Reviving Greece

Jupiter
created the Earth and, in an afterthought, He threw the
leftover handful of pebbles over His shoulder into the sea –
thus forming Greece and its 15OO-island archipelagos. ‘Was
last least?’ some Greeks grumbled. It’s been a rocky ride
historically for the Greek people – devastation,
subjugation, holocaust, rapacious governments – and
certainly as a winemaking nation, they’d be the first to
agree that older is not wiser.

Nor is it
bigger: Greece itself, the size of Northern New England at
5O,OOO square miles, has barely 18% of its rocky land mass
cultivatable. With only 3% of that arable land planted to
grapes, the Greek wine industry is a duck pond alongside
Italy’s ocean. Nevertheless, the Olympian Gods, Dionysus in
particular, are smiling again; the hang-dog and grumbling
days for the Greeks are over, and Hellenic pride again on
the rise.

Witness the
changes. Retsina, white wine tinctured – more often
bracingly than vilely – with pine resin, was just about the
only Greek wine in Boston during the heyday of the theater
district’s Omonia, Harvard Square’s Acropolis, and other
Greco-American moussaka joints. In the ‘8Os, there were
scarcely more choices, nor any wine-consciousness, in Porter
Square belly-dance and big-band palaces. Stronger beverages
– no more amenable to accompanying dinner, but often
appealing in following it – were Metaxa brandy or ouzo, that
Pelopponese pastis which Boston’s self-styled ‘saloon’
pianist Dave McKenna commemorated in frequent gigs in Greek
restaurants with his ominously titled swinger “No More Ouzo
for Puzo”.

When your
reporter last visited Greece in the 197Os, the modus
operandi at most tavernas, except in Athens’ Plaka, was for
diners to visit the kitchens. Chefs unable to explain their
untranslated and unreadable menus simply uncovered
saucepots, and opened ovens on baked lamb shanks, stuffed
eggplant, and moussaka, Greek lasagna with ground lamb and
bechamel. You’d point at what looked and smelled good, and
usually dined well. You had plenty of dishes to choose from,
but the wine scene was scarcely better than back home.
Retsina in carafe seemed to be the country-wide house pour;
for red, there’d be a simple, rough demestika from Achaia
Clauss or Cambas. With baklava or galaktobouriko
(honey/walnut desserts), you could find a sherry glass of
sticky mavrodaphne. And you’d finish, of course, with Greek
coffee and shots of ouzo.

Greek wine and
cuisine have updated themselves amazingly over the last
generation. Retsina rage has been tempered by improved
winemaking. New equipment, improved vineyard management,
techniques, and consulting winemakers all contribute to the
modernizing of this ancient art. Moreover, Greek wineries,
having polished their images as well as honing winemaking
practices, are reaping some long-due notice. In a May New
York

Times feature on
the international contemporary cuisine of Jose Andres at
Zaytinya in Washington DC, R.W. Apple raved about the pita
breadbasket served with the house assyrtiko he describes as
“a pale, down-the-hatch white wine with a mineral tang made
on the volcanic island of Santorini.” It can also be
stunningly reminiscent of Alsace whites with its citric
tones, bold acidity, rich texture, and lengthy
finish.

How’d
It Happen? Paul
Delios is at a front table at his bustling Meze Estatorio in
Charlestown, MA. Delios (see his profile in Beverage 6.2OO5)
talks with his customary animation about his recent travels
to Greece and notes with delight how the island nation’s
wine and food business has modernized itself with a
vengeance.

“Historically,
you can understand what’s happened. The Greeks had a long
series of conquerors telling them what to do. There was the
Ottoman Empire: the Turks kept them down through the two
World Wars. Then they had that Communist regime for a while,
and then a corrupt democratic government. So the freedom
that they’re experiencing right now is an
epiphany.

“The Greeks are
doing fabulous stuff today, because they’re so far behind
and they know it. They’ve had to become really open-minded
and say to themselves, ‘Okay, anything goes!’ Preparing for
the Olympics – not to mention winning the World Cup, wow! –
made a big push for them. Another thing is membership in the
European Union. The Union told the Greeks, ‘Look! You’ve
gotta come into the 21st century – (snaps his fingers) –
like that!’

