Greek wine & cheese

[mjg]

As a member of an ethnically Greek church, all things Greek seem to get people's attention. Our young adult group (over 21) is planning a Greek wine and cheese tasting and I'm looking for some suggestions about what to serve. Basically we'd like to taste 4 or 5 Greek wines and the same number of Greek cheeses, perhaps...but not necessarily...that "match" with the wines.

Anyone have any ideas?

[Freckles]

May I please tag along on this question, since it is somewhat similar? I leave for a week in Athens tomorrow, and am eager to try lots of Greek wine while there. I currently live in Paris and it's hard enough to get ANY foreign wines (literally, a wine store here might carry ONE bottle of Australian wine and ONE Italian: shameful!!!!) and I want to make sure I sample some of the Good Greek Stuff. What would you recommend, please? THank you.

[Tess]

I don't know how expensive you're going for, but Skouras Megas Oinos is a widely available and usually reasonably priced red. Malmsey is Greek too, isn't it? That's a dessert wine that's good with some cheeses.

For cheese, you'll have to go with what's available in your area. In some places the pickings might be quite slim, people in your church will probably know. You might want to supplement cheese with some olives, nuts, maybe taramoslata or tzatziki, all of which are good with wine.

[Sillman]

You may want to look out for the following cheeses...

Graviera which has a slightly nutty and sweet flavor similar to Gruyere. Another cheese is Kaseri which is similar in texture to Provolone but much stronger in taste.

As for Greek wines I'm sorry I have not tasted any. Please let me know if you find a wine that really stands out.

Tess, Malmsey is a grape that is used on the island of Madeira to make Malmsey which is the sweetest, richest style of Madeira.

Simon

[Andre]

Greek cheese and wine,

To begin with I would avoid the brine cheeses such as Feta, Telemes, Sfela and Bastos.

If you are going for any of those – pick a medium dry Rose’ such as Calligas’s Allotino Rose’ or a med. Dry Emery.

On the Semi-Hard cheese you will come across Kasseri and Graviera. The two will need dif wines.

For the Kasseri – usually sharp and acidic, you may need a dry Rose’ or white from Santorini [ skip the commercial and go for the drier more terroir expressive that will match the cheese better ]

For the Graviera - a more aromatic with sometimes a sweetish texture I would pick an oak aged Hatzimichalis or an aged Kouros wine [ kourtakis ]

The Classic hard cheese may be very different.

Kefalotiri – a new age dry red wine from Crete with sharper acidity [boutari]

Kefalograviera – depending on the age of this one – a full bodied red such as the ktima

There are some oil cheese that I usuall avoid with wine – they cote the tongue resulting in bitterness when the subject engae,.

A short answer for a long and complicated question.

[Busboy]

Freckles (et al): There's a small yellow book called "The Illustrated Greek Wine Book", by Nico Manessis, published by Olive Press, that you should be able to find at one of the book shops at the Athens airport, where I bought mine. There airport's not that big, but the book shop I used to hit was on the "left" side of the main terminal, if you're facing the ticket counters, in the international departures area. It's a little out of date -- the vintage charts go only to 2000, I think - but it's got a lot of good information in it. Here's a link.

Beware: many Greek restaurants that offer menus in English have wine lists only in Greek, so navigation can be difficult. (On the other thread, the restaurants Gefseis and Hytra both have excellent lists and English-speaking sommeliers).

Also, in many restaurants, I'd rather shell out next to nothing for the house swill -- which can be swill indeed, but is usual drinkable and sometimes tasty -- than pay 20 or 25 euros for a mediocre bottle.

MJG (et al): My favorite Greek varietel (FWIW) is xynomavro, red wine that's kind of a pinot noir with more attitude and less elegance. Drink this with wild boar. In reds, I also developed an affection for Agiorgitiko (St. George), which tended, to my taste, to be a little more grapy and restrained. I have been led to believe that these are the two most common high quality red wine grapes, and so would be a good introduction.

In whites, the fallback grape for my crew was Asyrtiko, always from the Island of Santorini. It comes oaked or un-oaked, depending on your mood, and provides a good, crisp if -- to my palate -- unexciting drink.

I don't know what the grape varietels were, but my favorite whites tended to be from the Pelopponese, I thought they had more character.

Greece also makes some excellent swilling pinks, a nice choice on a hot afternoon and not at all like the nasty "white zinfandels" and such that gave rose such a bad name in the US. They are dry and relatively strong, like those of southern France. I also enjoy sweet muscat from Samos, and excellent way to finish a meal and a bargain compared to French and American stickies of similar quality.

["T"]

My fave out of Greece is Gaia Estates Agiorgitiko.

Intense red wine with an international discipline, meaning modern wine making techniques, yet still retaining a somewhat old world character.

Perhaps the finest Greek wine I have tried. Mind you it's not as though my cellar is overflowing with Greek wines :)

[mjg]

Thank you all for your suggestions. Our tasting is tonight and while the pickins' were slim at the liquor store, we were able to pick up 8 Greek wines that seem to span from pretty commercial to a little more refined: Achaia Clauss Blanc Demestica, Boutari Moschofilero, Savatiano Papagiannakos, Kourtaki Retsina of Attica, Kir Yanni Ramnista, Pape Johannou Vineyards Nemea, Spiropoulos Red Stag, and Achaia Clauss Mavrodaphne.

That's about as good as we could do here in Pittsburgh.

I picked up 5 Greek cheeses this morning from the Greek grocery store in the Strip District. Can't remember what they were...I'll report back post-tasting if anyone is interested. Per a suggestion up thread, I picked up a couple kinds of Greek olives, toasted walnuts, and some taramasalata.

[JPW]

Sounds interesting.

Be careful with the Retsina. It is definitely an acquired taste. Serve it as an apperitif as it will overwhelm any food.

The demestica blanc is cheap, generic, usually drinkable table wine.

The Mavrodaphne is a dessert wine. To me, it is also an acquired taste.