Friday Tasting Preview #3: Great Greeks

My rather belated New Year's Resolution is to drink more interesting wines, so here I am tasting what most be one of the more unusual whites in the shop.  Greek wine can get a bad press with the general public but this is a unique and exciting wine land with both brilliant wines and fantastic potential thhrough the application of modern winemaking techniques to ancient indigenous grape varieties.

Gentilini, Robola of Cephalonia 2009  £12.50
The white grape Robola is native to the Ionian island of Cephalonia where it is grown on vines trained low to the ground on mountain slopes.  The british governor of the island Charles Napier (1782 -1853) described it as like drinking "a wine made from stone" - let's hope that this wine, made by one of two small but forward thinking family wineries on the island has a bit of fruit too!

Pale yellow in colour, this turns out to have a gently lemony nose with notes of grapefruit and just a hint of almonds.  It's a realy refresher this - lots of acidity with a relatively neutral mid-palate which if anything expresses the stoniness Napier talked of.  The finish has real crunch though and good carry with fennel, aniseed and more nuttiness.  This may not be bursting with aromatics but I can just imagine polishing off a bottle with a freshly caught fish in some picturesque greek harbour, so bring on that Devon summer sunshine and away we'll go!

Tecchie stuff:  100% Robola from high altitude vineyards on Cephalonia.  Cold fermented at 14 degrees celcius and kept well away from oak.