WeinWisser is an exclusive and independent wine publication that is available to its mostly Swiss and German readers by subscription only. More than 4000 wines are tasted, scored and reported on every year. It is one of the most important and most often quoted German speaking wine publications. WeinWisser has been published for 18 consecutive years, with a current total circulation of 5000 issues. The readership consists of sommeliers, the gastronomy, wine lovers, collectors and wine merchants.
Greek wines have never been featured in the past. I am truly delighted and grateful that the editor of WeinWisser approached me with the idea for me to introduce and present the finest Greek wines to their readership. Over the last months, I have tasted hundreds of Greek wines in order to come up with a solid selection. In the end, I was able to report on more than 30 wineries, covering close to 60 wines, from many different wine regions. In addition, details on a vertical tasting of 10 vintages of the iconic Megas Oenos are included. I believe that the wines covered represent a truthful overview about the quality of Greek wines. Great care has been taken to ensure that the scores are representative and directly comparable to the other fine wines that are usually featured in WeinWisser.
My contribution was so extensive, that it was impossible to include all the wines in the printed version of WeinWisser. For this reason, only those wines that are currently available for sale in Switzerland or Germany were included. In order to account for all wines, the editor kindly suggested to produce a special PDF file. This can now be downloaded here.
I urge you to peak inside this special issue – even if you are not able to understand German, you can still see the scores. In addition, you will get a good feel for the format of the WeinWisser.
The first ever inclusion of Greek wines in such a prestigious publication shows that the interest for Greek wines is manifesting itself for real.
Congrats and thank you for doing so much for Greek wines, though I’m afraid I’m still a California wine nerd that cannot be converted. Great work as always, Markus. :)
Kat, I really appreciate your comment – and don’t you worry, I am very patient and I will convert you!
Markus! I do not speak a word of German… but I’m printing your PDF as I write these words. Congratulations to you for all that you have done and achieved in such a short time. You are truly inspiring. This is a major landmark for you and for your work. I hope you celebrated the publication of the article with a good bottle of Greek wine! Meanwhile, I continue my search for delicious, intriguing, surprising (and sometimes exotic) Greek wines in the US. I thank you Markus, for having enriched my life and my palate in such wonderful ways!
Viviane, thank you so much, you always say the nicest things. What a wonderful way to kick off the new day, reading your comment. I am really glad that you put in so much effort to find, taste and match Greek wines in the US. It is always a real pleasure exchanging thoughts with you!
Great work there Markus!
I am glad to follow how dedicated you are to your cause!
Cheers and all the best!
Stamatis
Cheers Stamati, I appreciate the encouragement!
Well done Markus and I look forward to attempting to read it.
Thank you Paul, this means a lot that are attempting to read it, hope you’ll succeed!
Markus, congratulations once again for your efforts to promote Greek wines abroad. I have printed the pdf too, and because my German level is elementary, I looked mainly at the scores. What impressed me is the fact that the folks in WEINWISSER have scored almost all the wines 16/20 or 17/20 (with just a couple of exceptions at the Megas Oenos vertical) , a rather flattening approach that does not give the opportunity for quality differences to be emphasised and the quality champions to shine. I frankly do not believe that all the wines reviewed here are so close to each other qualitywise. That said, the range of wine covered is quite representative of what Greece produces today, and to stop nagging (once again), congratulations for your efforts and keep going.
Ioanni, thanks for the head-ups ;) I scored the wines, quite a few of those scores were then adjusted by WeinWisser in order to keep the quality comparable to the wines they usually feature (which is mainly top Bordaux). I can understand their reasoning, even if I might not fully agree with it. However, there are still some other high scores like Kokkalis Trilogia or Sigalas VinSanto!, also quite a few 17+. You should further study the explanation of WW points in regards to the 100 point scale. 16 to 17 covers 87 to 92 points, 18 is 93 to 95 points. So there are actually more differences than you might have first thought. Thank you for agreeing on the range of wines I picked. Lastly, I always enjoy your comments a lot, but I believe you know that ;)
Congratulations Markus! More proof of firstly the increasing quality of Greek wines & secondly your role in spreading the message / the love. I am pleasantly surprised by some scores on wines which I love but seem to be ignored by the Greek wine press – then again “one man’s meat is another man’s poison”. Also surprised by the absence of some wineries but then again you have to draw the line somewhere… Now if only we could get Decanter to give more coverage to Greek wine – perhaps an article on the great 2007 Xinomavro vintage or 2009 in Santorini…
Kosta, good to have you back! The Greek wine press in general seems to be focused on “main stream wines”, ignoring many offerings that deserve recognition. I agree that some wineries were not featured – my “original” task was to present 25 to 30 Greek wines, I am happy to have nearly tripled that quota, but of course it was not practical to report on every single Greek wine that might be interesting. Having said that, I reported on the wines that stood out for me. I have already received “critic” to my selection, but at least I can assure you that these are indeed the wines I treasure.
Pingback: Weinempfehlungen « Monambelles
Vielen Dank für den informativen Artikel. Werde ich gerne weiterempfehlen und auch mal wieder vorbei schauen..