Wine & Spirits - August 2017 - 41

thought it might make an interesting sparkling wine
("more elegant than the brutal force of xinomavro,"
he says). He also used some of the fruit for a still wine.
"I wasn't sure it'd ever be good enough that I'd want
it under our label," he admits, so he bottled it under
his second label, Terrea Levea, starting in 2010. That
2010-from an ambient yeast ferment in stainless
steel tanks-is still vibrantly salty and mineral, just
beginning to take on the salted cashew and chamomile notes that mature Santorini picks up. Hartman's most recent vintage, 2016, is just as compelling-vibrant with peach and pink grapefruit flavors
and herbal notes. In 2017, he says, he may bottle it
as Karanika.
In fact, compelling white wines are springing up all over
northern Greece. Spinthiropoulou makes a fascinating blend at Argatia, her winery in the xinomavro
stronghold of Naoussa, using assyrtiko as the backbone with floral malagousia and athiri. And farther
east, in Goumenissa, Evangelos and Olga Hatzivaritis
make room for white wines while focusing on the traditional reds of their region. This year, they let their
daughter, Chloe, put some of their assyrtiko in a barrel and allow it to spontaneously ferment. Creamy
and mineral, with an entirely savory, resinous herbal
flavor, it's stunning wine.
Few people push the possibilities quite as far as
the Tatsis brothers, Stergios and Perikles. Like many
families in the north, theirs landed here after the Balkan Wars, one of the many resettled in the massive
population exchanges that ensued. Their family came
from Eastern Rumilia, once an autonomous province of the Ottoman Empire, now part of southern
Bulgaria. Many of those families arrived with nothing but the knowledge of how to grow grapes, and
created small vineyards in clearings throughout the
hills. The brothers own some of those parcels-little
blocks deep in the trees-and have worked to preserve them, lavishing attention on them as they work
them by hand, without any chemicals.
Standing in the vineyard, in their jeans and black
t-shirts, hair pulled back in ponytails, they have the
air of rebels and outsiders, unconcerned with actually selling their wines; instead, they give off the feeling that they'd like simply to live in their vineyards,
trying to discern how best to translate their grapes
to wine.
That feeling only intensifies in the winery, a low

building surrounded by iron dinosaurs made by a
friend, where they present a mind-boggling array of
wines, including many traditional Goumenissa reds.
Among the most evenly compelling, however, are
the white wines. Angel's Heart, a blanc de noirs of
xinomavro, comes from a vineyard where the grapes
never get darker than a pale reddish hue, so they vinify it as is, fermenting it in cement tanks with ambient
yeasts. Bright gold, it's silky smooth and powerfully
structured, a white with the heft of a Rhône blend
and the acidity of xinomavro, as well as a pleasantly
grippy hint of tannins.
Then there's roditis, the ubiquitous white of the
north, normally regarded as rather boring. Not here:
a 2014 spent one month on its skins, then 12 months
in barrels, turning deep orange-gold, spicy, honeyed
and floral. Another roditis, from 2012, spent three
years in barrel before they bottled it; it's now as dark
and clear as high-grade amber, and smells of Lapsang
souchong tea. Lush and earthy, it's the polar opposite of what roditis normally turns out. But if there's
one thing that's clear, it's that Northern Greece has
a talent with white wines-and growers have barely
begun to explore the possibilities. n

Few people push
the white wine
possibilities in
northern Greece
quite as far as the
Tatsis brothers,
Stergios (left)
and Perikles.
WINE & SPIRITS

AUGUST 2017

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