|
By Virginie Boone, The Press Democrat
August 18, 2004
The crowd at Papa's Taverna on any given Sunday comes for the
Greek dancing, live three-piece band, belly dancers, traditional
mezethes and maybe some ouzo. The handful of Greek wines on the menu
-- a jackpot compared with most lists -- is not part of the draw.
"All I can think of is retsina," said Deborah Breiner, who was
drinking an Anchor Steam and enjoying the day's dancing lessons at
the Petaluma restaurant. "I don't really know anything about Greek
wine."
That could change. Though relatively hard to find for the moment,
interest in food-friendly, good-value Greek wines could get a boost
from the Athens Olympics.
"There's a whole wave of great Greek wines coming, and there's a
lot of curiosity," said Dan Marshall, who owns Du Vin Fine Wines in
Alameda. "Greek wines are something new, something unique."
Marshall currently stocks from 35 to 40 Greek wines at a time,
one of the biggest selections on the West Coast.
Peter Marks, curator of wine at Copia food and wine center in
Napa, agreed that Greek wine has a very good future.
"When Australia hosted the Olympics, that really gave Australian
wines some recognition and made their wine sales go crazy," Marks
said. "That's also happening with Greek wines. The Olympics will
make consumers take notice."
He added: "A lot of wine trends start in the United Kingdom. They
were the first to recognize Australian wines and a lot from South
America. They're now big proponents and sellers of Greek wines,
which is foretelling. People are looking for something different."
The challenge remains getting people to try Greek wines in the
first place. Marks added that the artful, clean, colorful labels he
sees coming out of Greece should attract curious new consumers, much
the way Australian labels have.
Both Willi's Wine Bar and the new Monti's in Santa Rosa are
serving a Greek white wine by the glass -- a 2003 Moschofilero, a
light varietal from a high-altitude section of the Peloponnese
called Mantinia.
"It's one of my favorites," said Allison Fraser, the general
manager at Monti's. "Very citrusy, clean and crisp. It goes really
well with a lot of our appetizers and with the raw bar."
She added that Willi's and Monti's each offers about 40 wines by
the glass at any given time, and regularly rotates what's on the
list, but that the Moschofilero has been so well received it's been
consistently available.
"In this area, we get a lot of wine connoisseurs who aren't
afraid to try things that are off the beaten path," Fraser said.
The spotty reputation Greek wine has had with American consumers
stems from years of exposure to vintages of questionable quality
with hard-to-pronounce names made from unrecognizable varietals.
"Tons of bad wine out there has been dragging down the reputation
of Greek wine," Marshall admitted. To many, retsina, a pine
resin-flavored concoction made in bulk since ancient times, defines
all that is unsavory about Greek wine, so ill-burned into people's
palates it can be difficult to move on.
Even without retsina, the comfort barrier in learning and knowing
about Greek wines is significant. Greece grows more than 300
indigenous varietals, few of which bear any resemblance to the
chardonnays and cabernets that are such a staple of the American
palate.
However, it's worth the effort to understand the spectrum of what
Greece has to offer, as the Greek wine culture has always emphasized
the intertwining of wine, as well as ouzo and other Greek spirits,
with food.
The two most important red wine varietals in Greece are
Agiorgitiko (so hard to pronounce that Greek wineries have begun to
rename it St. George), grown principally in the Nemea region of the
Peloponnese and sometimes likened to merlot; and Xynomavro, native
to Macedonia, one of Greece's oldest wine-growing regions, and said
to resemble pinot noir. Both are popularly matched with lamb dishes
and the like.
Agiorgitiko and Xynomavro can be blended together or mixed in
with other varietals, including increasing levels of cabernet
sauvignon, merlot and syrah, foreign varietals that have begun to
make their way into Greek wines, or be released on their own.
Mavrodafni grapes go into a popular fortified sweet wine made on the
Ionian Islands.
"The reds are very versatile," Marshall said. "They will do very
well in America; they're so easy to drink."
On the white wine side, Savatiano grapes, grown primarily in the
ancient region of Attica, where Dionysus is said to have introduced
wine to the Greeks, are responsible for retsina, but also for a new
breed of balanced, citrusy, higher-end wines. Not surprisingly,
whites are more likely to be paired with seafood and salads.
Assyrtiko is considered Greece's finest white wine grape, a dry
varietal aged in oak and first cultivated on the island of
Santorini. It is also blended to make sweet wines. Moschato Aspro,
or muscat, is also widely grown, most prominently on the island of
Samos. Moschofilero grapes produce a blanc de gris easily drunk as
an aperitif. Plantings of chardonnay, sauvignon blanc and viognier
are not uncommon.
"The whites are very acidic, balanced and light," Marshall said.
"And the sweet wines are stunning. It's what they do best."
Improvements in both grape-growing and winemaking can be traced
to a new generation of Greek winemakers who have spent time learning
and working in other wine regions of the world and have brought back
knowledge and expertise to modernize their own wine culture.
Greece's participation in the European Union also has pushed it
to produce more competitive wines for export, as well as for its own
domestic market, which increasingly has access to wines from all
over Europe.
It's added up to reasonable prices, with Greek wines typically
retailing for about $12; $40 would be at the top of the range.
So to honor this summer's Olympics, and get ready for a foray at
Papa's, find a bottle of the Greek stuff and settle in with some
mezethes during the games. No training is required.
You can reach Staff Writer Virginie Boone at 521-5440 or
vboone@pressdemocrat.com.
|