A FEW months ago, a wine made its way into my glass that was so far outside my wheelhouse it haunted me long after the bottle was empty. It was a Greek wine, a terse, piney Roditis called Petra made by Kir-Yianni winery from a region called Florina, in the mountains near the Greek border with Albania and Macedonia -- which is to say somewhere between anywhere and nowhere. I savored this enigmatic wine, its scents of lime and pine frond, its flavors of fennel and quince, its brisk, almost salty, acidity.
So it is with Greece, a vaguely mysterious country where the food and wine have always been familiar to Americans and yet slightly outside our grasp. For years, Greek wines were rarely seen here beyond the walls of Greek restaurants, and the country's viticultural output was unfairly represented by medicinal, resin-tinged Retsina, one of the more archaic, not to say weird, modern evocations of ancient tradition.
But like many of its Mediterranean and Eastern European neighbors, Greece has modernized its winemaking, improved its viticulture and devoted itself to the many indigenous varieties that have been cultivated for thousands of years. These varieties, with lyrical names like Assyrtiko, Malagousia, Agiorghitiko and Xinomavro, are finally gaining recognition for being at once exotic and world class.
After years of spotty distribution, they've finally made their way to California retail shelves. Crisp, exotic, herbal and thirst-quenching, they're ideal for your summer table.
Like Italy, Greece has vines growing just about everywhere. The country is responsible for an incalculable number of bottlings, but most are consumed within a few hundred yards of the vineyards from which they come. As Mike Greene, general manager at Woodland Hills Wine Co. in Woodland Hills and a frequent visitor to Greece, explained to me, with the astonishing amount of wine that is made, bottled and sold by taverna owners to locals there -- who needs an export market?
The taverna connection gives an idea of the place wine occupies in traditional Greek culture. When Greeks want a drink, they reach for ouzo, the fiery anise spirit. The notion of wine as an aperitif is somewhat foreign. On the other hand, they wouldn't dream of having a meal without it.
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Lean reds, whites
