Peloponnese | Greek Wine World

2006
Cava Domaine Mercouri

After the autumn rains, the Ionio Pelagos humidity clears up. Almost within reach, the mountain outline of the island of Zakynthos comes into focus. At dusk, visible from the Mercouri Estate gardens, car lights flicker across from the island that the Venetians called the Fioro de Levante. Cava Mercouri is home to the setting of perhaps the prettiest natural outdoor ‘tasting room’ under a corridor of pine trees. It is in this sheltered tranquil oasis that I recently tasted a selection of the older red vintages. For a full progress report you will have to wait for the publication of the forthcoming book. Meanwhile, of the many bottles opened, one stood out: the Cava 2006. This label is a vineyard selection of the finest grapes. Refosco dal Penduncolo Rosso (80%) and Mavrodaphne (20%), the small berried tsingela, though technicians are not in unison that it is a clone per se.

Most of you unfamiliar with Greek and European wine laws must be wondering what the word ‘Cava’ is doing on a still red wine. Simply put, when Spain joined the EU, in 1986, two Southern European wine cultures had different interpretations of the term. Luckily, it concerned very different types of wine. In short, Spain kept Cava for their Catalan sparkling white wine, and Greece kept Cava for still cellar-aged white, to a lesser degree, and mostly red wine.

Dark. Bright fruit. Intense. Refosco freshness and structure. Spicy wood and currant fruit with soft, generous Mavrodaphne tannins. A hint of tobacco on the finish. Very pure. Poised. A more modern, rounder tannin profile than earlier vintages (the stellar 2000 comes to mind). Partly down to malolactic fermentation now taking place in cask. Few wines reflect with such clarity their place of origin – in this case the balmy, warmer maritime Ionian. Recommended in carafe. Best 2010-2020.

Score: 17.5/20

For more information, please visit www.mercouri.gr

28.09.2009

2007
Gaia S

gaia2_2007 While tasting at Gaia’s Nemea-Koutsi winery a few years back, I was looking out of their tasting room. Staring at me, amongst their Aghiorghitiko vineyard, was a patch of young vines. I asked what clones and rootstock they were using. I got a very different answer from the usually humdrum numbered codes and the like. “It is Syrah. As the soil is marl, it is a gamble,” replied Yianni Paraskevopoulos. That’s news, I said to myself. Since Gaia’s inception in 1994, they have devoted their energies only to indigenous varieties.

Syrah thrives on granitic slopes dusted with mica. It does rather well on schist at various sites in the Iberian peninsula. In Greece’s fragmented vineyard, this sun and wind grape has been taken to a variety of different latitudes, microclimates and soil types. With promising, to very good, results so far, easily outperforming the darling of the 1980s and 1990s, the ubiquitous Cabernet Sauvignon.

Central Crete, the red soils of Maronia on the northern Aegean shoreline, and the sandy-limestone bedrock of cooler-climate Amyndeon are three top-performing Syrah sites that spring to mind. These early (since the 1990s) Syrahs display lovely aromatic complexity and flavours. So, you may ask, how is this incomer adapting on a hillside in Nemea? Having tasted ’06-’07-’08 vintages in cask solo, it does not thrill me. Muted aroma, “sweeter” than Aghiorghitiko. As they say, it is no great shakes. Thus far it is of mild interest – a work in progress. The answer lies in the cellar and not in the vineyard. This Franco-Hellenic marriage does become something rather different when blended and in bottle. The Koutsi terroir dominates the Syrah, packing it with finesse and toning down the pepper and other usual Syrah aromatics fireworks. It is a clever blend. With 70% of Aghiorghitiko, it essentially becomes a new type of wine. Think of it as a mixed-blood well-mannered cosmopolitan. Does it have a raison d’être? Unreservedly yes. Are we witnessing the birth of a super Nemea as Tuscany experienced in the 1970s? Quite possibly, but only time will tell. So far, the all-indigenous Gaia Estate is superior. That Syrah patch yielded enough in 2007 to produce 7,614 numbered unfiltered bottles. Price-wise, Gaia S sits just below Gaia Estate. As the first two vintages sold out within 48 hours even with the current economic downturn, there seems to be a demand for the new and unusual.

Youthful purple rim. Medium dark. Seductive floral aroma with “sweet” berry notes. Round and juicy. Warm fruited. Long and intensely flavoured, oozing black cherries. Bold but soft tannins. Vanilla notes meshed with Koutsi signature limestone mineral. Still raw. Worth decanting. Best 2011-17.

Score: 17.5/20

For more information, please visit www.gaia-wines.gr

3.06.2009

2008
Red on Black Nemea Mitravelas Estate

red_on_black As the largest in size appellation planted to one grape, Nemea has much going for it: Proximity to Athens, the nation’s largest single market. A countryside reminiscent of Umbria or Southern Tuscany. No wonder it is a hot destination for wine exploring weekends. The town of Nemea itself is not attractive, a fact made all the more apparent by its pretty location on the foothills of Mount Profitis Ilias, studded with a diverse maquis, olive groves, conifers. Imposing, above the town is the old school with its neoclassical facade. It was to this school that Kostas Mitravelas went. This soft spoken 30 something is the fourth generation Nemea merchant of bulk wine. Without much fanfare, in 2004, he started to bottle some of his best batches. Having tasted yearly with him, I have made him one of my Nemea templates. If only other Nemea producers paid such attention to his vineyard appraisal and blending discipline. Assisted by 20 something oenologist Gregory Vrettos, and with much hard work, they have quickly risen to one of Nemea’s top addresses. Sensibly, with the current crisis, they are concentrating on two labels only. The other being the Mitravelas Estate, a cask fermented, dense, more expensive wine. It is good; different to many that have come my way. There will be a future posting. Meantime, the estate’s trump card remains the Red on Black(Kokkino se Mavro).

It is a blend of +20 year old, mostly bush vines. The colour is deep, of blue-purple rim. A burst of fruit, with the black cherries of Aghiorghitiko leaping out of the glass. It has good structure. Richly flavoured, with freshness keeping it interesting all through the finish. Polished. Retailing in Greece at Euro 6 per bottle, this ‘rule breaker’ (slightly chilled) soft fruity red wine is a cracker. You will not find so much bang for your money elsewhere from this in vogue appellation.

Score: 16,5/20

For more details please visit: www.mitravelas.com

UK Agent : www.bibendum-wine.co.uk

Where to stay and eat in Nemea: Yiorgos Sofos rooms above his restaurant at the end of the square, near the monument of the Fallen Soldier is a welcoming oasis.
Cellular: (+30) 6945493538

5.05.2009

Wine geography