Tribute to Greek Wines

The New York Times published an article-tribute to Greek wines on May 29 on Page D5 of the New York edition, under the title, As Greek as the Sea.

“The parallel universe of provocative Greek wines, made primarily from this trio of little-known grapes, is very much an available reality, offering a wonderful trove of wines that can be stimulating, even riveting, and rarely boring,” as reported in the article.

The article’s results are based on a recent wine panel tasting of Greek whites from the 2011 and 2012 vintages, which “affirmed the quality and value of these wines,” as the author said. He continued: “The wine panel has tasted Greek whites several times over the course of the last decade. Many of them often seemed to be works in progress. The best were very good, but the majority seemed somewhat stymied by the move from a largely local market to a global audience.”

“In this tasting, at least, the growing pains seemed to be a thing of the past. Instead, we found consistently well-made wines, and we especially liked those from Santorini, made entirely or primarily of the assyrtiko grape,” explained the author, who continued in his article with praising words: “These wines in particular show pure briny, mineral flavors, as if they were the concentrated essence of millions of tiny seashells.”

According to the NYT, the best Greek wines are the following:

1.Assyrtiko 2011, Argyros Santorini
2.Santorini Assyrtiko-Athiri 2011, Domaine Sigalas
3.Santorini Assyrtiko Wild Ferment 2012, Gaia
4.Drama Amethystos 2011, Costa Lazaridi
5.Peloponnese Mountain Sun Moschofilero 2011, Semeli
6.Drama Thema 2012, Ktima Pavlidis
7.Santorini Thalassitis 2012, Gaia
8.Santorini Assyrtiko 2012, Domaine Sigalas
9.Santorini Atlantis 2011, Argyros
10.Macedonia Petra 2011, Kir-Yianni