All About Greek Wine Road Show 2006
Greece's Top Winemakers Go On The Road

All About Greek Wine, together with many of Greece's finest winemakers presented the modern face of Greek wine while on a recent 6-city tour that included stops in Toronto, Chicago, Washington DC, New York, Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park and Santé Magazine's Symposium in Vermont. The winemakers were joined by top wine professionals Mary Ewing Mulligan MW, Doug Frost MS MW, Michael Franz, John Szabo MS, Tara Thomas, Michael Weiss and hosts Steven Olson and Sofia Perpera for a series of seminars, tastings and dinners.

The message was clear to those attending that the Greek Wine Renaissance is in full swing. Greece's wine sector has undergone a complete transformation in recent years with a tremendous investment in modern winemaking technology and reconstruction of the ancient Greek vineyard. In fact, Greece impressed even the toughest of critics as a region that combines all of the necessary elements for the production of world-class wines, including a diverse mountainous landscape, a broad range of soil types, a large assortment of unique microclimates and the positive influence of the sea, which virtually all of the Greek vineyards enjoy.

April 30, 2006 Zaytinya tasting in Washington DC, (from left to right) George Skouras, Sofia Perpera, Yiannis Paraskevopoulos

Greece also has over 300 indigenous grape varieties that produce a variety of styles. The whites, with floral and fruit aromas, have crisp, clean flavors with bright acidities that enhance a variety of international cuisines. The reds with their fruity and earthy aromas show character and typicity and are not over-manipulated by oak or excessive degrees of alcohol. The talented new generation of Greek winemakers that were present have been trained at the best schools around the world and the unique wines they are crafting from their native grapes have prompted many in the trade to declare Greece as the next "hottest wine producing region" to be discovered (or is that re-discovered?)

Those attending the 2-week long list of events included representatives from a broad range of media publications, including Wine Spectator, Food & Wine, Gourmet, Wine & Spirits, Wine Enthusiast, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Chicago Tribune, Beverage Dynamics, Cheers, Toronto Star, Washington Times, Montreal Gazette, Wine Access, Canadian Living, Vintage Assessments, City Bites, National Herald and more as well as several independent and free-lance journalists, sommeliers, restaurateurs, Master Sommeliers. Included in this diverse mix was a large showing of American and Canadian importers and agents vying to add these exciting Greek wines to their portfolios.

All About Greek Wine seminar at the Warwick hotel in New York City, May 3, 2006

All About Greek Wine is a group of the best wineries of Greece that have joined together in a promotional campaign to establish the category of quality Greek wine. Member wineries were chosen for their commitment to quality and represent all of the major Greek wine producing regions. The wines feature the rich and unique, indigenous grape heritage of Greece as well as a full range of international varieties and blends.

Road Show Event Dates

Greek Winemakers Attending
Angelos Iatridis of Alpha Estate; Mary Triantafillou of Emery Wines; Yiannis Paraskevopoulos of Gaia Estate; Kallie Papantonis of Papantonis Winery; Anne Kokotou of Semeli Wines; Paris Sigalas of Domaine Sigalas; George Skouras of Domaine Skouras; Apostolos Spiropoulos of Domain  Spiropoulos; Yiannis Tselepos of Domaine Tselepos as well as Thras Giantsides of Domaine Gerovassiliou, Maria Dimou of Katogi & Strofilia, Yiannis Koulelis for Kir Yianni Estate, Tassos Ballas of Domaine Evharis, Costas Makris of Ktima Pavlidis.

Member Wineries