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By Tara Q. Thomas, Denver Post
August 2004
With the Olympics coming up in a matter of weeks, Greece is on everyone’s tongue. If it’s not bets they’re wagering against Athens’ readiness, it’s the food they are eating and talking about. It’s just too bad their wines keep getting left behind, because they are some of the most exciting on the market today.
Part of the excitement comes from the fact that Greece is both the oldest and newest country on today’s wine scene. The country is a haven for innumerable varieties of wine grapes, many of which are found nowhere else. The wines that came from these grapes were praised by the ancients and fueled the symposia of Plato and company. But wars and politics since then took their toll on the country. By the 1970s, the Greek wine industry devolved into a factory business that pumped out retsina, the pine resin-scented white that fills tourist’s cups. Now, there’s nothing wrong with retsina-on a hot day on the beach, sitting at a long table laden with the often-garlicky, pungent little plates called mezedes, retsina delivers a cool rush like a breeze through a forest. But as the ancients knew, the country is capable of more and better wine, and in the past decade, wines that live up to this legacy have begun to emerge once again.
In Greece, a new generation of winemakers has come of age, with new ideas and, often, an education that took them outside of the country to study and taste other’s wines. The constant growth of the wine world and with it, the urge to find the next great wine, has inspired more outsiders to look past retsina for Greece’s best wines, too. Some great wines have been there for years; it just took more open minds to find and realize them. But also, the pressure to join the EU sparked an urgent interest in the Greeks to focus on quality wines that could compete in the international arena.
Many of these initial efforts concentrated on international varieties, those like Chardonnay, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon that are grown and recognized everywhere. That led to some remarkable successes, but in the meantime, Greek vintners figured out that there’s enough Chardonnay in the world to sink Greenland. So they’ve turned to their own unique, indigenous grapes. It’s the wines from these grapes that are most exciting, as they make the wine world bigger, richer, and more diverse-and they make delicious, world-class wines.
Take Assyrtiko, for instance. You’ll find Assyrtikos most commonly labeled ‘Santorini’, after the blown-up volcano where it grows best. The wine is as remarkable as the landscape. The sun on Santorini is so burning and the August winds so howling that the grapes are traditionally trained to grow close to the ground in basket-like shapes. That way, the leaves can form a parasol over the grapes, and the wind won’t burn the bunches or rip them from the vine. And Assyrtiko shrugs off the heat, which commonly burns the acidity right out of grapes, to hold onto its own tenaciously. The resulting wine isn’t fruity or flabby at all; instead, it tastes like minerals, stones, a touch of lemon or lime, with a sharpness that could cut a fried calamari ring in half. It’s wine for acidheads, terroirists, those people who want to taste the place in their glass, and for anyone who appreciates Grand Cru Chablis. It ages well, too.
If you don’t fit into any of those categories, perhaps you’ll like Roditis better. Here’s a grape that grows all over the country, most especially in the northern Peloponnese. It can be dull when grown on the flats, but get up into the hills above the Corinth Canal, where the soil is so poor that there’s no dirt to cover the stone and the ocean breeze makes it chilly even on a hot day, and the grape shows off its delicacy, juxtaposing chalky mineral flavors against a soft, lacy cloak of lemony fruit.
There’s also Moschofilero, a grape that packs in the best qualities of Gewurztraminer, Muscat, and ripe peaches. It excels when grown on the slopes of a high, wide valley called Mantinia in the Peloponnese, and these versions are labeled by place instead of grape. Fragrant, floral, and spicy without skating into Carmen Miranda territory, Moschofilero makes a great aperitif or companion to spicy seafood.
There are plenty more whites to choose from - Malagousia makes wines that could be confused for Rhône whites in waxy, peachy flavors yet they sell for a song, and Lagorthi is a rare variety just beginning to be rediscovered for its lean, limey profile. But there’s just as much excitement in red wines. Check out Agiorgitiko, for example. Some are labeled with the name of the grape, but most spare you the trouble of pronouncing it by using the name of the place it grows best instead: Nemea. Depending on whether the grapes were grown in the warm, lush flats or the high, cool hills, and on how the vintner made it, Nemean reds can be as light, fresh and juicy as Beaujolais (perfect picnic wine!) or as spicy, dense, and plummy as Merlot, except that Nemean reds always have a backbone of acidity that keeps them from being flabby and dull. Great Nemean reds can age as well as any great Bordeaux, too, holding onto their fruit flavors while developing complex notes of spice, earth, and chocolate. Oh yum.
The very best Greek grape variety may well be Ksinomavro (often spelled Xinomavro, but the x is pronounced like ks). Ksinomavro grows only in Naoussa, a region of Macedonia where it’s cold and mountainous enough to support ski resorts. The cool, damp climate lends immediate comparisons to Italy’s Piedmont region, famed for its Nebbiolo-based wine Barolo, but the taste seals it: High in acidity, heavy in tannin, and fragrant with flavors of dried cherries, spice, herbs, and roses, it’s a shoe-in for Barolo, especially after aging it 20 or 30 years (no joke-the Boutari Naoussa Grande Reserve 1976 is one of the greatest wines I’ve ever tasted, and that was just four months ago.) The biggest difference is the price: the Greeks give Naoussa reds away at $12 to $25.
How do you find these wines? It’s getting easier in cities like New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, where huge and active Greek communities create an easy in, and the competition among wine lovers to find new and interesting wines is stiff. Here, however, you need to either head to Colorado Springs, where Jake & Telly’s Greek Cuisine stocks a wide and excellent array, or you’ll need to bug your local wine merchants. Most stores here stock only a few Greek selections, and often they aren’t the best Greece has to offer. Though most of the wines I’ve recommended here are available in this state or will be soon, wine merchants won’t stock many until they feel confident that the wines will sell. So let your wine merchant know you want to taste them, and hopefully, soon, you will.
Here’s a short list of some of Greece’s greatest grapes and the wineries that make exceptional examples. The name of the primary importer follows the name of the wine; if you cannot find a wine, you can call the importer to find out if and where it is available or from whom it can be mail-ordered.
Assyrtiko from Santorini: Look for Sigalas (Athena Importing), Boutari (Paterno Wines Int’l, Lake Bluff, IL), Gai’a Thalassitis (Athenee Importers, Hempstead, NY)
Moschofilero from Mantinia: Check out Spiropoulos (Athenee), Tselepos (Athena Importing, Atlanta, GA), Nasiakos (Stellar Importing, Astoria, NY)
Roditis: Try Oenoforos Patras Asprolithi (Nestor Imports, NY, NY), Lafazanis Peloponnese Roditis (Sotiris Bafitis Selections, Washington, DC)
Malagousia: Gerovassiliou (Sotiris Bafitis)
Agiorgitiko from Nemea: Gai’a (Athenee Importers), Papantonis Medan Agan (Emilia Imports, Rome, GA), Pape Johannou (Hand Picked Selections, Warrenton, VA), Skouras (Diamond Importers, Chicago, IL)
Ksinomavro from Naoussa: Kir-Yianni, Karyda (both from Sotiris Bafitis), Boutari (Paterno)
For many more great selections and helpful information on Greek wine, see www.greekwinemakers.com and www.allaboutgreekwine.com
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