Assyrtiko

Lately, with tourism, of course, a lot of people have been focusing mostly on tourism rather than grape growing.

However, you still have the island of Santorini, for example, with Assyrtiko, which is actually spearheading the Greek wine revolution.

The wines from Assyrtiko are top notch and they deserve a place in the pantheon of the great wines of the world.

You go to Rhodes, another island with PDO Rhodes from Athiri.

You go to Crete.

However, the last few years, we have a lot of new plantings.

Because it's so mountainous up there, vineyards are doing so much better compared to the south.

So you already mentioned some varieties like Savatiano, Assyrtiko and Agiorgitiko.

But to most people, it might as well be brand new.

Tonight, we are throwing out every single standard Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc in the rule book to test the ultimate underdog of the Mediterranean, Assyrtiko.

[gentle music] Welcome to Stop Wasting Your Wine, a wine review podcast dedicated to helping you discover great wines with great value for every occasion.

I am Joel, and I'm joined once again by the amazing Colin and Aaron.

For sure.

Right.

And there, and the, the, the options that there were, I'm surprised that we were able to find more than just Assyrtiko, to be honest.

Yeah.

Uh, uh, Grenache Blanc we're looking at.

Assyrtiko we're looking at.

Um, from a red variety standpoint, we haven't landed on anything yet, uh, because right now we're actually in holding patterns with red varieties because they're, they're at a pretty static market, um, position.

Mm-hmm.

Reds.

Uh, Greece makes un, uh, counterintuitively more white than red, and in fact, got a reputation for its whites first, particularly this grape, Assyrtiko.

Um, but now I think it's making some lovely, uh, transparent kind of 21st century type reds, particularly from Xynomavro, X-I-N-O-M-O-M-A-V-R-O.

Um, and what's lovely about Greece and Portugal is that they have their own wonderfully wide range of their own indigenous grape varieties.

So they're not overtaken by Cabernet, Chardonnay-

Right

I just went to a seminar, and I didn't realize there are so many regions-

Yeah

And then I was at this... cliffside winery in Santorini in Greece with my wife, a couple other friends.

We had just ordered a charcuterie plate filled with nice Greek cheeses, a couple bottles of Assyrtiko, a nice Greek white wine, and I was lighting a second cigarette.

And my wife was like, another dart already? And I said, relax, baby, they don't count.

And that was kind of the tagline.

So for WCT Level 3, we're focusing on three region and grape partnerships.

Naoussa and Chinnamavro, Nemea and Agiorgitiko, and Santorini and Assyrtiko.

So starting in Naoussa, here it's all about Chinnamavro and structure.

So Naoussa lies in northern mainland Greece.

So they're really low in organic matter and retain little water.

Phylloxera can't survive in these soils, so many vines are really old and ungrafted.

Assyrtiko is the key grape.

Its most important characteristic is its ability to retain very high acidity, even in hot conditions.

in lieu of a beach.

There may not be bottomless Assyrtiko, but this is my kind of dentist.

And the dentist in question is Dr Ron Giorgio, MW.

Note the titles.

And even those 10, and I, and I had some disclaimers beyond that.

I said, "Hey, if you came here to taste some great wines from Santorini or great Assyrtiko's from throughout Greece or, you know, you, you discovered Crete two years ago and want to want to taste another, I'm so sorry, there's none of that here today." [both laugh] And there's no sweet wine and there's no...

But, and I want...

My objective was I want everyone to walk out of this room at least having discovered some new thing-

And she really thrives in these kind of like intense conditions.

And For that reason, we mostly see Assyrtiko coming from Greece, but other regions that we see it coming from, sometimes Australia, sometimes California.

Again, places that have like a lot of sun exposure and again, maybe some super

intense conditions weather-wise and she can hold up to them.

passion point for me.

And I feel like so often we think about these prestigious wines so often, like with white wine, it's Chardonnay is like the big dog.

But there are so many wonderful Assyrtikos that are some serious, curvy, high acid, all the things we love about something like Chablis that we find coming from this tiny, tiny island.

And you can age Assyrtiko sometimes up to 10 years because it's such an acidic grape.