Drinking to Greece's Future

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One of the great things about wine is that there is SO MUCH of it made all over the world, that if you were wanting to find a good reason to try something new, you can justify it in many, very creative ways.

Tonight's excuse important reason for drinking wine, is that the Greek economy appears to be in a dreadful state, and they really could do with some more exports. So, right on cue, I decided to ride to their rescue and go to Waitrose to purchase the 2010 Santorini Assyrtiko from Hatzidakis.

Unfortunately, Greece needs something like €120 BILLION, and this bottle was only £8.24 (of which 40% goes to the UK government, and about 30% to John Lewis partners), but every little counts, right?

We really don't drink enough Greek wine in this country, despite the vast numbers of us who go there and enjoy it on holiday. There is a great deal of wonderful wine made there, but because  consumers are conditioned to buy according to price and grape variety, it is hard to convince them to buy better wines from grapes such as Assyrtiko that they have never heard of.

This particular Greek is an intense and robust character. The first impression of this white wine is the colour. It is no pale imitation, and the golden, almost almond, colour suggests that we ought to be expecting something more from this experience. Which, it turns out, is in fact the case. My first impression, immediately after opening it, was quite "spirity", in fact the first aromas reminded me of an orujo or a grappa, distilled spirits made from grapes. However, as it opened up, the smells also developed an attractive, ripe, tropical fruit character that reminded me very much of the dried mango snacks I have taken to munching on in my new "healthier" lifestyle (note, it does NOT exclude wine!) and a certain herbal note too.

The taste shows much of the same style - ripe tropical fruit, LOTS of acidity, a generous dollop of alcohol (the label says 14.5%) which also gives it a bigger, sweeter and oilier feeling in the mouth. However, it also has a layer of something more elegant and refined, a "minerality" I guess that gives it a fresh taste, a tingling on the back teeth that tells you that you're drinking something with a bit of class.

I've had this wine before, and if I'm honest, I think I'd say I preferred the other vintages with lower alcohol and a lighter style, but maybe 2010 was a hotter vintage with riper grapes.

In any case, I remind myself that my own wine exploration, and a helping hand for the winemakers of Greece and their economy, can coexist in perfect harmony, so I should make a special effort to drink more Greek wine. I hope you consider doing the same.

It was all about age on Fathers Day

A truly great wine experience is often a combination of a great wine and the perfect moment to enjoy it. I had one of these on Father's Day.

I thought it might be fun to share some of the stresses and sublime rewards of opening a bottle of wine older than many wine bloggers (though not this one), because although they are fairly rare, they are not necessarily impossible to find or afford.

Father's Day is already a great indulgence, with a lie-in, gifts and cards from the kids, and not having to toss a coin to decide the designated driver for the drive home. I was given the opportunity to select the wine to accompany the delicious roast beef (Mum's Aga-cooked meals with lots of home-grown vegetables are already wonderful), and so I headed off to the wine rack to explore.

Fortunately, some months ago, I divided up and labelled my father's small collection into:

  • D: Drink
  • S: Special (can drink now, but it will keep, and make sure I am invited)
  • K: Keep (it will be better with a little more age)

... so it was the turn of an "S". 

I found a bottle we bought together as part of a mixed case of single bottles of old vintages when we were living in Logroño, La Rioja, during the 2008 vintage. This was a Viña Ardanza, La Rioja Alta, 1981 the same wine I tasted the 2000 vintage of recently. 

The wine looked in great shape for something that had been in the bottle for almost 30 years, though I was getting mixed messages. First, the most obvious, was the ullage, which is the gap between cork and the top of the wine. If this is too great, it indicates that wine has escaped, and oxygen has probably got in. This was almost normal (GOOD).

The cork was moist (GOOD), a little too moist (BAD), and was loose enough to move if you pushed it (BAD). Not really a great sign, but not a killer. In the end it split as I pulled it out (needed a Butler's Friend really), but it wasn't crumbling (GOOD), and the last section made a VERY satisfying POP! as it came out (GOOD). 

The moment of truth. A quick sniff ... and ... oh, yummy!

I decided to decant it. Old Rioja doesn't have a great deal of sediment, but the wine had been locked in the bottle for 30 years and a breath of fresh air before drinking seemed only fair.

The colour was no longer the purple of young Tempranillo, nor the normal brick red of aged Reserva Tempranillo. This was definitely autumnal leafy brown, rusty and almost see-through, with a hint of reddishness in the centre to stop you wondering whether it was just oxidised (and effectively rusted to death).

Sniffing the glass brought to mind all sorts of images of things that would normally be warning sings that something was wrong, because most wines are mean to be drunk young and fruity these days. This wine was anything but, yet it was still vibrant in that it tasted "right", despite having characters we might balk at normally.

The smell was really rich, balsamic, with hints of mushroom and lots of cedar and bit of damp bark, but in the same sense that a damp forest smell can be both fresh, clean and alive, yet also decomposing. The aromas were of spice not fruit, also a bit nutty. A world away from those wines that bring to mind little more than fruit cocktails. 

The revelation when we tasted it was the absolute velvety smooth feel, with soft tannins, but yet a freshness from the acidity that showed that this was a wine that had the backbone to survive all this time. There was something sweet and bright, with an impression of pepper on dark fruit, that added to the complex flavours of the cedar wood. And to top it all, it had what we call in the trade, "great length" - which means the flavours seemed to linger in your mouth even after swallowing, so the impression remained clear for ages.

This may seem a little over the top as a description of a single wine, but there are moments that remind you that wine is something special, evolving, and rewarding, and that drinking it at the right moment, in the right circumstance is a privilege to savour rather than something you can programme, and this was one of them.

I urge you to do a little digging and find wines from special years (birth years, wedding dates, memorable events) to savour with friends and family. They are not everyday wines, but you'd be surprised how affordable they are for such memorable experiences.

I trust the other fathers out there had memorable moments with their families too. Cheers lads!

 

Update: Some places to buy older vintages by the bottle:

Feeling like a treat tonight. Need cheering up, so dug this out the wine rack

La Rioja Alta, Viña Ardanza Reserva, 2000, Rioja 13%

Photo

Tasting note:

The nose is all leather, fresh tobacco leaf, cedar and plum and just a hint of mushroom. It is dark and inviting, and the still purple tinged colour suggests it is still in great shape.

In the mouth, the effect is still of that tobacco leaf and cedar, but maybe more vegetal and leafy than in the very best vintages, and lacking the rich balsamic character created by the wonderful combination of aged, dark fruit and American oak. The tannins are soft, and there is a core of plummy, cherry fruit, but the effect here is slightly drying as it doesn't quite have the fruit concentration to hit all the marks.

I wonder whether this will develop more, or whether, actually, it is better to drink up. I'm guessing the latter. 2001 was such a great year I imagine there are better examples still out there (I had a 1994 in a half-bottle not THAT long ago which was DELICIOUS) that maybe these other years should be appreciated now while we wait for them to reach their peak.