Greek Wine tasting

Interesting, I was served a couple of greek wines in Paris a couple of weeks ago, and have carted a paper around with the names to post to this group. Both were quite acceptable, if a little expensive by french standards, for the quality (8 eu for the white,

A longish discussion with a couple of greek gentlemen revealed that there is quite a boom in "quality" small producers in the north.

I didn't take any tasting notes under the festive circumstances, but wrote down the names the next day. FWIW my impressions are below.

The white (largely SB to my palate but no info was given) was from Sinoforos, ASPROLITHI '01. Fresh and grassy, a little citrus, but a tad dilute and a touch out of balance towards the acid side.

The red, of which several bottles were consumed, was a Tselepos NEMEA '01 cepage "Agiorgitiko." This is presumably an alternate spelling for what you've got above; does anyone know what the english or french name for this grape is? Anyway it was a well made wine in the international style, with nice warmth and spice, perhaps reminiscent of a less obvious CA merlot. A good value in the US if available at the same price point. I don't think this stuff is actually imported into France officially.

-E

I Believe the english name is St. George...(correct me if I'm wrong)

tricky

Thanks Tricky. I guess this is what winepros calls "pinot st george." I haven't run across it elsewhere, though.

-E

Agiorgitiko, being a grape variety from Greece, does not have an english or french name.

Other synonims are: NEMEAS MAVRO; NEMEAS MAVROUDI; AGHIORGHITICO

Pinot St George (mentioned in the thread below) is a synonim for the French variety NEGRETTE.

Agiorgitiko is widely known as St. George. Whether that's an anglofied term or not, it's what its known as.

Tricky

Hi Tricky

No need to thank me for sorting out which is which.

Cheers

Hi Amp,

you wrote:

"Agiorgitiko, being a grape variety from Greece, does not have an

Let me clear this up for you:

Name: Agiorgitiko Pronunciation: Ah-yohr-yee-tee-koh Synonyms, transliterations and transliterated synonyms: Mavro Nemeas, Mavroudi Nemeas, Mavroudi, Aghiorghitico, Nemeas mavro Locations: Korinthia, Messinia, Argolis (Peloponessos) Etymology: that ripes at St. Georges day (November??)

therefore the english translation to St. George.

but thank you for clarifying the Pinot St. George confusion. That was helpful indeed. and thanks for the link to that german varietal site.

Prost Tricky

My initial response aimed to dispel any notion of relatedness between Agiorgitiko and anything called "Pinot". I new roughly what the name meant (Giorgio being George in Greek). Thanks for the info anyhow.

Orthodox Church really does celebrate St George's Temple Day on November 16 - and that makes for a really late harvest - quite interesting.

Anyways, thanks to this topic I've bumped into a really interesting Greek wine web site:

Cheers :)

or

Stin Eyiassou!