Greek Wine Thoughts
What's your wine budget? If its not high and you buy your taverna wine by the kilo or portion there of you can save a lot of money. A lot of the time you will be drinking retsina but not always. Tavernas don't sell bottled wine anyway.
GREEK BARREL WINE IS WHAT TO DRINK
The bottled stuff is no better and often worse! Some bottles may be fantastic but let a friend show you those! Greek bottled wine for export is improving year to year or at least that what the hype says and sure, there are always exceptions to rule. Don't believe
any hype about any wine or be fooled by the label and price. Retsina Greek wine
is an acquired taste but after you taste a good one, and have a glass or two, you will start to appreciate retsina a lot more. Locally made, its more healthy for you than most wine too. If you find yourself in a restaurant that doesn't have barrel wine then you didn't read
my section on avoiding
tourist traps or you are still at your hotel. You should be in a traditional
tavern or koutoukaki. These barrels left are what to look for!
On average Its more fun to drink in a taverna
I like good wine as much as the next guy; a $40 bottle of Merceau for example. Go to France for that or back home. I like Italian wines, some German wines, Algerian wines, Australian wines, Chilean wines, and Napa valley wines too! On average I don't care for paying extra for Greek wines out of a bottle. I have drunk them and I will do so again if some one offers me some. The Greek climate is too hot to allow for really exceptional wines. Weren't we taught that Red bottled wine has to breathe for at least a half an hour too? In Greece they never do that. Do you think most Greeks that only drink barrel wine need to know the difference between a white wine glass and a red wine glass? Most of them don't care and only drink white wine anyway. A red wine glass is wider so more air can get in and the wine can breathe... is that a bunch of hooey or what? How much more air gets in? .00003%? If you let the bottle breathe how much air really gets in? It does help the taste some
Remember the World Trade Center? Well before it got attacked there was a very prestigious restaurant called the Top of the World with one of the best wine cellars in the USA. The sommelier wrote an article which I read exposing some of the BS of wine pretentiousness. Wine is a BIG BUCKS, phony baloney business with a lot of stuff to wade through so don't be impressed by the hype. Most Greeks don't know about red wine glasses and they don't care because traditionally they made their own barrel wine fresh and it was not full of additives and adulterants and sulphur so it didn't need to breathe. They don't care what the proper wine is to drink with fish or meat since they mostly drink retsina. Now these Greek wine bottlers.. I don't know what they do to get their wine up to export grade. But I can guess and whatever it is it aint enough! Metaxa Brandy is another story and if you like it you are in luck in Greece! Greeks don't drink their wine out of fluted glasses either unless you go to a fancy place and order imported wine or "really good" Greek bottled wine.
Thriving Greek tavernas have locally produced barrel wine that is served by weight, i.e., by the kilo
or portion there of. The glasses you drink the wine from are short little
things, less than a cup.
Left
is an example. See those glass containers? from left to right : 1 Kilo of wine (ena kilo), 1/2 kilo (miso
kilo), 1/4 kilo (tetarto kilo), typical wine glass (poteeraki).
The wine serving
containers may often be made of copper too.
Greece,
unlike the USA,
with its Food Tobacco and Alcohol Revenue Agents,
allows wine production on a more human scale by smaller vintners, grape growers
or individuals. In other bureaucratic areas they are far worse. If you go to
Nemea in the Peloponnese you will be in one of Greece's wine producing areas
and can even purchase wine from road side stands in 1 liter ex-soda bottles (left). I did and was glad later back in Athens!
But don't store anything too long in plastic bottles, even water, in the sun!!This is possible in many areas of Greece including the islands such as Santorini, Lesvos, Paros or Crete.If you like you can dilute the wine with soda water. The ancients diluted their wine with plain water and honey. Diluting your wine might sound like heresy. It would be in an American restaurant, with a bottle of Merceau, but you're in Greece. They dilute ouzo as well and its a good idea.
In a good Greek taverna or koutoukaki , with good barrel wine you are only two steps away from the vineyard. Of course you don't have to dilute the wine. Its strong though.
The clearer and more golden the wine, the better. A rumor among my sources is that wine with impurities is what gives you a hang over. I thought it was too good to be true and I was right
Types of Greek barrel Wine Retsinotato or Lefko
Try Retsina wine, its not the same everywhere with many different micro-producers so if you don't like one type try another in a different taverna or koutoukaki. You can order it by weight and even try a small taste to see before ordering for the whole table. SAY: NA DOHKIMAZO?
Retsina is a rezinated wine that has pine resin flavoring added to it. They import this flavoring from Norway because the Greeks ran out of pine trees. ITS A TRADITION!
I used to think that the pine flavor was from the local pine barrels but have since learned.. it used to be. Now it comes from Norway as an additive, where they had the good sense not to cut down all the trees or set fire to them! Or at least replant them.
Sometimes the pine flavoring is over powering and if its your first taste of retsina you can be deceived into thinking they are all the same. They aren't. There are delicately flavored ones too that you will enjoy much more. Keep testing! Retsina goes well with fried foods as it cuts the taste of the oil, especially fish!
White wines which you and I would call just 'wines' are UN-RESINATED or AH-RETSINA-TOTATO
Other Types of Greek Wine
Red Barrel Wine or Kokinno Varrellisios
Kokinno Varrellisios (red barrel wine/non-rezinated) is rarer, but its out there and tastes pretty good too!
There are lots and lots of other types of decent Greek wine. You may get lucky and find a really exceptional one with legs, a fragrant fruity bouquet and depth.