“So Greek
wineries brought in rafts of oenologists from France, Italy
and California. They’ve taken the product up from pre-war
levels of expertise nearly to the level of Italy today.
They’re growing Merlots there, Cabernets, they’re trying
their hand at Chardonnays, and they’re barrel-aging them in
oak and packaging them up for American consumption. They’re
blending them with native varietals in the ‘international
style’. They’re taking (traditional white grapes)
Moschofilero and Serpico and Assyrtiko and blending them.
Taking their classic reds like Agiorgitiko and Xinomavro and
blending them very effectively: creamy in style, deep with
fruit, nice balance of tannins, so it doesn’t hit you all at
once.”

Delios wraps up
his Demosthenian panegyric with a flourish before heading
for the kitchen: “Greece is like a fishbowl today: they’re
getting to see all different types of food products
worldwide, all kinds of wines flooding in. It’s amazing to
watch. Foti Stamos (Meze’s sommelier) and I went to a
vineyard in Pallivo near Nemea in the Pelopponnese, and
we’re drinking cabernet and merlot, and I’m looking up at
the mountain where Hercules slew the lion, and I’m walking
through the Temple of Zeus, and I’m looking at the
bath-houses where the athletes were trained for sporting
games before the first Olympics! And I’m saying, ‘Pinch
me!'”

GEOGRAPHY
and ARCHEOLOGY
Greece’s four major wine zones all produce wines of
interest. Macedonia in the north – with high elevation, cold
snowy winters, and warm summer days with cool evenings – is
best for white wines. Thessaly in the central zone has lots
of goats and sheep; its few wines are mainly red. In the
South, the Peloponnese has two wine regions, Nemea and
Mantinia, with lots of red wines. The Islands split into the
Aegean (Santorini, the aureole of a dead volcano, makes
flavorful minimal-yield whites), the Ionian (Kephallonia
shows strong Italian influence), and Crete (strong reds and
whites among scores of indigenous varietals).

Many producers
are content to explore the wide palette of flavors available
in the hundreds of native varietals. Some, like Evangelos
Gerovasilou in Macedonia, have become wine archeologists,
unearthing and reviving nearly extinct cultivars; his
Malagouzia is a luscious exotic wine of rare and ancient
grapes that sing in the glass a Pindarean ode of citrus,
pecans, jasmine, and herbs. Nevertheless, international
vines have been planted – for better or worse. Many
winemakers are using them with discretion to complement and
show off the native grapes, or vinifying them alone in
unabashed homages to France. Winemaker Vassilis Tsaktsarlis
travels both routes effectively at his Biblia Chora winery
in Macedonia. His Sauvignon Blanc/Assyrtiko blend is
reminiscent of a voluptuous Pinot Gris: nutty, gooseberry,
smoke, with a rounded minerally finish. Chora Red blends
Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, with tangy, smoky nose,
blackcurrant fruit, and a firm, sweet plum
finish.

These are among
the three score of Greece’s 3OO smaller wineries (according
to Nick Cobb of Boston-based greekwineries.com) that are
doing good things. Then there are the handful of
mega-players: Boutari (which bought up giant Cambas),
Tsantali (the jug brand in the Mateus bottles), Kourtaki
(dominating the Retsina market), and Achaia-Clauss (another
old family giant.)

BOUTARI
DINNER at MEZE
Boutari is a perfect example of a large, old winemaking
family business that has trimmed itself down for the modern
marketplace. Boutari has sold off its secondary vineyards,
sloughing off its huge bulk and jug market and focusing
exclusively on estate wines. In the estate vineyards they
have taken hands-on approach to every aspect of
winemaking.

Boutari,
surprisingly, is showing little interest in presenting
international varietals, except to blend them. (Merlot
appears in one blend). They expect that their strong suit
will be to find and perfect Greece’s best varietals. To that
end, they are spending massive sums on DNA research and
clonal selection.

