What a corker!
It used to be a truism that when an English footballer retired from ‘the game’ he either bought a pub or became an alcoholic. And in many cases both.
If ever there was a sign that football has changed it comes with the news that Barcelona and Spain’s midfield maestro Andrés Iniesta has his own wine company.
As reported in Decanter this week, Bodegas Iniesta is a €9m project based near his home town of Fuentealbilla in the province of Albacete.
Red, white and rosé wines will be available from the 2010 harvest with local grape variety Bobal used for the red wines, and Macabeo and Chardonnay for the whites.
And how about this for a mission statement:
I want the wine to be a reflection of who I am. The standards are set high, but so are the key pieces to meet them: hard work, family support and knowledge… wine is destined to be one of my great motivations
Oh Andrés. My footballing god becomes a wine god. WineOfTheWeek worships your every incarnation.
The aim is to sell the wine in Spain and for export to the UK, Germany and Japan with early reports suggesting a restaurant price of EUR40 a bottle.
Meanwhile here in England, we’ve got Gazza. Dionysus help us.
