What term captures the essence of what Greek wines are all about? Is there a single adjective that can help to define what sets the wines from Greece apart? I think so:

Greek wines are discreet wines.

They offer the following characteristics:

• Crisp and refreshing acidity
• Noticeable but soft tannins
• Light bodied texture
• Relative low alcohol
• Mellow palate

This combination makes them the ultimate food wines. They are never too overpowering, yet packed with pure elegance. They are naturally restrained wines, balanced and harmonious. They truly complement food, rather than stealing the spotlight. They are simply made to be enjoyed, yet are far from being simple!

I am being asked on a regular basis what wine to serve at different occasions. Most of the times, people look for general advice, rather than specific food and wine pairing combinations. In Greece, events are usually attended by a large number of people, as socialising is a big part of the Greek culture. I have kept the budget in mind at the following suggestions:

New Year’s Eve: Instead of Champagne, try some sparkling wines made from Athiri (Island of Rhodes), Debina (Zitsa), Moschofilero (Mantinia) or Xinomavro (Amyndeo). Fine examples from these wines are being made in the traditional method.

Easter: The Easter Sunday calls for red wines that accompany the roasted lamb dish! While many grape varieties are up to this task, for me, Xinomavro is the perfect partner.

Christening: Christenings are typically held during the spring and summer months, and take place late morning or early afternoon. Dry and crisp Greek rosé wines are a fine choice – and they keep surprising me in a very positive way.

Wedding: Weddings also happen mostly during the summer months, however, usually late afternoon is the chosen time for the ceremony. The celebration will follow in the evening hours. It is important to offer wines that are “mainstream” – for a white, I recommend Roditis, which pleases most palates with its high fruit level. For the red, my pick would be an unoaked Agiorgitiko: It is a perfect food companion for many dishes, and a real crowd pleaser. It is tradition for the groom and the bride to cut the wedding cake before dancing starts late at night. A demi-sec bottling of one of the sparkling wines mentioned earlier is in order!

Funeral: After the official ceremony, guests are offered strong coffee and Greek brandy. I am not going to argue with this combination, but I am quite interested what the tradition is in other countries.

Christmas: Go on, just treat yourself to some really top wines, and include at least one grape variety that you don’t know yet.

I tasted a 100% Vertzami by Antonopoulos – the first thing that struck me was its deep and intense colour, bordering on black. As the last years have seen a lot of research on the association of antioxidants with suppressed rates of degenerative diseases, I investigated the grape further. Vertzami actually contains appreciable amounts of non-coloured phenols. In a study of 20 different grape varieties, Vertzami was the richest variety in total anthocyanin content (TA), followed by Cabernet Sauvignon. The TA found Vertzami was more than 3 times higher than the average*!

Area grown: Western Peloponnese, Western Central Greece, Ionian Islands, noteably on the Island of Lefkada

History: Vertzami is thought to be a distinct member of the Marzemino/Barzemino/Balsamina cultivar family, which had their origin in Italy and was introduced by the Venetians during their dominion of the Ionian Islands.

Grapes: The vines are vigorous and resistant to many diseases. The grapes are deeply coloured with thick skins, high tannin levels and moderate to high acidity. They ripen late in the last September weeks and are best cultivated at a low altitude. Vertzami is often used as a blend to add colour.

Nose/Bouquet: My notes on this particular wine can be found here.

*The following excerpt is reprinted from Food Chemistry 99 (2006) page 789 – Principal phenolic compounds in Greek red wines by S. Kallithraka, E. Tsoutsouras, E. Tzouro, P. Lanaridis, with permission from Elsevier.

Regarding total anthocyanin content (TA) (Table 2), it varied from 19 (No. 5) to 1012, (No. 10)* the average being 308 mg l_1 in agreement with the results obtained by Harvalia and Bena-Tzourou (1982). Vertzami was the richest variety in TA, followed by Cabernet Sauvignon and Augoustiati. Mandilaria and Agiorgitiko were also rich in TA, in agreement with the results of Kallithraka et al. (2001) and Makris et al. (2002). *In this table, No. 10 was Vertzami.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03088146

I just marked my calendar with 3 red X’s for the 3 days 19th until 21st February 2010. On each of these days I presented Greek wines to different audiences in Germany. For the first time since I started promoting Greek wines abroad 13 months ago, there was no need for me to initiate interest, nor did I have to “convince” people about the quality of the wines.

