Friday, 18 February 2011

A Phylloxera-resistant Greek





My wife and I were having dinner a deux in a French restaurant doing the French May promotion when I saw the sommelier bring this bottle to the next table and offer the customer a glass as something special. I spotted the Greek wine straight off and when the sommelier came to offer us the next wine (we were having the menu de degustation with wine matching) I made a comment about it. He offered us a glass each and true to his word, it was special and definitely more interesting than the white wines from Southwest France that had been on offer.

This wine from the volcanic island of Santorini was made from  100% Assyrtiko. Whether it is because of a genetic resistance or whether it is a matter of the volcanic soils, Assyrtiko are somewhat resistant to Phylloxera infection and hence are self-rooted. Golden yellow with a sweet fruity nose, extending to the palate overlaying it on top of a nice minerality, it has a nice acid backbone which runs through to a clean finish. Looking it up on the Web, it seemed to have met with a certain approval too: it was given 90 Parker points.

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