Σύμφωνα με μια
πρώτη ελεύθερη μετάφραση,
«...Τα λευκά
ελληνικά κρασιά, με τις ονομασίες «Μοσχοφίλερο», «Ροδίτης» και «Ασύρτικο» τα
θεωρώ ως ενα «παράλληλο σύμπαν» το οποίο αγκαλιάζεται από ένα μεγάλο κοινό, εξ
αιτίας των ιδιαίτερα ελκυστικών και μυστηριακών τους γεύσεων, πολύ περισσότερο
απ ότι εάν αποτελούσαν (εάν ήταν «καταχωρημένα» και γίνονταν αντιληπτά ως) «τυπικά»
«καλοκαιρινά» κρασιά (εννοείται εδώ η εποχή της συγκομιδής των αμπελιών και της
έναρξης της διαδικασίας οινοποίησης), όπως το pinot grigio. Απο τις παραπάνω
ποικιλίες θα ξεχώριζα ιδιαίτερα (σσ. οτι διαφοροποιείται περισσότερο) το
Ασύρτικο....»
The white wine grapes of Greece — with names like
moschofilero, roditis and assyrtiko — sound a bit scary, like alien beings. But
I think of them as the constituents of a parallel universe in which crowds of
people embrace these wonderfully refreshing, intriguing whites, rather than
default to generic summer white wines like pinot grigio. I imagine this for the
assyrtiko, especially.
Αξίζει να
σημειώσουμε ότι στο κείμενο γίνεται ιδιαίτερη αναφορά και δίνεται μεγάλη
σημασία στην διαφοροποίηση -μεταξύ τους- των κρασιών. Στην ανάγκη δηλαδή «δημιουργίας»
αλλά και ανάδειξης των ιδιαίτερων χαρακτηριστικών του καθενός, αυτό δηλ. που
στην αγορά και το σύγχρονο μάρκετινγκ, ονομάζεται «ταυτότητα».
Αναφορές επίσης
γίνονται και στο γεγονός του «στοιχήματος», της προοπτικής και του στόχου, που
βρίσκεται σε φάση υλοποίησης, τα ελληνικά κρασιά, από κει που «υπήρχαν»,
διατίθενται και σερβίρονταν σε τοπικό επίπεδο, να βρίσκονται και να διανύουν σήμερα
την διαδικασία της διεθνοποίησής τους, και της παρουσίας τους σε ικανοποιητικές
ποσότητες στις διεθνείς αγορές, κάτι που αποτελεί την σημερινή μεγάλη πρόκληση
των οινοποιών.
Σύμφωνα με τον
συντάκτη πάντως αυτή η διαδικασία βρίσκεται σε καλό δρόμο και έχει επιτυχημένα
αποτελέσματα.
Στην συνέχεια
ακολουθεί η κατάταξή τους, το tasting report που υπογράφει ο Tasting
Coordinator: Bernard Kirsch, και στην οποία λίστα τα 6 από τα δέκα λευκά κρασιά
προέρχονται από την Σαντορίνη.
Πρόκειται για λευκά
κρασιά των οινοποιείων : 1.ARGYROS SANTORINI
Assyrtiko 2011, 2.DOMAINE SIGALAS, 3.GAIA, 7.GAIA (2),
8.DOMAINE SIGALAS, 9.ARGYROS.
Tasting Report
The panel tasted white wines from Greece.
1.ARGYROS SANTORINI
Assyrtiko 2011 *** ½ $19
Clean, precise and energetic with a succulent texture
and briny, mineral flavors.
Richard Perry/The New York Times
Importer: Athenee Importers, Hempstead, N.Y.
2.DOMAINE SIGALAS
3.GAIA
4.COSTA LAZARIDI
5.SEMELI
6.KΤΗMA
PAVLIDIS
7.GAIA (2)
8.DOMAINE SIGALAS
9.ARGYROS
10.KIR-YIANNI
Tasting Coordinator: Bernard Kirsch
Σχετικά με τα λευκά
κρασιά της Σαντορίνης αναφέρεται (πολύ περιληπτικά απο πλευράς μετάφρασης..) οτι
διαρκώς βελτιώνουν την ποιότητά τους, οτι στις περισσότερες περιπτώσεις
παράγονται σε ποσοστό 100% της ποικιλίας Ασύρτικο, αν και υπάρχουν και
εξαιρέσεις.