On the 19th I had an appointment with one of the larger German wine merchants. Last year I mostly had meetings with wine merchants where I encountered a fair amount of prejudice. This time around, there was actually a real sense of excitement from the merchant to discover something new.

The next day I presented a number of Greek wines to 30+ members of a wine club. The high level of interest and engagement impressed me. The event lasted for more than 4 hours and I was very touched by rounds of applause afterwards.

Finally, on the third day I had the chance to taste Greek wines with a large wine importer who is also a real wine connoisseur. I encountered only open-mindedness and a real focus on the products. All five wines presented showed well, and two left a real mark and received high praise.

These last few days were a real indication that the “old” attitudes towards Greek wines are starting to change. I am truly delighted by these developments, although I am well aware that a lot more effort is needed to keep this positive momentum going.

The cultivation of vines in Greece reaches back to antiquity. Some of the earliest references to wine come from the poetry of Homer. Yet, few people are aware of just how young the current Greek wine industry really is.

• Most of Greece was part of the Ottoman Empire from the 15th century until its declaration of independence in 1821. Under the Ottoman rule alcohol consumption came to a halt and the art of viticulture died out.
• The next decades gave rise to the Corianthiaki, a grape variety that is used to produce raisins. Phylloxera reached the country in 1898, and Greece became heavily involved in the two world wars. Shortly thereafter, the Greek Civil War was fought between 1946 and 1949.
• During the 1960s, wine sales were dominated by bulk wine, and Retsina became the national drink.
• In the 1970s, bottled wine became common. Just a handful of big players dominated the market. This decade also saw a significant number of boutique wineries entering the wine scene.
• During the 1980s many more small businesses were set-up, and a number of different growing areas became the home of these soon to become top growers.
• The 1990s truly established the pioneers of the 70s and 80s. During this last decade of the century, quite a few winemakers who had been employed set-up their own wineries. 
• Finally, the last decade witnessed the birth of many new estates, and the involvement of a new generation of winemakers who are not afraid to push even harder towards the best possible quality.

Given the fact that the “modern” Greek wine industry has only been truly shaped over the last two decades, it can be expected that the best is yet to come.

Tsaoussi is an indigenous Greek grape variety mainly found on the Ionian island of Kefalonia, although it has been suggested to be of Macedonian origin. Kefalonia shot to fame when the best seller “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin” was transformed into a movie that was shot on the island. It is located in the heart of an earthquake zone and dozens of tremors occur each year.

Tsaoussi is a mixed-use variety, used to produce wine, but also consumed as a table grape. The tall bush vines yield large grapes that lack some acidity. In the past, winemakers have therefore opted to pick the grapes early, when they were still somewhat under ripe. This typically yielded in bone dry, crisp wines with low alcohol content.

Since the year 2000, the leading Gentilini winery has moved towards a later harvest in order to move to a more elegant style by gaining more complex fruit aromas. The low acidity is corrected by using a small volume of wine from under ripe harvested Tsaoussi grapes. As a result of the later harvest, the alcohol level has now increased from 11% in their first 1984 vintage to 12.5 – 13%. Usually Tsaoussi is vinified and fermented at 14 degrees Celsius. The wines have aromas of peaches, melon and honey.

It is not common to find 100% Tsaoussi wines, as it is most of the times blended with higher acidity varieties such as Robola or Sauvignon Blanc.

Disclosure: The wine featured in the video above was given to me as a free sample by Petros Markantonatos, the owner of the Gentilini winery. He also provided me with information about the Tsaoussis grape variety.

