All About Greek Wine – GAI’A

This was a media sample from New Wines of Greece

Nostalgia –  [no-stal-juh] noun: a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one’s life, to one’s home or homeland, or to one’s family and friends; a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time.

I’ve been trying to come up with the right way to describe the taste of this Rosé, but I just couldn’t put my finger on what it brought to mind until I was at a fund-raiser last night.  When it was time for dessert, we had two choices banana pudding or strawberry cobbler.  Immediately nostalgic thoughts of my Grandmother making homemade cobbler in her quaint little kitchen came to mind.  I loved her cobblers – strawberry, blackberry and peach – so naturally I chose the cobbler.  The first bite brought back the flavors of this 14-18h Rosé in full force.  That’s what the wine reminded me of, Grandma’s cobbler.  With a hint of tart strawberries, this wine has a crisp finish, not too long on the finish and very refreshing.

Varietal: Rosé, GAI’A Wines of Koutsi, Nemea       Alcohol: 13.1%       Price: $15

I know Rosé wines have been around forever, but I just developed an affinity for them last summer.  There is nothing better than a good dry Rosé well chilled to take the edge off a hot, humid, summer day.  When the wines of Greece arrived at my office, I was thrilled to see a Rosé included in the samples.  As I knew I was traveling out of town the next day, the evening of the webinar, I chose to only open three of the six wines and save the other three for tasting and reviewing at a later date.  I am really glad this is one I held back.

There is a revolution in the Greek Wine Industry and their wines are garnering attention all over the world.  Bloggers and columnists alike are writing about the breath-taking scenery of Greece as well as these wonderful wines.  We can’t all travel to Greece to taste wine, but you can go to your local wine store and check out what is on the shelf.  The price is reasonable and the quality is top-notch.

(Special note: I apologize for the picture.  I recently upgraded to a new cell phone and they were not able to transfer my pictures from the old phone. 😦 so all I was able to get was a picture of the label off the info sheet that came with the shipment.)

All About Greek Wines – Grande Reserve Naoussa Boutari

This wine was a media sample.

I was thrilled s few weeks ago to be invited to taste Greek wines along with the webinar – All About Greek Wine.  I opened up three (3) of the six (6) wines they sent me to taste along with the webinar.  I had heard mixed reviews about Greek wines prior to the webinar and had personally never tasted any wines from Greece prior to the webinar.  But I must say, all of the wines they tasted during this social media event were really good wines, with some being better than others.  However, when I first opened this 2007 Grande Reserve Naoussa Boutari, I wasn’t sure……….

It was so hot outside the day I opened this wine.  I think it was our first day over 90 degrees.  I was driving home from work and thought the air was never going to cool the car off so all I could think about was getting home and opening a nicely chilled white wine.  I already knew I was going to open my last bottle of the Greek wines I had received; but when I pulled it out of the wine fridge, I realized it was a red wine – and that I had NO white wine in the house.  Shrugging it off, I decided to go ahead and open the Naoussa Boutari.  Even hubby decided to have a glass with me. 

Even though the wine was a beautiful red hue, it was an extremely light bodied wine, not what I was expecting at all.  It was very smooth with mild tannins and no lingering finish.  Another sip or two and I decided to set the bottle in the refrigerator to bring the temperature down a bit more.  That did the trick!  I wouldn’t typically recommend chilling a red wine that much, but this wine was drinking more like a white than a red.  (Had I read the bottle, it stated that the wine should be served at 18 degrees Celsius which is just below 65 degrees farenheit.)

This Naoussa Boutari was aged in oak for more than four years.  Made from grapes of the Xinomavro variety, it weighs in at 13.5% alcohol.

It was a  perfect pairing for this Cucumber Salad.

All About Greek Wines: Mantinia

This wine was a media sample.

A few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to be invited to sip some great “New Wines of Greece” as I watched a webinar about these same wines.  It was my first experience with Greek wines and I was very impressed.  Greece has experienced a true revolution within their winemaking industry.  As recently as 20 years ago Greek wines were not considered up to par by the wine world.  That is not the case today as these wines now enjoy main stream distribution and are found all around the globe. 

One of the wines we had for the webinar was Mantinia from Domaine Tselepos  – this particular wine is 100% Moschofilero and is from a “Protected Designation of Origin, Mantinia.”   It is a dry white wine, very aromatic with floral aromas on the nose and complex, refreshing, crisp  flavors on the palate.  It is 12% alcohol and can be purchased at your local wine store for around $17.

Some interesting facts about Greek wines:

• The Greeks were among the first people to serve wine at the dinner table – more than 4,000 years ago
• All Greek wines are made from indigenous grapes with the vineyards being heavily influenced by the ocean
• Some of the vines producing grapes today are as much as 3,000 years old