Click the YouTube links below to hear Boutari winemakers pronouncing Greek grape names and appellations.
Xinomavro as Spoken by Constantine Boutari.
Agiorgitiko as Spoken by Vasilis Georgiou.
Attikí as spoken by Roxani Matsa.
Malagousia as Spoken by Roxani Matsa.
Mantinia as Spoken by Yannis Voyatzis.
Moschofilero as Spoken by Yannis Voyatzis
Negoska as Spoken by Vasilis Georgiou
Xinomavro as Spoken by Vasilis Georgiou
Above: Top San Diego sommelier Brian Donegan (Market, Del Mar) recently shared some of the secrets of his success with the San Diego Union-Tribune.
“Greece is kind of a somm’s favorite pick for an up-and-coming region. There’s this real renaissance going on with grape producers. And they’re doing it more on indigenous varietals rather than ripping up all these amazing old vineyards and replanting more international varietals like Cabernet and Chardonnay and Pinot Noir that have more mass commercial appeal. One varietal (there) is Assyrtiko, mainly grown on the island of Santorini. It’s just this amazing aromatic varietal, one of the few varietals for whites that can be both medium-plus to high alcohol and also medium-plus to high acidity. You don’t find that too much.”
Above: Market’s famous “Market Salad,” sourced from Southern California’s legendary Chino Farms farmer’s market.
“Nutty and honey-scented,” writes Food & Wine editor Megan Krigbaum in her tasting note for the 2007 Boutari Kallisti Reserve, “the wine spends seven months in French barrels, proving Assyrtiko can improve with oak aging.”
Click here for a downloadable version of Megan’s Santorini feature.
Fringe Wine, a wine blogger based in Quincy MA, was pleasantly surprised to taste Boutari 2004 Vinsanto for the first time when his wife innocently bought a bottle thinking it was Italian Vin Santo. Here’s his tasting note.
Greek vinsanto is made from grapes that are allowed to raisin on the vine (as opposed to mat-drying as is done in Italy). The blend that I picked up was made from 50% Assyrtiko and 50% Aidani, another native Greek varietal found only on the Cyclades islands in the Aegean which is used almost exclusively in blends due to its lowish acid content. This wine was aged for four years prior to release. In the glass, the wine had a tawny, dark amber/reddish brown coloring. The nose was full of roasted hazelnuts and almonds, raisins and maple syrup. On the palate, the wine was medium bodied with surprisingly high acidity. There were flavors of honey and maple, golden raisins and dried red fruits along with toasted almonds and a kind of spicy orange twist. This wine was sweet, it’s definitely a dessert wine, but not syrupy thanks, I think, to the high acid provided by the Assyrtiko grapes. That acid really kept this lively and interesting in the mouth for me. I’ve had a lot of sweet wines that taste amazing at first but which get old really fast because your palate gets beaten into submission by the relentless sugar assault. The nice acid here keeps this interesting and alive in the glass. This is a wine I will not hesitate to purchase again and I would be very anxious to try it with my southern-style pecan pie.
Click here to read his entire post, including his tasting notes for another bottling of Assyrtiko.
Tracie P is the author of My Life Italian, a blog devoted to Italy, Italian food and wine, delivered with her Texas twang.
Last night, Jeremy P and I had the good fortune to try a bottle of Boutari’s 2007 Kallisti Reserve Santorini, made using the Assyrtiko grape. We are no strangers to their entry level Santorini. In fact we’ve been known to buy it by the case.
The Kallisti, however, is aged in wood and rested on its lees. This is a style of wine-making that we might normally avoid, but there is an exception to every rule and this one is it. This is a wine built for aging.
We’ve tasted older vintages (1993 and 1989) and we can attest that the acidity alone acts as a fountain of youth. The oak and batonnage, instead of being a cumbersome cover-up to the fruit, is a well-integrated and graceful brush stroke that adorns the beauty of the canvas.
When Jeremy told me what the wine of the evening would be, I decided to try a new recipe that, although Italian, seemed tailor-made for Kallisti. I suspected that a savory pie of potatoes and leeks would be just earthy and rich enough to stand up to the hardy flavors of the wine, while giving the acidity something to cling to.
Mission successful, we had a stellar pairing.
Color: light gold with honeyed hues
Nose: delicate nuttiness with a deeper hint of salt-preserved lemons.
