By David Williams TheGuardian
If you like matching wines and seasons, now’s the time to head for the flavors of the Aegean
Avantis Estate White, Evia, Greece 2018 (£12.75, Amathus Drinks)
A lot is written about wine and food matching, but wine and season matching is as much fun. An example: there’s something about this time of year – especially these warmer days when you can sense summer is just over the horizon – that is right for Greek white wines. They have an easy sea breeziness and set of aromatic associations – lemon groves, honeysuckle, orange blossom, and thyme – that is guaranteed to have me wistfully imagining myself sitting on some whitewashed, vine-covered terrace overlooking the Aegean. Certainly, that’s the effect of Avantis Estate’s blend of citrussy assyrtiko, fragrant Muscat and stone-fruity viognier from the island of Evia, all the more so when served with a plate of leafy salad with feta and a lemony dressing.
Diamantopetra White, PDO Dafnes, Kato Asites, Greece 2018 (£16.50, Noel Young Wines)
The Greek grape variety that has really captured the imagination of growers elsewhere is assyrtiko. Australian producer Jim Barry is responsible for a tensile version in the Clare Valley that has a kinship with that region’s tangy dry rieslings (£19.99, Slurp). In Greece, the island of Santorini, with its volcanic soils, is responsible for many of the best examples, such as the magnificent Domaine Sigalas Assyrtiko 2018 (£30, Maltby & Greek), the chablis-esque Gaia Estate Wild Ferment Assyrtiko 2017 (£33, Hedonism) or the more affordable Atlantis Santorini 2017 (£12, Marks & Spencer). It also makes for a great blending partner, providing the zip and energy to partner the herbal notes of Crete’s video in this shimmering Diamantropetra blend.
Skouras Synoro, Peloponnese, Greece 2012 (£24, The Wine Society)
As seasonally attuned as its whites are, Greece’s reds are no less interesting at this or any other time of year. Again, a lot of the fun may come from local grape varieties, with xinomavro a standout, offering, in the case of Thymiopoulos Jeunes Vignes Xinomavro 2017 from Naoussa (£10.95, Vin Cognito) a vibrant mix of soft but tangy red berries and warm hillside herbiness. It’s a wine with something of Burgundy and the Languedoc, but which is really its own Greek thing. There are some fine wines made, too, from international varieties, such as, in the case of Skouras Synoro, cabernet franc, and Merlot, which is mixed with a little of the local aghiorghitko, for a complex finely fragrant Hellenic claret. It has an appetizingly food-friendly streak of acidity that calls out for garlic and rosemary lamb.
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