The 14th Oinotelia Greek wine exhibition took place last weekend at the Athens Concert Hall (Megaron Mousikis). I really do like this event, as the exhibition hall is spacious, and the number of wine estates who show their wines is limited. This is one of the few wine exhibitions where one is actually able to talk to the growers.

My personal highlights included:

Avantis Estate (Island of Euboea)

Apostolis Mountrichas is best known for his work on the Syrah variety. I tasted the Syrah/Viognier 2007, which is full of spices, red fruits and forest aromas. It is an elegant wine with soft tannins and earthy elements. The rare Syrah Collection 2006 spent 24 months in barrel and matured for an additional 18 months in bottle. It has an essence of cassis, is full bodied and explosive on the palate. The whites also impressed me, they were all from the new 2009 vintage: The Malagousia is very aromatic and dominated by lychees, the Gewürztraminer rich and fresh with spices and exotic fruits, the Sauvignon Blanc super ripe. They all have very appealing acidity levels.

Gaia Estate (Santorini and Nemea)

The Gaia Estate seems to be going from strength to strength. The vintage of 2009 was truly stunning for Assyrtiko in Santorini, look out for these wines! One of my favourite Assyrtiko wines from the Island has always been the Gaia Thalassitis, and the 2009 must be the best I have yet encountered. It is an explosive wine with concentrated, exotic fruits and a stunning finish. Also impressive was the 2008 Assyrtiko Wild Fermented, which is dense and truly expressive of its terroir.

Karadimou (Fthiotida in the north of Greece)

This is a small producer who started in 2001. The 2007 Vissa is made from 100% Xinomavro. It has lots of soft yet concentrated raspberry flavours and some typical vegetable character. The wine has a fistful of tannins and certainly has a lot of bite. I think this will improve a lot of the next decade.

Mega Spilaio (Aigio, Peloponnese)

This estate is on the top of my “up and coming” list! The oenologist Stelios Tsiris certainly knows his work well. I tasted a tank sample of the 2009 Assyrtiko Laghori that grabbed my attention. It has very expressive exotic fruits, but this is the only hint that this wine is produced in Greece. The vineyards have an altitude of 800 to 900 meters, and the cooler climate expresses itself in the wine. The Syrah Rosé 2009 must be one of my favourite Greek rosé wines. The real gems are the three reds: A Mavrodaphne/Kalavryta blend, a 100% Syrah and a 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. I was able to taste the 2004, 2005 and 2006 vintages of the former and the latter, plus the 2005 and 2006 of the Syrah. There was a distinctive variation in the vintages, 2005 being a very hot year, 2006 a year with unusual wet weather conditions. However, the quality of the wines was not effected, all wines were top notch and simply expressed the vintages in different ways.

Greek wines deserve a much better image. Sometimes it seems that only the Greek vintners themselves are aware about the stunning and exciting wines that they are able to craft. An image is in many cases created over time by a population of people from different backgrounds who share similar experiences. To change the existing image, these experiences must be altered into a positive state. A critical mass of people must be reached to allow for this to happen.  

Important wine critics and writers around the globe already started changing their attitude towards Greek wines. A lot of praise is coming from these important influential voices . This is a force that is not to be underestimated and it is gaining momentum. Now is the perfect time to start initiatives to change the image Greek wines are having with the common people. I wish to suggest one simple yet modern option today, which might be implemented without too many obstacles, and will lead to distinct positive results over time.

According to Wikipedia, Greece attracts 16 million tourists each year. It is probably an understatement that this is a critical mass of people that can be reached. Most tourists visit during their stay at least once, more likely multiple times, a Taverna to eat and drink. Tavernas usually offer good value for money when it comes to food, and are of course an important part of the Greek culture. The wine served is in most cases the house wine. The great majority of those are open wines, either purchased from the neighbour who, as it happens so often, grows vines, or self-made by the family of the taverna owner in the backyard. In both cases the wine will come from an untrained “hobby” winemaker. The wine is then filled into large plastic containers, and is very prone to oxidation. The quality is largely appalling. This is the first impression of Greek wines that the tourists take back home. To make matters worse, they will tell others about it.