Taste: There is a bright acidity, citrus rind, and sea-spray minerality. This trademark salinity is present in the entry-level Santorini as well, but goes deeper and finishes longer in the Kallisti.
This is a winter-worthy white, standing up to all of those warm and cozy meals to come. Root vegetables, you’ve met your match, and she’s a Greek goddess in a bottle.
A big #WineWednesday @1WineDude (aka Joe Roberts) for his excellent post today on Santorini.
Joe holds the Intermediate and Advanced Certificates in Wine & Spirits from the WSET, as well as the Certified Specialist of Wine qualification from the Society of Wine Educators.
He’s also the author of How to Taste Like a Wine Geek: The 1WineDude Tasting Guide (available in printed and e-Book formats).
And like so many cool wine professionals, 1 Wine Dude is also a musician: he is a bad-ass bass player!
Boutari – one of the largest Greek wine producers, brought both a modern touch and modern equipment to what had largely been small, traditional winemaking practices on Santorini. The biggest change, of course was the advent of (relatively) stable electricity on the island, which didn’t arrive until the 1960s but did mean that refrigeration could be used – which in turn meant cooling, stainless-steel fermentation, and and making modern winemaking styles possible, thus eliminating the oxidative qualities prevalent in the majority of the island’s wines. The result is vibrant Assyrtiko wines that (at their best) retain their citrus flower aromas and have decades of ageing potential thanks to a backbone of serious and vibrant acidity; another treasure that shouldn’t be lost.
“For anybody truly curious about the glorious extent of wine,” wrote Eric Asimov today in his New York Times wine blog, The Pour, “now is the greatest time in history to be a wine lover. Never before has such a vast diversity of wines been available to so many people. Many are made from unfamiliar grapes, grown in little-known places, yet they offer thrilling drinking for those eager for new experiences.”
“Like sea creatures discovered at colossal depths, these unfamiliar wines are not new at all. Many represent traditions that reach back centuries. Sadly, in some cases, these traditions barely hang on. The survival of the diversity we now enjoy depends partly on building appreciation of these little known grapes and wines. In other cases, the grapes, though uncommon, have already gained a following.”
“Either way, here are a dozen obscure grapes that are the foundation of some wonderful wines and will reward intrepid explorers.”
“ASSYRTIKO, from the volcanic island of Santorini in the Aegean Sea produces dry, deliciously minerally wines that are superb with seafood and just about any other light dish that smacks of the Mediterranean. If you like Assyrtiko, it’s worth exploring other Greek white-wine grapes like Moschofilero and Roditis.”
Above: Some of the world’s top wine professionals gathered for the New Wines of Greece grand tasting and seminar at the end of May in New York City.
We recently came across a great post on the New Wines of Greece grand tasting and seminar in New York (May, 2010) by wine blogger and wine professional Christine Berenger, author of Fava Beans and Chianti.
Christine gives readers a great overview of the seminars we attended and a solid backgrounder on Greece, its wines, and its grape varieties. But our favorite part of her post was devoted to the two “divas” of Greek wine, Assyrtiko and Xinomavro:
With over 350 indigenous varieties that are not genetically linked to any other varietals in the world, the wines of Greece are truly unique. While Greek wines are distinct and not directly comparable, this forum gave people a side-by-side comparison with other more popular international varietals, so if someone liked some of the characteristics of “X popular varietal,” then they might also enjoy a glass of “Y Greek varietal.” The tasting was lead by Doug Frost, one of three people in the world who is both MS and MW. He is true lover of Greek wines. I tried quite a few of these Greek wines, but the ones I thoroughly enjoyed (and plan on buying for myself) were made from the following two varietals — Assyrtiko and Xinomavro. Doug described these two varietals as “the divas,” which I concur as being a good descriptor. Here’s the secret decoder ring. If you enjoy the austerity, acidity and minerality of a Chablis or Riesling, you might fancy an Assyritko. If you like the dustiness and earthiness of Barbaresco (Nebbiolo) or Brunello (Sangiovese), you might want to try Xinomavro.
Acclaimed wine writer Eric Asimov wrote how much he enjoyed Boutari Santorini Assyrtiko the other night in Astoria, Queens.
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33-07 Ditmars Blvd.
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(718) 545-8666
Click here to read Wine & Spirits senior editor Tara Thomas' notes from a vertical tasting of Boutari Kallisti at the W&S Top of the List tasting event in New York City.
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