Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - 31

CRETE
"Santorini is saturated with producers, and prices are
getting higher year by year. This worries me," says Yiannis Karakasis, an MW based in Athens. But, he adds, "I
am not worried so much about the widespread plantings in general, at least at this point. Assyrtiko should
be our national variety and we need plantings to support that. Moreover, we need more terroir-driven wines
to prove that assyrtiko produces one-of-a-kind wines."
Karakasis suggests looking for assyrtiko grown in
rocky soils, calling out the rocky soils of Pangeon as
well as Sitía in Crete. When I ask Bart Lyrarakis how
assyrtiko came to be planted on Crete, he tells me
that, in the 1990s, the local cooperative used to bring
in cuttings from Santorini, and encouraged growers to
plant them. "So, the end result was a Santorini vineyard
planted at high altitude-higher than 2,000 feet-with
probably more wind (the place is full of windmills in
the surrounding mountaintops), a much more fertile
soil and, because of all this, a much longer ripening
season."
Lyrarakis has, over the years, produced several
assyrtikos from different parts of the island, narrowing it down to just one: Vóila (accent on the o, unlike
the French voilá), grown in the region of that name
on the eastern end of the island. A parcel of low bush
vines planted in loamy soils, the vineyard channels
the nonstop sun in its waxy lemon flavors as well as
the sea-salt breeze the vines feel at such high altitudes.
Although the Lyrarakis family has prided itself on the
work they've done to resurrect native varieties like
plytó, vidiano and dafní, the Vóila assyrtiko feels right
at home among the natives.

WESTERN MACEDONIA
In addition to vineyards challenged by heat and aridity-similar to Santorini-there is another place to
look for good assyrtiko, and that's in cold areas of
Greece, like Amyndeon.
Haroula Spinthiropoulou, who grows assyrtiko at
Argatia, her estate in Naoussa, is also an acclaimed vine
researcher who's spent years studying assyrtiko in various climates. "I believe that it expresses the mineral
part of its character when it is stressed from various
reasons-heavy soils, water stress, high temperature
during veraison and such," she says. "In hot Attika and
Crete, if the producer doesn't irrigate or irrigates with
small quantities of water, his assyrtiko has the Santorini
character: more mineral, less fresh fruit, more honey
and straw."
The other way to get dry, racy assyrtiko, she says,
is to grow it in a cool place, like the high plateau of
Amyndeon, where both Laurens Hartman at Karanika and Angelos Iatridis at Alpha Estate have recently

introduced varietal bottlings. Hartman admits he
hadn't intended to make a varietal assyrtiko when
he planted the grapes; he was simply experimenting with alternatives to the local xinomavro for his
sparkling wines, the focus of his winery. The first
bottling, in 2010, was a more successful experiment
than he'd anticipated. Now part of his regular production, his 2016 Terra Levea is just as vibrant, with
peach and pink grapefruit flavors and herbal notes.
Angelos Iatridis goes even higher to grow assyrtiko, farming a 3.7-acre vineyard, Aghia Kiriaki,
planted in sandy clay at 1,755 feet. Between the
cool temperatures and the poor soil, the grapes
don't ripen until October-two months later than
in Santorini, where picking typically begins midAugust. He ferments the wine in stainless steel with
ambient yeasts, producing a pale, savory white, a
little like the vinous equivalent of an Agnes Martin
painting: layered in shades of white, in this case,
salt and stone, apple blossoms and lemon pith.

EXPANDING OPTIONS
"I remember being shocked when I tasted the first
Koutsi Assyrtiko vintage back in 2008," says Yannis
Paraskevopoulos, who has the unique advantage
of making assyrtiko wines in both Santorini and
Nemea under the Gaia brand. "My point of reference being Santorini assyrtiko (we jokingly call this
Santorini autism), you may imagine my face tasting
the wine! Assyrtiko, when grown under non-arid
conditions, has a very nice citrus fruit combined
with a bit of pear, fig leaves and hints of green tea.
You don't get much of these in Santorini," he says.
And that's not necessarily a bad thing. Santorini assyrtiko isn't for everyone, says Kamal Kouiri,
who's seen glasses refused at Molyvos. "The Old
World crowd tends to like mainland assyrtiko; it's
not as aggressive as Santorini," he says. "The entrylevel consumer tends to like it, too." If you want to
be bowled over by a tidal wave of chalky, salty, searingly dry flavor, only Santorini will do-so far. But
if you're looking for a fresh, fruity white wine with
good acidity and some mineral aspects, a number
of the new mainland assyrtikos can fit the bill.
And in a warming world, assyrtiko's ability to
weather extremes can't be overlooked. Campos de
Cima in Brazil has recently planted the variety, as
has Eben Sadie in South Africa and Alois Lageder
in Italy's Alto Adige. "Just got a note from Peter
Barry re: 2018 vintage," Lazarakis wrote to me
recently. "The drought and the heat wave of the
season brought almost every single grape variety
he is working with down on its knees. Assyrtiko was
like, What's the big deal, chaps???" n

"As the reputation of
the grape grows, it will
be only a matter of
time before there is
real interest in nonSantorini assyrtikos."
-Yiannis
Karakasis, MW

WINE & SPIRITS

AUGUST 2018

31



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - August 2018

Contents
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - Cover1
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - Cover2
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - 1
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - 2
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - 3
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - 4
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - Contents
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - 6
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - 7
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - 8
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - 9
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - 10
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - 11
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - 12
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - 13
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - 14
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - 15
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - 16
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - 17
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - 18
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - 19
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - 20
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - 21
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - 22
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - 23
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - 24
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - 25
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - 26
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - 27
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - 28
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - 29
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - 30
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - 31
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - 32
Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - 33
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