John Pardalis
presided at Boutari’s Estate Wines launch dinner at Meze
Estatorio. John introduced the six blended wines, four of
them between Greek and ‘international’ varietals, and Chef
Paul Delios described the dishes, infused thoughtfully with
accompanying wines, which made matches spot-on. Meze is
pleased to be the only restaurant outside Manhattan with an
allocation of these scarce, quality bottlings.

Dinner began
with a seductively silky and aromatic blend of Assyrtiko
with Sauvignon Blanc from Roxane Matsa, an internationally
respected female winemaker. The watermelon salad’s dressing,
reduced with olive oil, orange juice and fennel, played its
barrel-aged feta cheese off the wine’s citrusy
character.

A low-oak
Chardonnay (blended with Vilana and Thrapsathiri) fit fine
with New Bedford diver scallops with baby spinach and orzo
risotto, largely because the wine had been reduced to make a
beurre blanc for the sauce. The golden wine, which showed
vanilla but no toast, is dauntingly hexasyllabic:
Fantaxometocho.

Halloumi cheese,
a grillable Cyprus ‘mozzarella’, came with dried figs and a
glaze made of Skalani, a rose blending Mandilaria and
Kotsifali in a lean spicy wine with a delightful
oregano/lavender nose.

Evinos, Pardalis
claims, is an international hit, marrying soft berry Merlot
(25-year-old vines) with high-tannin Xinomavro in sweet
American oak. Delios cast-iron braised chicken breasts in
lightly piquant tomato sauce and the wine, and served them
over pasta made with sour goat’s milk in the form of
couscous.

Cabernet
Sauvignon blended with Greek red stalwart Agiorgitiko makes
the wine poetically called Ode, served with its demiglace
coating a lamb chop, accompanied by a piquant, fried root
veggy patty, portabellos, and asparagus. This made two
dishes in a row where Delios forged a creative counterpoint
of resonantly appealing aromatics.

Baklava took a
new twist as Delios substituted pistachio for walnuts, red
wine/cinnamon syrup for honey, and added dried cherries. The
wine is Filiria, made of the classic dry red Xinomavro with
Negoska, a grape that brings a richer red, higher alcohol,
and inklings of Port.

GREEK
WINEMAKERS DOT-COM
On another front, a consortium of Greek wineries, gathered
into three portfolios through M.S. Walker, was displayed and
tasted recently at Brookline Liquor Mart in Allston. Agent
and broker Nick Cobb and his wife Christina Bay helped BLM
staff pour and discuss the wines: 11 whites, a rose, 6 reds,
and 4 dessert wines. Sotiris Bafitis was pouring his own
selections; Nick poured his own Ancient Vines/Modern Wines,
and Christina poured Samos dessert wines imported by Trireme
of North Carolina. To one who’d not been to Greece for a
generation, this tasting was another Rip Van Winkle wake-up
call. The wines were well-crafted as any mixed group from
many major wine producing nations. Prices are moderate and
competitive – not a steal. Cobb blames Greece’s national
inflation and the need to import all winemaking equipment
and supplies.

Two 2OO4 whites
from Central Greece (the Peloponnese), made primarily from
Savatiano (crisply acidic) and Roditis (cut with Muscat),
were refreshing and finished brightly. Three 2OO2 whites
from Lyrarakis Estate (Peza, Crete) were idiosyncratic with
good character: fleshy, flavorful and neither overripe nor
oxidized. Dafni smacked idiosyncratically of bayleaf, mint
and bitter honey; Cuvee Grande Colline effectively blended
fruity Vilana with Sauvignon Blanc and Sylvaner; Plyto was
straw-yellow, fleshy, nutty, overripe. Even more impressive
whites came from Macedonia (Evangelos Gerovissiliou’s
aromatic and seductive Malagousia) and Santorini (Yiannis
Argyros’ richly textured and minerally profound wine from
ancient Assyrtiko vines).

A stunning rose
was ‘Akakies’, a bone-dry strawberry shortcake of a
stainless-fermented Xynomavro by Kir-Yianni. Yiannis
Boutari, or “Mr. Johnny”, is a famed winemaker of the
Boutari family. As head of winemaking for his enormous
family business, he did much to help the Greek wine industry
become serious in short order: he was involved in creating
appellations and helping new winemakers, but was chagrined
to see his family corporation producing bulk wine (25
million bottles annually by the 198Os.) So Yiannis bowed out
of the corporation, taking as his share the family’s two
prime Macedonia vineyards and going off with his two sons –
Mihalis (Harvard, UC Davis) and Stelios (lately of Paterno,
Boutari’s US importer) – to concentrate on producing top
quality wines.

