Floara di Munte 2005 Methode Traditionnelle Katogi Averoff
The market is awash with Champagnes, Prosecchi, featherlight Asti Muscats, even Aussie sparkling Shiraz. So what’s happening on the home front? Rhodes, Mantinia, Amyndeo and Zitsa sparklers have been around for almost 50 years now. Curiously, investment in this underdeveloped category has been lacking. Surely someone must have spotted this lucrative niche!
Have just spent two days tasting the streamlined range and a peek into the future, up north at Katogi Averoff, the pioneering boutique winery and now hotel in Metsovo, which lies almost in the middle of the Pindos mountain range. There was thick fog on the Katara Pass and snow on the higher elevations.
Dijon graduate oenologist Dimitri Ziannis is a man of few words. His carefully chosen comments are factual and candid. While quizzed about the 2006 Pinot Noir herbaceous notes, he mentions the rains of that vintage and that the holy grail of grapes was not as phenolically ripe as the 2007, which is perhaps the most promising of the tiny in presence very fine grape now in cooler climate Greece.
Back in 2004, he sought the advice of the Zitsa specialist and respected colleague Vassilis Vaimakis to identify one of the finest of the Debina grape farmers. The 2005 vintage was terrific in this cooler region in the north-western corner of the highly fragmented Greek vineyard. Harvest took place on October 3. The wine was kept on its fine lies for 5 months. It was then bottled with the addition of liqueur de tirage to undergo a secondary fermentation. It was aged for 24 months prior disgorging and corking in spring of 2008.
Quantities may not be large here, but qualitatively this exploratory effort has been a revelation. The mousse in a flute shaped glass is initially medium small. A few minutes later the sparkles become smaller beads . The carbon dioxide is soft, not metallic and harsh, something that plagues other Greek sparkling wines. The aroma is balanced, with an alternating yeasty creaminess and a nod towards the non-muscaty terpenes of Debina. It is elegantly balanced and, despite the residual sugar of 6 gr./l., finishes bone dry. Alcohol is 11.8% ABV. The name? Local Vlach dialect for: Flower of the Mountain.
If the grape sourcing can be expanded there are plans for a little more to go round. The Floara di Munte 2005 is, yet again, indisputable proof that the location of the vineyard and its farming practises do play such an important role in any wine, even if it is made using the methode traditionnelle, which is how Champagne is made.
Score: 17/20
For more information please see: www.katogihotel.gr
Greece distributor: www.karoulias.gr
14.02.2009