Για τα κρασιά
της ποικιλίας Ασύρτικο αναφέρεται ότι έχουν μια χαρακτηριστική υφάλμυρη
μεταλλική γεύση, που θα έμοιαζε με αυτήν που θα μπορούσε να έχει το απόσταγμα
εκατομμυρίων μικρών θαλασσινών κοχυλιών.
Επίσης και σε
επίπεδο σύγκρισης, σημειώνεται ότι από «τυφλές» γευστικές δοκιμές έχει προκύψει
ότι μοιάζουν με το κρασί «Chablis».
Η δε Σαντορίνη
χαρακτηρίζεται ως «ασυνήθιστος» (σσ δύσκολος) τόπος για την παραγωγή κρασιών,
μιας και τα αμπέλια απαιτούν αρκετή δουλειά για να καρποφορήσουν, αφού και κάθε
χρόνο κλαδεύονται και γίνονται κουλούρες επάνω στο ηφαιστειογενές έδαφος, για
να προφυλαχθούν από τους δυνατούς ανέμους, ενω απορροφούν την υγρασία του αέρα
(του περιβάλλοντος) στο κατά τ’ άλλα ξηρό κλίμα του νησιού.
Αναφορά γίνεται
επίσης και στις καλές τιμές που στις ετικέτες που αναφέρονται κυμαίνονται από $14
έως $24.
Στην συνέχεια
του κειμένου ακολουθούν πληροφορίες σχετικά με το κάθε κρασί που εμφανίζεται
στην λίστα.
Skip the insipid wines. Go right to good bottles. Discriminate.
End of rant. The good news is, 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.
A recent wine panel tasting of Greek whites from the
2011 and 2012 vintages affirmed the quality and value of these wines. For the
tasting, Florence Fabricant and I were joined by Laura Maniec, proprietor of
Corkbuzz Wine Studio in Greenwich Village, and Levi Dalton, a sommelier and
host of the “I’ll Drink to That” series of podcasts.
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. This is no small issue. It’s akin
to a farmer, who might have sold eggs in town for years, figuring out how to
ship the fragile commodity to another state while keeping quality and product
intact. It raises all sorts of questions involving production and transport.
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. These wines in particular show pure briny,
mineral flavors, as if they were the concentrated essence of millions of tiny
seashells. Not once but several times during the blind tasting a comparison was
made to Chablis, which cuts a similarly saline profile.
Santorini, one of the Cyclades Islands in the Aegean, is an unusual
place to grow grapes. The vines are trained in curls to
hug the volcanic soil as protection against the fierce sea winds. They also
absorb moisture from the dew in this otherwise dry climate.
Our three favorite wines were all Santorini assyrtikos, as were 6 of our
top 10, which was particularly impressive because only seven
Santorini assyrtikos were in the tasting, and the seventh just missed the cut.
“Beauty, purity, racy acidity, refreshing: they really show island
living,” Laura said. She forgot to mention moderately priced:
All the wines on our list were $14 to $24.
Our top three wines reflected the best and most
consistent Santorini producers, not necessarily in any particular order. In fact,
each of these producers had two wines on the list. No. 1 was the 2011 assyrtiko from
Argyros, which has made wine on Santorini for more than a century. It’s
entirely assyrtiko, and vinified in steel tanks to maximize its clean
zestiness. Yet this is not a fruity wine. The flavors are savory and textural.
This was also our best value at $19.
The second Argyros wine was No. 9, the 2011 Atlantis.
This was 90 percent assyrtiko, with the remainder made up of two even more
obscure grapes, aidani and athiri. That appears to be the only difference
between the two wines, yet this one was altogether simpler, though nonetheless
pleasant.
