Wine & Spirits - August 2018 - 61

91 | Tsantali

$19

2017 Greece Kanenas Muscat of Alexandria-Chardonnay (Best Buy) ^ An unusual
blend, this rolls the floral and herbal notes of
muscat into the rich, sweet fruit of chardonnay so tightly it's impossible to tell where one
grape stops and the other picks up. It feels as
juicy as a sun-warmed peach, with scents of
wildflowers, lavender and a stony minerality providing scaffolding for all that heady
flavor. § Fantis Imports, Carlstadt, NJ
231722

90 | Kamara

$10/500ml

Retsina (Best Buy) ^ Made from roditis grown
in the cool north of Greece, this smells more
like an herb garden than a pine forest, channeling Retsina's cooling power in notes of
thyme blossoms and peppermint. With its
lemony acidity and clean, delicate feel, it's
appetite arousing, especially if there's fresh
seafood and fried zucchini fritters nearby. §
Dionysi Grevenitis Selections/DNS Wines, San
Francisco, CA
231723

90 | Kamara

$25

90 | Mylonas

$14

Retsina Nimbus Ritinitis Orange ^ By choosing assyrtiko, a powerful grape, and leaving it
on the skins for a week, Dimitrios Kioutsoukis turned out a wine that meets the power
of the pine resin head-on. Fermented with
ambient yeasts and mellowed in old barrels,
the wine is more spicy than piney, its notes
of mint, roasted fennel seeds and camphor
mingling with peach and orange. Skin tannins give the wine grip, making this a Retsina for rich dishes, like pork belly bo ssam. §
Dionysi Grevenitis Selections/DNS Wines, San
Francisco, CA
231353
2017 Attica Savatiano (Best Buy) ^ This is
so herbal it almost recalls Retsina, although
here the notes are more like cedar and rosemary. They are also fully balanced by the
fruit-juicy and generous notes of quince
and kumquat riding on a mineral base. § Diamond Importers, Chicago, IL
231590

90 | Domaine
Papagiannakos

$22

2016 Attica Assyrtiko ^ This is round and
oily, assyrtiko's mineral flavors rendered in a
rich, sunny mainland sense. Notes of crushed
herbs and green fruit add breadth and detail. §
Craft + Estate/The Winebow Group, NY
231719

90 | Domaine Zafeirakis

$17

2017 Tyrnavos Malagousia (Best Buy) ^
Made in a light, fresh style, this is round and
delicate, with jasmine and herb scents and
lemony fruit. It ends on cleansing mineral

acidity; a wine for green salads or parsleyladen tabouli. § Dionysi Grevenitis Selections/
DNS Wines, San Francisco, CA

NORTHERN GREECE
230292

94 | Ktima Gerovassiliou

$24

94 | Domaine Nerantzi

$19

92 | Alpha Estate

$18

92 | Biblia Chora

$24

2016 Epanomi Single Vineyard Malagousia ^ "It's the Château Grillet of northern Greece," one taster remarked. Like that
famous French viognier, this malagousia
stakes its own place among the many in
Greece with its satin texture and restrained
floral notes. Evangelos Gerovassiliou has
been working with the variety since the 1970s,
when he propagated it from an experimental plot at Porto Carras; it's now the leading
variety at his 138-acre estate south of Thessaloniki. His 2016 is bright and fresh, with a
sea-salt edge that suggests serving it al fresco
with grilled fish. § Cava Spiliadis, Astoria, NY
231718
2016 Serres Assyrtiko (Best Buy) ^ This is
exhilarating wine, not just because it's so
unexpected to find an assyrtiko grown on
the mainland that's as firm and savory as
Santorini's top versions. It starts out smelling heady and ripe, then does a one-eighty,
delivering pure, stony flavor. All the fruit-
the notes of pear, marzipan and citrus oil-
feels as though it's there simply to flesh out
the wine's intense structure. The main event
is stones and surging acidity-it's salty and
firm, and gets fresher with every moment.
Evanthia Mitropoulou makes this wine from
vines her father planted a decade ago, farmed
organically and vinified without any inputs. §
Dionysi Grevenitis Selections/ DNS Wines, San
Francisco, CA
230427
2017 Florina Turtles Vineyard Malagouzia
(Best Buy) ^ This malagousia reflects the cool
climate it grows in, a high plain in northwest
Greece. It's tight and bright, with a saline
minerality that acts like a spark, lighting up
the citrusy fruit and floral herbs. Long, lean
and light, it's a refreshing, elegant aperitif. §
Diamond Importers, Chicago, IL
231422
2016 Pangeon Areti ^ Vassilis Tsaktarli set
up this winery with Vangelis Gerovassiliou
in 1998. Together, they now farm 120 acres
of vines on the limestone and clay foothills
of Mount Pangeon. This assyrtiko, vinified
in stainless steel, is a savory, powerful white.
There's no real fruit to speak of; just salt,
chalk and herbs, carried in a broad, oily texture that has an almost tannic grip. This is

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