Sabato Sagaria and Gary Obligacion toast to the World Cup of Wines seminar during the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen on Saturday.
Jason Charme/Aspen Daily News
There wasn’t a single open table or barstool on Friday afternoon in downtown Aspen, with a mix of World Cup fans, Food & Wine attendees and other summer visitors coming to enjoy the (unseasonably) hot summer weekend in Aspen.
On Saturday morning, I joined a convergence of the first two at a Food & Wine seminar called “The World Cup of Wine.”
It was the second day that Sabato Sagaria and Gary Obligacion led the World Cup of Wine seminar, guiding attendees through a tasting of eight wines from eight different countries through a single-elimination bracket that was decided by the attendees themselves.
On Friday, the first day, attendees pitted eight red wines against each other. According to Sagaria and Obligacion, the attendees chose an Australian wine over one from the United States in the final round of their world cup (ironically, the opposite happened later that day, when the U.S. men’s team beat Australia in the 2026 FIFA World Cup to make it to the knockout round).
On Saturday, we tasted eight white wines — the countries represented were New Zealand, Australia, Germany, South Africa, Spain, Austria, France and the United States.
We pitted the wines against one another, determining through a bracket who would make it past the quarterfinals and semifinals. Sagaria measured the decibel of the crowd’s cheers to determine who would move forward.
Of the eight wines we tasted, the Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand and the Do Ferreiro Cepas Vellas Albarino from Spain were frontrunners for me.
When all was said and done, New Zealand came out on top as the winner of the World Cup of Wines.
Who’s to say if the outcome from two days of World Cup of Wines will be reflected in the actual football tournament (New Zealand was the lowest-ranked team coming into the World Cup, and we all saw what happened Friday afternoon when Australia played the U.S.). But if neither of them take home the FIFA World Cup trophy, at least they can commiserate over some pretty great wines.
At the Grand Tasting
It wouldn’t be a complete Food & Wine day without a visit to the Grand Tasting tent.
Saturday’s Grand Tasting was not nearly as hot as Friday’s, which made strolling through the booths of wine and small bites much more pleasant.
A great deal of the food options were fish dishes (caviar, lobster, tartar, etc.) so I strayed away from those, but there was a delicious cacio e pepe and mint chocolate chip ice cream that I tried once or twice.
Aspen Public Radio’s Regan Mertz and I gravitated towards wines from places we’ve never been, or wines we wouldn’t normally grab from a liquor store.
We tried Italian Sauvignon Blancs, French Bordeaux, Georgian Ambers and more.
But what’s just as exciting as trying new wines is talking with the people behind them. Mertz and I spoke with a woman serving wines from Uruguay, who told us as we approached her booth, “The world needs more young women like you two who are excited to try new wines.”
We were happy to oblige.
Dining and Cooking