This is a bottle I once received from my Greek friend Faye. It is a privately produced family wine like they’re often made over there. The particularity here, and this time I don’t know if it’s still common usage in Greece (It isn’t!), is that the wine has been crushed by feet, including the Tod’s-loafer-accustomed luxury feet of my friend (;-))
After hearing such a thing I’m usually pretty quick on jokes. But I decided this time I’d try the wine first before prematurely declaring it smells like feet.
But enough with humour! Gotta go back to the serious task of wine tasting for now and find the veritas in the vino!
The colour of this white wine seems intense with golden tones, not overly or unbearably dark but definitely suggesting a certain maturity, which isn’t surprising given the wine is a 2006 vintage.
In the nose, the first impression is oxidation. And having a Greek wine in the glass, it instantly evokes the image of Retsina in my mind, but at a second sniff you know there’s no resin in there and it truly is a slightly oxidated tone. But I don’t mean this in a negative way since it’s not unelegant, it is rather reminding walnuts mixed with a citric impression, or pumpkin seed oil, or green unripe walnuts. Also a certain freshness reminding eukalyptus is undeniable.
On the palate it shows similar aromatics, combined with a quite rich, oily texture. Acidity feels salty somehow, a bit like ocean water, giving the wine a certain deepness and complexity! The back palate though appears a little shallow but still leads into a satisfying medium long finish.
All in all the wine leaves this impression of being oxidized and iodic (not in a bda way) which makes me believe it is divulging the secret of its main grape variety. In fact, this could be the autochton variety assyrtiko which in my opinion somehow corresponds to this description, with an emphasis on an intense and spicy acidity.
I have to admit I’d never would have expected this bottle of still being able to procure drinking pleasure considering I left it for quite a while in the cellar (my bad, of course), but I have to admit that those flavours are quite to my taste. Those intense aromatics with the iodic acidity have something inspiring! So, no need to make bad jokes in the end. A final “thank you” for that interesting bottle is much more appropriate!
*with the feet!
