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by Susan
Keevil
Decanter Magazine
Who are the future Mondavis, or Henschkes, currently
toiling away in Greece's Macedonia? Susan Keevil profiles a few
of the current and future stars of this exciting region
One thing Greek winemakers can't be is half-hearted.
It's not in their blood. All shapes and sizes they might be, from
small and wiry to rotund and beaming; they might come from every
walk of professional and rural life; but none of them are slackers
when it comes to advancing the cause they love best: Greek Wine.
Macedonia is no exception to this rule, and there are a handful
of personalities moving-and-shaking their wines to the top of the
country's chart.
This man (small and wiry) is the academic. Davis-trained
and Harvard-honed, and now back from America, he's flexing his intellect
at his father's winery, Ktima Kyr-Yianni. Far from making wannabe
California-style wines, Boutaris devotes his time to perfecting
blends of ultimate Greekness: a flinty fresh Sauvignon is 'only
to prove Greece doesn't just make flabby oxidised dry whites. Nor
is there any New Zealand or New World tropical flavour in this wine
because I always have in mind Greek food'. His grapefruity, leesy
Chardonnay takes nothing from the Golden State either ('I thought
I was eating popcorn when I first tasted Californian Chardonnay').
He ensures that everything he makes tastes resolutely of home.
In his early 30s, Boutaris packs more discovery into
a year than most of us do into 10. Every row in the vineyard and
each vat in his winery has a different agenda - each demonstrates
a different clone or cover crop, a different maceration, or yeast
treatment, and Boutaris impatiently waits the year out before he
can chart the results of his trials. Such is his perfectionism that
if he were Australian, he'd be a young Stephen Henschke, Californian
a youthful Paul Draper: chronologically he's got 20 years yet to
catch up with these giants, but vinously he's nearer than you'd
suspect, and like them, he has enough practical vigour to see his
(some say) harebrained ideas through to fruition.
For those of us more into drinking wines than philosophising
over them, his chosen specialist grape variety, Xinomavro, turns
out to be a more than average, strawberry- (or tomato-) fruited,
everyday drinker. For Boutaris and anyone really getting to know
it, this variety is Macedonian gold. 'My father makes Yianakohori,
which is Xinomavro tempered with Merlot to mitigate its aggressive
acidity, and this gets the consumer hooked. But the connoisseurs
go for pure Xinomavro.' Boutaris believes in this grape because
it's become typical of his region (Naoussa), it goes naturally with
the local food (aubergines, spicy goat stew, sheep's cheese, tomato
salad), and he feels strongly that Greeks should represent their
culture with their native varieties.
Dr Dimitrios Katsaros is the Macedonian medic. (In
the greatest possible affirmation that wine is indeed good for you,
winery-owning doctors can be found around the world.) Katsaros is
an ENT consultant by week and a Cab-Merlot-Chard specialist at the
weekends - taking advantage of his precipitously high site to indulge
in astronomy by night. Modest, bespectacled (another intellectual)
and determined, Katsaros defends his choice of 'international' varieties
as the best and only options on Mount Olympos: 'These grapes grow
well to mid-September, whereas local varieties ripen later by a
month, which is when we run into rain and cold.' Everything here
is organic, the summers are cooler, and the water 'comes from God'
not irrigation pipes.
Katsaros' tiny vineyards (a mere 8.5ha) show as scattered
patches of emerald among the moutain scrub but, as he explains,
until World War II the whole mountain was terraced to vines, and
these represent sites that historically yielded the best. 'Take
my Cabernet, it's unique. Not like a Bordeaux or a California wine,
but it has special characteristics that evolve from mint to strawberry
over the years. That's why even the French buy it.'
Another giant of intellect (if not physical frame)
is Yannis Voyatzis - the rebel - whose chosen geographical feature
is a lake rather than a mountain. Softly spoken and gently mannered,
he swapped a full-time job as chief oenologist for the giant Boutari
winery, for a part-time role, so he could build his own estate four-hours
drive from civilisation. Voyatzis' double life is now spent indulging
in his dream of perfecting Greek Xinomavro, and at Boutaris - and
in his car between the two.
Voyatzis is on a mission to preserve the best viticultural
stock - Xinomavro, for example, is like Pinot Noir, in its number
of clones. He also grows Moscomavro, Xaoosi, Batiki, Roditis and
many more.
Although barely two years into this new project, Voyatzis
is making great strides. Perhaps it's the moderating influence of
'Lake' Polyfyto that helps - a reservoir that moderates baking inland
temperatures. 'You're not going to find straight Merlot in this
wine!' He fixes me with round, brown eyes: 'Xinomavro, yes, local
grape varieties, yes, but we only use international grapes to vary
the texture.'
Here, a gentle giant. With acclaimed oenologist Vangelis
Gerovassiliou, Tsatsaris is building a striking, no-expense spared
winery, 'Oinopedion', looking out to sea at Kavala. But with Gerovassiliou
mainly consulting from afar, Tsatsaris is the guy on the ground
who makes the wine. And signs are that these are some of the most
skilful blends of Greek and non-Greek grapes available. The familiarity
of, say, Sauvignon, is spiced up with the zest of Assyrtiko showing
perfectly the best of each. 'We chose this place because the soils
are so poor and stony, so we can have low production with top quality,'
says Tsatsaris.
This agronomist has history and geography on his side,
based as he is out at Thrace. This is where, according to history,
Odysseus was given a wine so strong that it had to be diluted 20
to one.
Salpigeidis isn't so much striking out on his own
as reclaiming old lands, where grapes took precedence before Ottoman
rule and successful arable crops took over. Winemaking at the Maronia
Winery (owned by Tsantali), is unhoned as yet, but this man-of-the-land
(Camels and mobile in pocket, London PhD under belt) is growing
some of the finest fruit in northern Greece. Once again, watch this
space.
These pony-tailed brothers are maverick, botanist
perfectionists working hard on raising Macedonia's game. In the
first Macedonian foray into seriously holistic winemaking, Stergios
and Pericles are stepping into the biodynamic world of Rudolf Steiner.
'We believe we can increase quality by 40% with biodynamics. This
is a fantastic area - the sea wind ensures there's very little rot,
and the vines are very healthy and vibrant,' says Stergios, the
agronomist.
Based on their wines to date, stunning rich red Goumenissa
(from Xinomavro and Negoska), white Roditis and 100% Negoska rosé,
the brothers have possibly the brightest future of any of their
peers. Certainly, they're making wines of which their grape-growing
relatives (refugees from Eastern Thrace, now Bulgaria) would be
justly proud.
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