WINE: Greek winemakers are raising their game, writes Mary Dowey. Plus the Bottle of the Week.
Sad to report, my worst wine experience ever involved a bottle of Greek wine. It was retsina - that strange white, flavoured with pine resin, which is an acquired taste if ever there was one - but in fact the wine was blameless. I was not, drinking far too much at a taverna lunch, then falling asleep on a Cretan beach and waking up with paralysing sunstroke.
That was years and years ago - before Greece joined the EU and began to revitalise one of the world's oldest wine industries. Two decades of investment and energetic overhaul have dramatically changed the face of Greek wine - an Olympian feat in a country dominated by indifferent bulk wine for so long.
The trouble is that news of this progress has been slow to filter through to consumers in markets such as ours. Mention Greek wine and even fairly keen wine drinkers will still think of retsina - and nothing else. This is a pity, because Greece now makes tasty wines, both red and white, from a plethora of native grapes whose potential has recently been re-evaluated. White varieties include Roditis, Robola, Assyrtico, Moscofilero and Malagousia. The main red grapes are Agiorgitiko, Xinomavro and Limnio. Roll them around your tongue. What poetry! And there are heaps more.
Needless to say, international varieties have also been planted in recent times - as they have in every wine-producing country in the world. Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah are all popular, both as single varietals and in blends. But in the long run those traditional, local grapes with their distinctive flavours and exotic names hold the key to the future - giving Greece the chance to offer something deliciously different with its own identity.
For the moment, esoteric grapes, coupled with producers' names which are all Greek and baffling, may be delaying the uptake of Hellenic wines outside Greece.
"We find that blends of an international grape and a Greek grape tend to sell, because customers feel comfortable with something familiar," says David Orr of Dunnes Stores, which has carried a range of wines from major producer Tsantalis for the past six years. Examples include Alexander Sauvignon Blanc-Roditis 2003 (6.49, going down to €5.99 from mid-August) and Mount Athos Grenache-Limnio (2002 vintage sold out, 2003 on the way, €7.99).
From mid-August, the Tsantalis offering here will consist of five wines, including a new organic Merlot 2002 (9.99) and a Cabernet Sauvignon-Xinomavro 2002 (5.99). I find the range rather uneven in quality and charm (Mount Athos Grenache-Limnio seems the most appealing all-rounder - a smooth, gluggable red with plenty of oomph). But the wines are keenly priced and this is important.
"Greece is up against a lot of competition from other countries," Orr stresses. "It is never going to establish itself unless it offers value."
Oddbins, the other main source of Greek wines in Ireland, has taken a more daring approach to price, with a diverse selection of wines ranging from just over 7 to just under 22. Having sampled most of them, I feel that the mid-to-upper-price offerings don't quite justify their price tags. Some are pleasant enough but don't stand out.
Others stand out but for the wrong reasons - too jammy, too oaky, too tannic. Perhaps the ambitious pricing is explained by the fact that their producers include leading names in new-wave Greek wine, such as Gaia and Domaine Constantin Lazaridi. At the more affordable end of the scale, our delicious white Bottle of the Week is a bargain at just €7.89.
As the Greek wine industry continues to raise its game, we're likely to become more familiar with different regions as well as different grapes. Already there are 28 defined wine-growing areas. Six of these, including Nemea (well known for red wine) and Mavrodaphne (the home of a remarkable sweet red) are in the Peloponnese - Greece's biggest wine region.
In the north, which is also important, Naoussa west of Thessaloniki has made a name for itself with robust reds. Next in order of scale come Crete, Attica and Cephalonia, where I enjoyed indecent quantities of the local white speciality, Robola, the summer before Captain Corelli and his film crew moved in.
Not surprisingly, Greek wines are the perfect foil for Greek food. The crisp new whites which have left retsina with its last-century image are terrific with mezze, Greek salad, hummus, taramasalata and all manner of fish and seafood. The reds, soft and jammy as they hit your tongue but with grippy tannins in behind, suit rich meat dishes like moussaka - or indeed Hugo Arnold's Rabbit Mountain Style. This could be the month to turn your kitchen into a taverna and give them a try.
Bottle of the week
Xerolithia, Peza 2003. This light, tangy, lemon-flavoured white makes me long for a plate of fried squid caught minutes ago - a bit elusive, perhaps, but I bet it would be every bit as tempting with most starters and salads (Greek or otherwise) and fish main courses such as the Baked Fish with Fennel in this week's food column. Made from the Vilana grape, which is a speciality of Crete, its fresh, citrussy character makes it wonderfully appetising with or without food. And the price is heroic! Look out for the black label with the Greek letter X in a long silver squiggle. From Oddbins, €7.89