This was another great exploration for me of some Greek wines that I have not seen ever before even though I know the grapes and have heard of STROFILIA. I must say it was another eye-opener for me / as well as tongue-enticer as I have been selling Greek wines now very well at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20008 Tel : 202-363-4265 sales@clevelandparkwine.com www.clevelandparkwine.com ) where have managed the wine department for practically the whole ten years that I have been there.
I loved best the last wine with the funky label and all the artsy hand-writing and old-time-tweaked-a-bit-graphics. It had such an earthy and traditional style that I believe could have only come from there in Metovo, Greece : a 2006 with utter originality and character - bravo!
However, saying that I want to quickly add that I liked all the wines at least one one level or more. WE will buy some of them in the future as we have more room on our shelves. For the time-being our Greek shelves are looking pretty good. That can change anytime, depending on who comes to buy some for a party or for gifts as I have one customer David that is Greek and always comes and buys a good portion of what we have to give to his friends as gifts. Don't you just love it? I do!
The five wines that I tasted here were : 1) STROFILIA Blue-Label 2008 , 2) STROFILIA Red Label 2006 3) Xinomavro of KATWRI dry red 2005 , 4) Agiorgitiko 2007 of STROFILIA and 5) KATOGI AVEROFF dry red 2006 of KAWRI, Metsov, Greece. It was bottled by KATOGI @ STRAFOLIA. All these wines have 13% alcohol by volume.
It's now Thursday, March 19th, 2010 as I write this from home before going to work in Washington D.C. It's 9:11 AM and I do not have my notes handy and so I will write what I remember as this tasting occurred for me in the store before the great snowstorm of the century hit Washington D.C. about a month ago. My memory fades a bit as I try so many wines. I do want to try and keep up and post these blogs for their visual attributes as well as their informative qualities.
Being an artist I see the beauty in the colors and their various shades and hues depending upon the light and how it hits them. I like sharing this as it is stimulating and attractive and adds to the equation available already of many reviews and facts and opinions. These pictures with the wines by the bottles from which they come I hope just makes you think about trying one of them on for size/fit and feel on your tongue and palate? That would be nice. Support these wonderful wines made in Greece from indigenous grape varieties like the Xinomarvro and the Agiorgitiko ( St. George ) grape varieties. And don't forget others like the bone-dry, citrusy and tart Valana grape from Crete that we sell( $13.49 )!
A bit of history for you all : my history. I first started noticing Greek wines back in the mid nineteen eighties when importer Aris Zizzis ( Atlantic Imports ) brought them to my attention when I worked at the Mayflower Wines & Spirits with Sidney Moore, Michael Downey, Larry Jennings, Leon and Iris, Karen, John and more. Those were some fun days and back then no one talked much about Greek wines at all. The canvas was still literally almost all white to use an art reference. I liked that a lot : things were simpler then and more about the wine and the love of wine, food, family and enjoyment and less about making wines easier to understand to sell more cases and make more money and as a result also limit the variety that exists because it's too complicated and nobody has any time for it. That's at least some of the philosophy today and I am trying to combat that by championing the Xinomavro, Agiogitiko, Valana, Moscofilero, Roditis and many other indigenous grapes from Greece. Vive La Variete!
AS you can see by these pictures I like to see what my Canon camera and I can see together as I try and extract as much as I can from each of these pictures with composition, color and form and texture and light, too. It's fun. Wine is a wonderful art form and it relaxes people and brings a comfort and and releases/makes evaporate for a time or pressing stresses and I love it for that. I still feel passionate about wine after all these years and for that I am blessed.
As I said already I will look into getting some of these soon.
My daughter in DEcember of 2009 visited Athens and the island of Santorini and so I am very much thinking of selling Greek wines when I can so that I may share the stories that she told me about Santorini as I speak of the wines like those of ATLANTIS where she went to visit owner Mathew that gave her a tour and a tasting of some of his wines. I still have not met Mathew but I hope either he makes it here or I make it there.
We have four or more shelves filled with Greek wines so come on by and get a bottle or two as the weekend is coming soon and the sun is out, there are baby-blue skies now up above and it's around 60 degrees these last two days here. It's a perfect time to celebrate the weather and the Spring that is teasing us now and that will soon be here.
There are a number of dedicated Greek suppliers out there willing and ready to help us like Aris Zizzis of Atlantic Imports and Sotiris Bafitis ( works now with Nicolas, used to have his own company Mediterranea Imports ) as well as Yanni of Dionysos, Gus of Constantine, Nicolas of Nicolas Imports , and the Athenee Import company on New York city that is represented by Winebow Imports.
Look at that glorious red color in the picture above. Don't you just love it?
Cheers and happy-drinking and eating and enjoying of all things Greek! TONY
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