I have enjoyed quite a few Greek wines in my time - mainly in Greece. On my last fortnight long sojourn on the Greek Island of Ithaca (landing on Cephalonia and taking a ferry to Ithaca), Thud and I polished off quite a bit of local wine with our evening meals. If we purchased a commercially bottled wine it was usually made from the Xinomavro grape. However, when eating at the family restaurant of one of Thud's acquaintances we imbibed in the village-cooperative's wines - grape variety unknown. Each participating grapegrower's fruit is harvested and vinted with his neighbour's grapes. The resulting wine is usually served, at the local tavernas, in litre carafes and offered to diners ice cold, straight from the refrigerator. And they pair perfectly with Greek food. Shocker!
I purchased this bottle of Boutari, 2010, Moschofilero just out of curiosity. How would the wine hold up to a California February, versus a summer on an Ionian Island? It wasn't a bad wine, but it wasn't a great wine either. It was a little light and citrusy, a smidgen heavy on the acid and a tad perfumey, but it made a fairly decent aperitif. The Moschofilero grape is native to Greece, hailing from the Mantinia region of the Peloponnese. A winsome, pink-skinned grape it reminds me a bit of Pinot grigio to look at. I think at $10, I may just buy it again. Maybe.
6 comments:
V-girl, being Greek I've always wondered why I have never had a Greek wine!
I've rounded-up a prop or two in preparation for the day, but now I'm motivated to see what I can find.
I hope you took a number of photographs of those Islands with the white-washed buildings, the blue sky and sea, and the rustic people.
NHW: Well, that explains your unusual surname :)
VG,
Don't judge the variety by that one wine. You need to look for smaller producers.
Wineman: a lot of wonderful things are have happened with Greek wine quality, but the wines are still difficult to locate on these shores.
Check out: http://www.elloinos.com/
Sometimes people and place make up for a large percentage of taste, for me anyway.
Thud,
That's always the case. I can't count how many times I bought wine I tasted during a visit to wine country and then wondered after opening it at home what the hell I was thinking when I bought it.
Tomasso: Not much choice, I'm afraid, in Bay Area shops. Perhaps I should leave the Greek wine to when I'm in Greece.
Thud: And food...
Tomasso: Exactly. That cold carafe of cooperative wine, at Yianni's Taverna, definitely had a sense of place.
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