What do "swamp soccer" and "single malt" have in common? Loads apparently. I'm not sure how I missed it on the news, but last year a team from Scotland won the Swamp Soccer World Cup. Swamp soccer is where three leagues of teams (all men, all women and mixed) do their best to score goals, with a ball and net, using just their feet (and the occasional header) while playing in a bog or swamp. Physically demanding (not to mention extremely silly), the sport is said to come from Finland, where it was initially used as a workout for cross-country skiers.
There are around 260 swamp soccer teams around the world and there's even a recognised global body - Swamp Soccer UK, based in Scotland. The World Cup is sponsored by Ardbeg Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky and is held every year in the last week of June. Auspiciously, this grubby, no doubt very crusty, event is being held during the Fifa world cup football matches being played in Brazil. So if you scoot over to Blairmore Farm in Argyll, Scotland on June 28 and 29, you'll be able to watch the Brazilian event on the big screen in the pub - after you've been hosed down of course.
First tasteCloser to home, Ardbeg, four-time winner of the World's Best Scotch Whisky award, will launch its jawdroppingly good (I know because I've tried it), limited edition Ardbeg Auriverdes on May 31. Why May 31, you ask? Well that would be because it's "International Ardbeg Day", a global celebration of all things Ardbeg. New Zealanders who are single malt mad will be the first in the world to taste the Auriverdes, named for the golden colour of the whisky (auri) and the classic green Ardbeg bottle (verdes). It's also the nickname of Brazil's national football team.
At 49.7 per cent proof, you'd imagine a big, hot whisky - but the Auriverdes is silky smooth, with sweet, biscuit, peat notes. A couple of drops of water allow it to open up to reveal bonfire and dust, smoke and salt on the palate. It has a creamy, vanilla finish and is a dream to sip. Costing $150, there are only a handful of bottles in the country and they're available from Ardbeg Embassies only - so outlets such as Christchurch's Whisky Galore, Sam Snead's House of Whisky in Auckland and Regional Wines & Spirits in Wellington are the places to stalk.
Gris gets a makeoverI thought I'd seen it all when porters brewed with pinot noir and ciders infused with hops began hitting the market - but this is a different jug of juicy stuff altogether. I have just managed to get my head around beer that tastes like wine and cider that tastes like beer, but the new Pomme de Gris by Giesen took a bit of getting used to. You see, it's a 50/50 blend of apple cider and pinot gris. When looking back at many of my tasting notes for pinot gris, much of the time there's a reference to "apple" in there. It's a white wine that, in New Zealand anyway, often has spicy, baked apple flavours combined with quince and pear characters. So I suppose if you were going to have a crack at blending a traditional table wine with dry apple cider - then it would be a gris.