Best reds of
show were Cretan winemaker Vangelis Lidakis’ “Archanes”, a
softly pleasing dead-leaf Burgundian wine from Kotsifali and
Mandilaria grapes aged a year in 4-year-old oak, and a
chewy, tangy, soft and sweet Cabernet/Merlot blend from
Biblia Chora in Macedonia. Four dessert wines, imported by
Trireme Imports, come from the island of Samos, just off the
coast of Turkey; the Samos Cooperative makes them all from
Muscat (Blanc a Petits Grains), with ascending levels of
sugar from 221 to 5OO grams per liter for the Vin Doux and
the Nectar respectively.

When Fine Wine
Cellars of Chestnut Hill hosted a wine dinner at Elephant
Walk, Nick Cobb, principal of greekwinemakers.com, spoke
engagingly between courses about Greek wine re-volutions –
four in two millennia – as being dynamic and evolving.
Crete’s Minoans traded wine widely throughout the
Mediterranean in the second millennium BC. They made dry
reds, whites and dessert wines, created appellations,
blended wines with water, resins, honey and flavorings. They
exported vines to Italy and the colonies; Cretan grapes were
the ancestors of most Iberian varietals, including Madeira
and port. Crispy baby soft shell crabs in a paper cone came
with a refreshing muscatty Hima Fresh White, crafted to
Cobb’s specs for a light (11%) inexpensive summer wine. A
superb Greek salad with heirloom tomatoes was complemented
by the lightly herbaceous Lyrarakis Dafni. An impressively
acidic Sigalas Santorini (9O% Assyrtiko) set off bowls of
shelled mussels sauteed in a zippy jalapeno broth with Asian
basil, garlic, red bell pepper. Cubed fresh tuna and avocado
in a dressing with toasted galangal, garlic, shallot, rice
vinegar, fish sauce and crushed peanuts; garnished with baby
greens was underpinned by that Kir-Yianni Rose. Pork
tenderloin coated with a tamarind lemongrass sauce, with
mashed Yukon gold potatoes and sauteed pea tendrils was a
savory entree that matched intriguingly with Kir-Yianni
Paranga, a racy, peppery, slightly rustic Beaujolais-like
blend of unoaked Xinomavro with a little St. George
(user-friendly Anglicization of Agiorgitiko). Pandan leaf
flan with caramel sauce and a honey-sesame cookie made a
pleasing dessert contrasting with a brisk quaff of Samos Vin
Doux with an uncloying iced tea nose.

Greek Wines are
also beginning to appear in the major hotels, a sure sign of
widespread acceptance. Aujourd’hui Restaurant, in the Four
Seasons Hotel, held among their Epicurean Evenings in June a
relatively modest Greek dinner of three small courses and
wines – its highlight was a patty of Greek lokaniko sausage
sandwiched between eggplant rounds and surrounded with
swirls of fresh tomato, cinnamon (and perhaps a touch of
emulsified feta) accompanied by the Cretan winemaker
Lidakis’ Archanes described above.

Some restaurants
that may appear Greek in name and (with modifications)
cuisine may not embrace Greek wines. I emailed Christos
Tsardounis, the Greek-American chef/owner cooking
Mediterranean continental style at Ariadne Restaurant and
Bar in Newton Center, and received an answer that Ariadne
has not yet tried Greek wines on their list.

These are a few
entrees into Greek wine, but you’re sure to be seeing many
others. Visit syndicated journalist Jon Alsop’s website,
invinoveritas.com, for his rave about Cambas’ Mantinia and
its other excellent value wines. Stephen Meuse’s 2OO3
profile on Nick Cobb in the Boston Globe praised his
greekwinemakers.com website which has since expanded
considerably. Paul Delios has earned a bunch of rave reviews
for Meze in Boston press. Get Greek!