We sometimes fit in a visit on our final day and this was one of those times. Not far from Athens airport is the historic region of Attica, where the best wine from the Savatiano grape is made. We visited the Nikolou family at their traditional home in Koropi, which is also their winery.
Vassilis and Rania and their son Evangelos made us feel very welcome.
We gathered in the courtyard for introductions, and then squeezed past the equipment and tanks and barrels in the winery to sit down to watch a short ‘home movie’ of their history, which started in 1875 when the family were granted land and permission to make wine by the new government. In the 1990s Vassilis, who still lectures in oenology, took over the family business and began a programme of modernisation with particular focus on the Savatiano grape. The family own 30ha of vines and source from other growers and their wines are available in the UK through Southern Wine Roads.
Evangelos led the presentation, just back in the business after two years military service. His energy and drive was palpable, and the good natured teasing between son and father was very entertaining.
We tasted their wines in the family’s living room where a long table had been set up and another table groaned with food – another Meal proving the phrase “light lunch” is not in the Greek vocabulary.
Our tastings consisted of seven Savatianos and revealed what super wine this grape can make when yields are controlled. Vassilis and Evangelos are keen experimenters and we tasted both past experiments that had been successful and current experiments that we felt sure would become so.
The dry Savatianos had very different winemaking styles.
A ‘basic’ 2021 made in stainless steel had peachy, herbal flavours with a hint of minerality and a nice texture. The 2020 ‘fine lees’ which had spent time ‘sur lie’ has a more savoury nose with bready flavours and a creamier texture. The Savatiano Yellow 2019 comes from older vines, harvested later , and they freeze a proportion of whole berries, adding them to the fermenting must. Freezing breaks the cell structure to release anti oxidants and enhance flavours. Indigenous yeasts, higher fermentation temperatures, 60 days in new oak no filtering or addition of sulphur make this a ‘natural’ wine of very high quality.
Savatiano Retsina 2021, with just 100g resin (from selected Attica pine trees) per 1,000 litres was very delicate on nose with a richer palate, also very good friendly (lightly marinaded anchovies going particularly well) .
We had met Botanic Sparkling Retsina in the winery where we had seen the workbench where the traditional method wine made by a second fermentation in the bottle is disgorged, topped up and the cork applied. With 200g resin/1,000l this had more pronounced pine mastic savoury flavours. Very dry but great flavour. Originally made as a joke, with 100 bottles produced to fool friends, it was so well appreciated that they now have 15,000 bottles undergoing secondary fermentation and final maturation before release, supplying various restaurants, local retail and exported around the world!
We took a short break from Savatiano with a Moscato made from the grapes brought over with great care from the volcanic island of Limnos island ( a two day trip). This had characteristic grapey green apple flavours with a saline note.
Prior to our sweet wines we had two wines whose stories were linked.
Mandilaria was a new variety to add to our Greek tally, and the rosé has nice redcurrant herbal flavours.
Because the variety has deep colour and high tannins, the rosé is made by pressing the grapes immediately and the pressed pulp is added to fermenting Merlot must to add colour and tannin, and the 2019 vintage we tasted had super plummy fruit, good acidity and tannins.
We returned to Savatiano for our final two wines, both sweet but made in very contrasting ways.
‘Fire’ is made by boiling the juice of Savatiano grapes for 8-10 hours, carefully monitoring the sugar levels, prior to fermentation. The wine then enters a solera system to mature in barrels. Boiling obviously concentrates sugars and also adds a caramelised note, which is very attractive – butterscotch and raisins, great acidity and perfect for chocolatey/spiced fruit cake style deserts.
‘Ice’, as the name suggests, is made in the opposite way (this is a new experiment for Nikolou). Ripe Savatiano grape bunches are frozen and pressed, water ice crystals remain in the press, so the juice that flows out is very concentrated but retains its fresh flavours. Fermentation stops naturally around 15% so this was less sweet than Fire, but had a lovely concentrated Savatiano flavour, perfect with fresher desserts, like the Havla which we enjoyed with it.
Once again a visit had to come to a close (we had planes to catch), and we were sorry to say goodbye to such a wonderful family, and their amazing wines.
So our Greek tour has ended and we are very envious of the people coming on the two tours over the next couple of weeks – but I doubt this was the last trip to Greece that any of us will be making, and I for one will be increasing the amount of Greek wine I drink at home!
