Grapevine: Greek wine

After your mind has jumped to the memories of Retsina, reset your bearings and start afresh with an open mind.

It’s as diverse and quality-focused as any of the other major wine producing countries in Europe, you may have started to see Greek wines crop up more and more, particularly outside Greek focused restaurants.
At first it may have been Assyrtiko, and then Rose as that trend picked up strength, but more recently the reds of Greece have gained a great deal of traction both for their unique indigenous grape varieties and the relative value of these wines compared to similar styles around the world.
There are roughly 200 grape varieties with the white grape Assyrtiko arguably the most well-known, but in the reds there are a few contenders such as Agiogitiko, which produces some great Rose, and Xinomavro which is notably planted in the northern region of Naoussa producing reds with the potential to contend with the best of the best around the world.
Xinomavro can sit somewhere between Pinot Noir and Nebbiolo depending on the style that the producing is aiming for. It can certainly be full-bodied, high in tannin and acid built for long ageing as Nebbiolo in Barolo can, or if handled differently it can present a medium-weight wine with softer tannins, bright red fruits and fresh acidity for earlier drinking.
The assimilation with these two varieties has likely helped to shine a light on it as the most notable regions for both Pinot Noir and Nebbiolo around the world have seen demand and subsequently prices soar outside the reach of most wine drinkers. As a result, wine buyers at various levels have started looking for the undervalued regions/styles/varieties to fill the gap for the majority of wine drinkers.
The Naoussa appellation (think of Champagne as an appellation – restricting various factors in the production of wine for an area) only allows for Xinomavro if it is to be labelled as Naoussa PDO, such is the importance of the variety to the area and an indication of the potential for quality from the right producers.
The Thymiopoulos winery has only been around for near on two decades, but the family has been growing the grape in Naoussa for several generations now – a common theme in Australia just as much, farming families with a deep understanding of growing grapes on their land moving forwards in to producing wine as younger generations obtain the technical skills to do so.

Thymiopoulos ‘Young Vines’ Xinomavro 2018 – $35

The young vines bottling is a good place to start with the variety, although the vines are hardly young given some are now over 40 years old.Organically farmed, unoaked and bottled within about 12 months of vintage, it has the stuffing to age for a few years but it is certainly a wine made for drinking young. Seductive red fruits and florals, some smokey/ mineral characters and an underlying earthiness. It is just medium-bodied, dry with fine velvety tannins and persistent finish.