Did a tasting Fri night of Greek Wines for my SantaFe Winos tasting group:
1. Gai'a Monograph Assyrtiko PGI: Peloponnese (12.5%; www.GaiaWines.Gr) 2020: A pleasant fairly strong fruity/floral nose & flavor; a bit on the simple side but very pleasant aromatics, nothing profound. $20.50 (KK)
________________
2. Gai'a Thalassitis PDd'O: Santorini Assyrtiko (Ungrafted OldVines; 13.0%; 3 single vnyds 80 yrs old) Santorini 2019: Much less intense nose; shows a lot of stony/minerality w/ less fruitiness but much more depth & much more interesting; a rather restarained/quiet white, but my favorite of all the whites.. $41.00 (SFW&S)
________________
3. Gai'a Notios 40% Moschofilero/40% roditis/20% Assyrtiko (12.0%) GaiaWines/Koutsi/Korinthia 2021: A pleasant/bit simple somewhat floral/fruity non-distinctive white; a bit off-dry on the palate. A pleasant enough white at a fair price. $17.50 (KK)
________________
4. Drop by Drop The Jar Fills Up Roditis PGI: Karditsa (12.5%; eklektikon/Wilmington/DE) Kontozisis OrganicVnyds/Karditsa 2022: A rather earthy/loamy quite simple fruity/bit floral barely pleasant white. Simple/fruity/undistinguished somewhat boring white. Maybe slightly off-dry. $20.00 (KK)
________________
5. Georgas Family Savatiano Black Label SingleVnyd PGI: Attiki (13.0%; natural; skin-contact for 15 days; Eklektikon) 2021: Lightly phenolic/resiny/skin-contact weakly fruity/floral slightly natty/unclean/funky on the nose & palate; a dreadful wet dog fur/oxidative aftertaste that renders the wine undrinkable; dreadful stuff & overpriced at $26.50 (KK)
________________
6. Sant'Or Roditis Nature (12%; eklektikon; natural wine) Sant'Or/Santamere/Achaia 2018: Rather earthy/dusty somewhat natty/funky/unclean/bit mousey white w/ a real paucity of fruit; just barely drinkable & way too natty for my tastes. $19.00 (SFW&S)
_________________
7. melanthia White Semi-Sparkling Wine Black Muscat of Tyrnavos (10.5%; natural wine; Eklektikon) Papras Wnry/Tyrnavos 2019: Loads of heavy/flocculant sediment; quite fragrant vaguely muscatty light/bit frizzante PetNat; reminds a lot of a Moscato d'Asti but not nearly as perfumed; a rather pleasant enough PetNat w/ no natty/funky character whatsoever; the best of the Eklektikons but nothing I would bother to buy. $22.00 (SFW&S)
_________________
8. Gai'a ritinitis Nobilis Retsina Appellation by Tradition (12.5%; 100% Roditis) NV (EB in 2022): Very strong resiny/pine sap hardly any fruit Retsina; way too much pine sap to be drinkable and much like drinking turpentine; an old-timey pine-sap expression of Retsina. $19.00 (KK)
_________________
9. Georgas Family Retsina of Mesogia BlackLabel/SingleVnyd (13%; natural wine; 100% Savatiano grape; 5 days of skin-contact; Eklektikon) Spata Attica NV (2020?): Tons of heavy flocculant sediment; very light piney/pine sap/resiny rather savory/saline character w/ some light floral fruit; an interesting savory Retsina but has some wet dog fur/oxidative aftertaste that makes this wine unpalatable. $25.00 (SFW&S)
_________________
10. Gai'a Monograph Agiorgitiko PGI: Nemea/Peloponnese (13.0%; www.GaiaWines.Gr; Craft&Estate/Winebow/NY) GaiaWines, Koutsi/Korinthia 2019: Quite earthy/loamy rather rustic/coarse red w/ hardly any fruit; a rather rough/coarse red that reminds a lot of a coarse Carignane from the Languedoc; not particularly attractive because of the earthy/loamy/coarse character. $20.50 (KK)
_________________
11. Gai'a Notios 85% Agrorgitiko/15% Syrah PGI: Peloponnese (13.0%) 2020: Lightly earthy/loamy/rustic fairlt strong blackberry/Syrah/boysenberry/spicy/high-toned red; amazing how the Syrah gives such a lift to the Agrorgitko; nice red for the price. $19.00 (SFW&S)
_________________
12. Kourtaki PD'dO: Mavrodaphni of Patra Sweet RW (15%; Prestige Beverage Group/Mendota Heights/MN NV: Very grapey/late harvesty/raisened bit alcoholic/fumey character w/ lots of sweetness; actually a rather interesting dessert wine that'd go w/ chocolate; very much like a raisened/pruney Calif LateHrvst Zin than anything. Very well priced at $14.00 (KK)
________________________________________
More helenikstrop from TheBloodyPulpit:
1. I'm not at all very conversant in Greek wines. I don't recall having ever had one that seemed profound or blew me away. So I was pretty much flying blind when I picked these wines off the shelf here in NM. These were pretty much the entire selection that was available here.
My trying of Greek wines has been pretty spotty over the yrs. I was hoping to learn a lot & develop an appreciation for Greek wines from this tasting. Didn't happen. So I will go back to my ways of trying them from time-to-time w/ low expectations.
Greece has a ton of indigeneous native varieties. But, for some reason, there has not been a strong movement to bring in many of these Greek varieties. I suspect that many of them could make some very compelling wines in Calif. I wish they would try more of them.
I've had a number of fortified & passito wines from the island of Crete. Alas, none of those were currently available when I was assembling this tasting.
________________
2. Eklektikon: This is an importer that specializes in natural Greek wines. Of the five of their wines here, I did not care for any of them. Some were pretty much undrinkable. They strike me as an importer, like L.Lladabour of JosePastor, to avoid entirely. Or buy from w/ great caution.
________________
3. Retsina: This is, of course, the iconic Greek wine. It comes from long ago when the Greeks use sap from the Aleppo pine tree to seal the vessels, particularly amphorae, from oxidation. It's a taste that stuck as part of the Greek cusine and goes w/ some of their heaviy spiced foods. Nowadays, Retsina is made by tossing chunks of the pine sap into the fermentation vessels where it dissolves & floats to the top.
Most of my early exposure to Retsina was so resiny that I found the wines like drinking turpentine and not to my taste, one I could never aquire. More modern expression of Retsina cut back drastically on the use of the pine sap. The pine sap gives thee lighter expressions of Retsina and gives them a rather savory/saline/resiny character that resembles a lot the skin-contact/resiny/Vini Macerati wines. Still....they are not a wine I've developed much affection for.
Tom