have lost 12-1 to members of Germany's world cup organizing committee, and 5-1 to Germany's top chefs.
'German top chefs already have a football team, so we thought with the world cup in Germany, why not create a team of winemakers?' Diel told decanter.com.
The world's media is focussing increasingly intently on Germany in the build up to the competition, which kicks off on 6 June and has a cumulative audience of 32 billion viewers.
Winemakers worldwide are making the most of any opportunity to get under the spotlight.
In Berlin, the World Cup official hotel – the prestigious Hotel Adlon – is hosting top Bordeaux wines Léoville Barton, Domaine de Chevalier, Angélus, Lynch Bages and Brane Cantenac for a weeklong wine festival at the end of April.
'They will certainly flatter the tastes of Berlin, which is soon to be in the international spotlight due to the football world cup,' said Christopher Rudolph, food and beverage director at the hotel.
Register on decanter.com absolutely free for news alerts delivered direct to your email inbox, and our fortnightly newsletter with advance notice of what’s coming up in Decanter magazine, offers, competitions and more.
PLUS registration is a one-stop shop for the Decanter magazine Archive and Decanter Fine Wine Tracker.