As previously stated above on certain islands such as Santorini which grows a lot of grapes, they bottle the barrel wine and its pretty good so if you are wine lover be adventurous!
I have been disappointed numerous times by Greek wines purchased at the Liquor Store here in Athens or CAVA (from cave) as they are known here in Greece. I also find that after a couple of glasses it tastes better. I don't want to insult my Greek friends and tell them "this wine sucks and tastes like vinegar " do I? So I say something witty like" I am amused by its presumption".
One can purchase barrel wine in containers and take it home too but usually from restaurants not Cava's.
Daphni Greek Wine Festival
A really good opportunity to sample Greek Wines takes place every September at the Greek Wine Festival in Athens suburb Daphni. Its called the Daphni Greek Wine Festival and is a heck of a lot of fun!!! You can take the new metro even! There is a small admission fee and then you can drink all you want. I recommend it!
Drinks
Topical Wines
A large volume of wine is produced in Greece, both commercially and non commercially, the latter for family and friends. Families pride themselves on their homemade wine as they do on their oil and other produce. As wine grapes can be grown without water (after the vines are well established), anyone who has even a small plot of land, including in towns and villages, will have some grapevines, which are also very beautiful and decorative as they climb up and over trellises and balconies. Commercially grown wine is sold both bottled and in bulk ('sto vareli', which means, 'in the barrel'), the latter quite inexpensive and often excellent.
In Athens, there are some stores which specialize in Cretan products, which have good Cretan wine in the barrel, as well as the famous wines from Nemea, in the Peloponnese. Just about anywhere in Greece, however, tavernas sell bulk ('khima' in Greek) wine by the kilo, with different size carafes for varying amounts ordered by customers, and at almost every Greek village feast , one will see large (1 ½ liter) plastic Coke bottles filled with local wine, with more brought out as the meal proceeds. A liter of bulk wine can sell for as little as 3 euros in the villages, though one should always ask to sample the wine first, as quality ranges from excellent to undrinkable. Retsina (resinated wine) is not popular in all parts of Greece, though in tourist places one can always order some with a meal. Retsina is also sometimes available in bulk. As for bottled wines, there are some very good ones, and small wineries have opened in many places with advanced, state of the art equipment.
Raki (Tsipouro, Tsikoudhia)
This is the Greek equivalent of grappa, called by various names in Greece and with varying percentages of alcohol . Raki is made from the mash (strophila) left over after the wine making in a large still, called 'kazani' in some parts of Greece. On Naxos island, the place where the raki is made (often over a period of a month) is called a 'rakitzo' (pronounced, roughly 'raki-jo' and are often very much collective community affairs (like olive pressing), with people bringing their strophila to a family 'rakitzo' and sitting around evening after evening as the brew is being made, nibbling 'mezedhes' (snacks), drinking local wine, and sampling the fresh raki. Local musicians might come by and play a little, helping to pass the time. The older villages stills are often blackened with years of raki making, the hot fire under them fed with heavy olive tree branches). Raki, like ouzo (below), is also made and sold commercially. You can find raki sold in plastic bottles , often in the local 'hasapiko' (butcher shop), which is cheaper thanthe raki marketed in labelled glass bottles.
Raki is sometimes drunk by villagers along with a 'Greek coffee', or by itself with a little plate of peanuts, or some snack (bits of cheese and cucumber, etc.). It can also be served with a spoon sweet (above), or with a meal. 'Rakomelo' (from the combined Greek words, 'raki' and 'meli', which is honey), is raki heated with honey in a little briki ( small long handled pot used mostly for coffee), to be drunk on a damp winter day around the hearth or kafeneio (coffee house) table, to warm the innards and the soul. It's quite easy to drink a lot of this and end up pleasantly soused without realizing what's happening until it's too late.
Ouzo the 'ouzeri'
This popular drink is made from raki (above) flavored with aniseed or fennel according to special recipes, and can have up to 48% alcohol. Served with ice cubes, water is often added to it to dilute it, upon which it turns a milky white. There are numerous brand names for ouzo, the best said to be from Lesvos (Mytilini) and from Samos. The 'ouzeri' is a kind of bar where ouzo is served, along with a plate of 'mezehes' (plural of 'meze', which means a snack served on a plate-as opposed to tiropita and the like), though these days, some ouzeria will make you order (and pay for) them separately. Typical mezedhes include tomato, cucumber and cheese in small chunks, along with a few olives, though small fish or even octopus can be included. Fancier places, called 'mezedhopolia', serve elaborate mezedhes with the ouzo, which can amount a whole meal, though rather more expensive than eating at a taverna, especially with the ouzo, which is costlier than the local wine serve with most taverna fare.
Kitron
The kitron is a large fruit that resembles a lemon, but is much larger, a paler yellow in color, and producing little juice. The tree achieved Greek fame on the Cycladic island of Naxos, where there were vast numbers of the trees up through the early 20th century, with a famous local liqueur made from the stems and leaves of the tree, having a delicate lemony flavor, and sold in varying degrees of sweetness. An historic kitron producer, run by the Vallindras family since the late 19th century, shows visitors around its kitron 'factory' in the lovely village of Halki (housed in a lovely old wooden building with the stills in an area in back, where ouzo and raki are also produced).
Beer
More and more popular in Greece in recent years, beer is often ordered with a meal at a taverna, or brought home by the bottle or can, and there are a few Greek brands, notably Mythos and Alfa, though many drink Amstel or Heineken foreign but made in Greece under license.
