These Greeks are bearing gifts
Jane MacQuitty: Greek wines
Ancient vines are Greek gold.
Not so long ago Greek wines were ... well, all Greek to me. Ice-cold retsina and flabby old cologne-scented whites and the odd earthy Greek red were just about downable on holiday, but back home, forget it. A decade or so ago Oddbins and others peddled Greece as the next big thing, but few swallowed the hot, quirky, aggressive flavours of the country’s wines. Since then Greece and its new generation of oenology-trained winemakers have moved mountains. As new technology beds in and more Greek wines are sold in bottle, not barrel, standards have risen and British merchants now stock them.
Greece will always be a hot, arid, mountainous wine-producing country with insufficient water, but more and more producers are planting vineyards at higher, cooler altitudes, with impressive results. In an increasingly commercial and bland wine-dominated age, Greek gold comes in the form of more than 300 ancient, indigenous grape varieties that ampelographers still have to get to grips with. International grapes such as chardonnay, sauvignon, merlot and syrah do lift standard blends, but it would be a Greek tragedy if imported upstarts such as these pushed out traditional but now cleanly vinified Greek grapes.
Judge for yourself with the delicious, smoky, minerally volcanic 2008 Santorini White, made by the Greek maestro Hatzidakis from the assyrtiko grape and others, £9.99 at Waitrose. Spend £16.75 at Les Caves de Pyrène (01483 554750) and the very special organic 2007 Cuvée 15 Santorini Assyrtiko, with lots more smoky, stony, yet lively nutty fruit, is yours.