An alternative is desperately needed. Of course it is not feasible for Tavernas to stock up on high quality bottles of wine. There is however an alternative available, through which solid, decent quality wines can be offered at similar prices to the current house wines: Bag in box wines. The number of talented Greek winemakers is growing every year, and these are the people who will have no problem crafting solid quality bag in box wines. Unfortunately, as of today not enough wineries produce and promote bag in box wines in Greece, and I would like to see more producers joining in. These wines could then be distributed to the Tavernas. At the islands, this should be easily achievable. On the mainland, the wines should be distributed to the local Tavernas in reach. It might not seem to be financially rewarding at first, but it will change people’s perception of Greek wines, I am sure.

Bag in box wines offer many important advantages, for example, they can be stored for a couple of months, and keep fresh for some weeks after being opened. They can also be excellent value for money wines.  Another very strategic advantage is that the tourists could be introduced to the Greek grape varieties. Label the bag in box wine as Roditis or Agiorgitiko! Get the Taverna owner to proudly tell his customer who orders a white wine that he can offer a really good Roditis.

It takes initiative – but imagine the results that could be achieved in a few years time. The image of Greek wines abroad would be altered to the better and this would lead to a chain reaction where people would actually ask for Greek wines, as they enjoyed them in the first place. I am aware that there are wineries that already have taken exactly this initiative, the Tetramythos Estate is a good example. But we need more wineries to join ranks.

My dear friend, the winemaker Christos Kokkalis  took another, more radical approach: He lives in a small village and was obviously fed up with the quality of the house wine that was offered at his local Taverna. The owner grew vines in his backyard and produced the wine himself. Kokkalis offered to help – and ended up doing the whole vinification himself. He now proudly says that you can get the best house wine in all of Greece in his village. And the Taverna owner does tell every customer very proudly that he offers a real good Agiorgitiko. :) Changes are possible – let us start today.

I feel strongly that Greek wines are ready to take the plunge. In order to put my money where my mouth is, I organised a tasting event of a large variety of Greek wines to be scrutinized by a number of well-known German wine personalities, on Monday, November 9th, in Hamburg.

My experiences to date have demonstrated that German wine critics are quite demanding in their expectations and their high standards are a test for every wine. The unfamiliarity with Greek grape varieties presented an additional challenge to this venture.

There was no handpicking of wines; I aimed at displaying a representative selection of the overall quality available in Greece. Therefore wine estates participating at this event were left on their own, to choose which wines to send in, for the tasting. Even I found out of their selections on the day of the tasting. It ended up being a large range of Greek wines, covering different wine estates from several regions, including Greek and international grape varieties.

The panel to taste and judge the wines was made up of well-known wine critic Mario Scheuermann, wine journalist Eckhard Supp, and wine consultant Michael Pleitgen. The event took place at Ina Finn’s Villa Verde, whom I would like to extend a very special “thank you” for her tremendous help to make this happen – she provided the logistics and positive spirit that allowed the event to be a success despite some hurdles.

Eckhard Supp and myself arrived early Monday morning and proceeded to sort all the wines by growing regions and growers. A total of 64 different wines from 14 estates were submitted, unfortunately 6 wineries had failed to send any samples, despite all of them having ensured me of their support. This was a disappointment, as these included some very exciting growers who could have easily contributed another 50 different wines.

The following wineries were presented:
Biblia Chora  (Kavala), Dalamara (Naoussa), Gentilini (Cephalonia), Gerovassiliou (Epanomi), Kir-Yianni (Naoussa), Manousakis (Crete), Mercouri (Pyrgos), Palivou (Nemea), Pavlidis (Drama), Sigalas (Santorini), Tselepos (Arcadia), Vatistas (Laconia), Wine Art (Drama), and Zafirakis (Crete).

As can be seen, many wine regions were represented, including important islands, the Peloponnese and the winegrowing regions in the north of the country. The tasting started at noon and lasted for about four hours. I made the following key observations:

There was a variation of quality levels, which was to be expected, as no cherry picking took place.

