As part of our university degrees, both Isabelle and I studied the history, culture and literature of Ancient Greece. This required visits of course, usually during summer months, and involved beaches, tavernas, souvlaki, ouzo, retsina etc. and we loved it. So much that we spent our honeymoon in Crete and The Mani. But there wasn’t much wine to excite us. We remember the brown stuff that poured from the copper-coloured jugs, never quite sure if they were supposed to be red or white. We rarely had too much of that, (except for that night on Ikaria with ‘the Captain’!) So we never really thought of Greece as a serious wine country until the whisperings about the quality of Santorini came our way. Stefanos Georgas, who was working with Estate Argyros at the time, called me one day to talk about Santorini and assured me I would be impressed by the quality of the wines. I replied that I was sure I would, but that we didn’t have time or resources to start with a completely new country. He was patient and we kept in touch and he sent samples (which were very good). In 2013 I joined Constantinos Lazarakis’ trip to Greece that he organised for the MWs, and was astonished how many ambitious young winemakers there were , and how many good wines. So we finally began with Santorini, and then added wines from other producers and regions. Seven years later we have a nice portfolio which covers quite a few of the many different styles the country produces.
There are the firm, dry, rich but austere whites from Assyrtiko on Santorini; aromatic whites from Malagouzia and Moschofilero; the new star in waiting, Vidiano from Crete; fruity red from Agiorgitiko in the Peloponnese; juicy, herbal, pinot-esque reds from our new discovery, Limniona in Thessaly; Barolo-beaters from the wonderful Xinomavro grape in Naoussa in Northern Greece. There’s so much variety, and quality improves with every vintage.
