I’d say that the Savatiano grape has been saved from the glare of a certain limelight of in Greek wine. I label it a glare rather than a shine because it is the base grape of a highly polarizing wine style: Retsina. Savatiano is Greece’s most widely planted vine, too, so it isn’t too surprising that it is a productive one.
Read MoreChatzivaritis 2015 Rhoditis Eurynome: Rhoditis means rose, and this variety absolutely brings tremendous fragrance into the glass. The bottling also has a cleverly disguised, 21% of the “acid black” variety Xinomavro made in a blanc de blancs fashion. The palate is full of honeydew and Canary melons with whispers of gingerbread.
Read MoreCombine two well-known winemakers with a significant dose of ambition and a chunk of fine terroir, and you’ll naturally have compelling results. This is true even with Vassilis Tsaktsarlis’ and Vangelis Gerovassiliou’s unknown variety project, Biblinos Oenos, a black grape about to be registered on Greece’s “National List of Varieties.”
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