Greek White Wines

Dear Friend,

It has been awhile since I have shared Greek wines with you. Wines from Greece have always been difficult for me to learn. For the most part, I enjoy them when I taste them, but it is such a large and diverse area where they specialize in indigenous grape varieties, most with difficult names to pronounce. I was really surprised with the response to the Greek wines we featured last year and have since expanded our selection of wines from Greece. Today, I am highlighting a couple more offerings, focusing on white varieties; Greek whites are fantastic warm weather wines. Wines from here have had a slow resurgence in the United States as more and more have been imported over the last 20 years. When I started selling wine, there were only a few Retsinas and a handful of larger bulk producers selling wine here. Now we have hundreds of quality wineries being imported from all over Greece. Try these while on sale for 20%, and while you are in the store, check out our other Greek offerings, there are some really fun wines in there.

Today’s wines are both from Southern Greece. Tetramythos, from the Peloponnese region, was started by brothers Aristos and Stathis Spanos when they met winemaker Panayiotis Papagiannopoulos in 1999. They were all from the area and they all wanted to make organic wines from limestone soils on the slopes of the Aroania mountains. In 2004 they completed building their new winery, which had to be updated in 2007 due to wildfires. They are known as one of Greece’s more innovative and respected wineries focusing on organic cultivation and indigenous grapes.

Mylonas winery started in 1917. Now run by the third generation, brothers Stamatis, Antonis and Tasos Mylonas. The region they are in is Attica, just a bit south of the city of Athens. They have completely modernized the winery since their father passed away unexpectedly in 2000. Today we are featuring their Assyrtiko, probably the best known Greek varietal. This is a variety that has really driven the interest in Greek wines and for good reason. Many Assyrtiko’s here in the United States come from the beautiful island of Santorini; many believe the best wines are from here! This may or may not be true, but today’s offering is a delicious example grown right on the Aegean Sea.

If you are interested in today’s featured wines, please reply to this email, call your nearest location, or click the Shop Now button to order. Curbside pickup is available. The wines from Greece have been enjoying a renaissance of sorts. There has been a new focus on quality, but what I love is that they are not all trying to produce the popular varietals that we see grown around the world.  A new generation of winemakers have taken over and are focused on making great wines from native varietals but using new, modern techniques. These are two great examples of modern Greek wine and I highly recommend trying them both!

Sincerely,

Alek Leontie