In general, the Greek grape varieties were favoured over their international counterparts, with the exception of Syrah.

Reds outdid the whites – this is the second time in 10 days that I received this feedback.

Assyrtiko wines from Santorini outclassed all other whites; Malagousia came second.

The surprise of the day was the very high and consistent quality of reds made from Syrah. Mario Scheuermann was quite intrigued by this finding, and sees a lot of potential for Greek winemakers who work with this variety. On the other hand, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot wines were not able to leave such a marked impression.

With respect to cost, there was agreement that some of the more expensive wines were well worth their price tag and at the same time there were some bargains identified amongst wines in the lower price ranges.

It was interesting to me to obtain the views of experts on wines made of grape varieties that they were not familiar with. Overall, it was a great experience to dive into the ‘unknown’, both in terms of the supply and in terms of how it would be received. My experience though with Greek wines so far was overall confirmed: There is great potential out there, and there are some very fine producers indeed, that can stand to be measured with upmarket wines from other countries.

The following links have so far been posted in regards to the event, I will update this section as more content is expected:

http://elloinos.posterous.com/syrah-the-future-for-greek-wineries
http://www.weinakademie-berlin.de/griechenland-tasting-mit-positiven-ueberraschungen (German)
http://weinreporter.posterous.com/griechischer-wein (German)
http://weinreporter.posterous.com/viognier (German)
http://weinreporter.posterous.com/rote-favoriten (German)

Today, more than 700 wineries exist in Greece. Out of all the wineries, three producers, or less than 0.43% of the existing wineries, have a total share of over 50% of the Greek wine consumption in the major export markets. I am well aware that these three wineries are able to produce solid quality in volume, which is not an easy task to accomplish. The fact remains however, that they cannot produce unique and exciting terroir wines in volume. 

Let’s go into more detail: About 90% of the volume of Greek wines (excluding sweet wines) is sold in the domestic market, and only approximately 10% is being exported. Between 80 and 90% of the wine sales in European countries takes place at less than 5,00 € per bottle.

The largest importer of Greek wines is Germany, being responsible for nearly 50% of the total volume. Prices achieved are one of the lowest from any of the major import countries as measured by value per unit volume. This points to a low level of activity from German wine merchants, sales are dominated by large discounters.

The consultants PRC-Critical Publics London-alter Vision Group collected the above figures from 46 Greek wineries that represent 57% of the Greek wine exports. Just stop here for a moment: Three producers have a total market share of over 50%, the combined exports of 43 more producers just add another 7% to the total export volume.

This is a nightmare showcase of business at work – the business being to sell and to take on large volumes of wines at dumping prices. No wonder that the image of Greek wines abroad continues to suffer from prejudice, as the consumer simply does not even get a realistic chance to discover what this truly exciting wine region really has to offer.

There are many small-scale wineries that produce stunning wines. In many cases, these family enterprises sell their products in the local market and do not have the expertise to tap into the markets abroad. Medium sized wineries do have an interest to explore export markets, but are often at a loss on how to best market their wines. The old school of thought demands for compliance with the existing laws of demand, and every effort to introduce premium wines is all too easily derailed by the prevailing conceptions. Exclusive distribution rights almost always cover only the “cheap” part of the portfolio; the high-end wines are being ignored.

On the one hand, I should count myself very lucky: I live in Greece and I am able to drink the finest Greek wines at competitive prices. I have been able to expand my palate without breaking the bank. This has been an invaluable experience, and I dare state that I have learned more about wines since I moved to Greece 5 years ago than in the 15-year period before when I was actively involved with wines.

The shocking export statistics are nothing short but a slap in the face of wine consumers abroad. No proper access to the wine treasures of Greece exists.  I will re-double my efforts to change this sad situation. Many exciting Greek wines are only waiting to be discovered, and I have no doubt that consumers will embrace them.

On a personal note, I would like to thank Kat from Living in Greece for bringing this statistic to my attention. The original report in Greek can be found here.