The next pair of wines came from Domaine Sigalas, which
has been in business a mere 20 years but is perhaps the most intriguing of the
Santorini producers. In contrast with Argyros, we preferred Sigalas’s 2011
blend of 75 percent assyrtiko and 25 percent athiri (our No. 2 wine) over its
2012 100 percent assyrtiko, our No. 8. The blend was earthy and briny, with a
wonderfully inviting texture, while the 2012 was tangy and pleasing, and
likewise savory.
Levi suggested the different vintages might have been
a factor, and speculated that 2011 was probably better. Both of these wines
were fermented in steel tanks. But Sigalas also makes a fascinating assyrtiko
fermented in oak barrels, which very much affects the texture and character of
the wine. Sadly, we did not have a bottle in our tasting.
The third pair came from Gaia, another winery
about 20 years old. These two wines were both 100 percent assyrtiko, fermented
in different ways. Our No. 3 wine, the 2012 Wild Ferment, uses, as its name
suggests, ambient yeast rather than specific yeast selected by the winery, as
with the 2012 Gaia Thalassitis, our No. 7.
The choice of yeast is a prime area of disagreement
among winemakers: some opt for the measure of control offered by the more
predictable selected yeast, and others assert that the more capricious ambient
yeast produces a clearer sense of place in the wine.
Too many other variables separate these bottles to
focus only on the yeast. The grapes come from different vineyards, and the Wild
Ferment undergoes its fermentation partly in oak barrels, while the Thalassitis
ferments entirely in steel tanks. We preferred the Wild Ferment for its earthy,
mineral complexity, but nonetheless liked the lively Thalassitis as well. These
wines both require a bit of air, especially when they are young. I recommend
decanting.
The remaining four wines are from various parts of the
Greek mainland. No. 4, the 2011 Costa Lazaridi Amethystos, from Drama in the
northeast, is a racy, tart blend of assyrtiko with sauvignon blanc and
sémillon. No. 5, the 2011 Mountain Sun from Semeli in the Peloponnese region,
is primarily moschofilero blended with roditis. They are both fragrant,
red-tinged white grapes, with moschofilero coming off as a combination of pinot
gris and gewürztraminer.
No. 6, the 2012 Kitma Pavlidis Thema, also from Drama, a
combination of assyrtiko and sauvignon blanc, offers a lingering textural
presence, while No. 10, the 2011 Kir-Yianni Petra from the Macedonian district,
primarily roditis, is chalky, floral and light-bodied.
Taken as a whole, this impressive set of wines makes a
strong case for Greek whites this summer. No offense, pinot grigio, but your
time is passing.
BEST VALUE
Argyros Santorini, $19, *** ½ Assyrtiko
2011
Clean, precise and energetic with a succulent texture
and briny, mineral flavors. (Athenee Importers, Hempstead, N.Y.)
Domaine Sigalas, $22, *** Santorini Assyrtiko-Athiri 2011
Earthy and savory with a lip-smacking texture and
zesty herbal flavors. (Diamond Importers, Chicago)
Gaia, $22, *** Santorini
Assyrtiko Wild Ferment 2012
Light-bodied, earthy and toasty, with lingering
flavors of flowers and minerals. (Athenee Importers)
Costa Lazaridi, $15, ** ½ Drama
Amethystos 2011
Inviting texture, with racy, tart, persistent flavors
of citrus and nuts. (Nestor Imports, New York)
Semeli, $14, ** ½
Peloponnese Mountain Sun Moschofilero 2011
Clean and refreshing with pretty citrus and mineral
flavors. (V.O.S. Selections, New York)
Kitma Pavlidis, $15, ** ½
Drama Thema 2012
Floral and citrus aromas with a texture that lingers.
(Athenee Importers)
Gaia, $21, ** ½ Santorini
Thalassitis 2012
Lively and inviting with floral and mineral aromas. (Athenee
Importers)
Domaine Sigalas, $24, ** Santorini Assyrtiko 2012
Tangy and pleasing with stony, savory flavors.
(Diamond Importers)
Argyros, $15, ** Santorini
Atlantis 2011
Straightforward and pleasant with aromas and flavors
of citrus, flowers and earth. (Athenee Importers)
Kir-Yianni,
$14, ** Macedonia Petra 2011
Chalky and floral, light-bodied yet tightly knit. (V.O.S.
Selections)
