{"id":3895,"date":"2021-08-23T12:11:14","date_gmt":"2021-08-23T09:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.winesofcrete.gr\/news\/to-wines-of-crete-sto-decanter\/"},"modified":"2021-08-23T12:11:14","modified_gmt":"2021-08-23T09:11:14","slug":"to-wines-of-crete-sto-decanter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winesofcrete.gr\/en\/press-reviews\/foreign-sources\/to-wines-of-crete-sto-decanter\/","title":{"rendered":"\u03a4\u03bf Wines of Crete \u03c3\u03c4\u03bf Decanter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Andrew Jefford visits the high-altitude vineyards of Crete and finds an ancient wine culture in renaissance&#8230;<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<div>\n<div id=\"attachment_295573\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/keyassets.timeincuk.net\/inspirewp\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2016\/03\/Mantilari-Plakoyra-Vineyard-2-630x417.png\" alt=\"Cretan wine, Mantilari Plakoyra Vineyard\" width=\"469\" height=\"310\" border=\"0\" data-pagespeed-url-hash=\"888924664\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Mantilari Plakoyra Vineyard. Credit: Nikos Somarakis<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>The sun shone; the wind howled.\u00a0 Ten degrees of latitude further north, and this would be a ski run.\u00a0<strong>Crete<\/strong>, though, is the chin on Europe\u2019s face; we\u2019re even south of Pantelleria here.<\/p>\n<p>There was indeed snow on the three mountain ranges which give Crete its brooding physical presence.\u00a0 Here, though, at 650 metres, there was just stone, light, mute vines \u2013 and a picnic table that threatened to soar in the blast, like the spying griffon vultures overhead.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div id=\"attachment_295575\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/keyassets.timeincuk.net\/inspirewp\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2016\/03\/Vineyard-2-2-630x417.png\" alt=\"Cretan wine, vineyard in snow\" width=\"400\" height=\"265\" border=\"0\" data-pagespeed-url-hash=\"3108536108\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The high altitudes in Crete bring snow. Credit: Nikos Somarakis<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>This was Vassilis and Anna Topsis\u2019s Pirovolikes Vineyard, and there was a bottle of their 2014 Vilana, made by Lyrarakis, on the table, alongside Anna\u2019s home-baked meat, vegetable and cheese pastries.\u00a0 As we pitched up (literally: the track to the vineyard was steep and deeply rutted), she was gathering wild golden thistle (scolymus, in fact a member of the chicory family) to cook later.\u00a0 We ate the pastries and drank the wine.\u00a0 It was fresh and incisive, like the wind: a splash of lemon, shattered stones, bitter herbs.<\/p>\n<p>They were proud of the moment, and the wine; and I was, in a way, awed by them, for I could see that neither wine nor the moment was easily won from nature.\u00a0 They keep goats, for milk, cheese and meat; they bake their own bread, in a wood-fired oven they light every two weeks.\u00a0 They live from the vine and the olive.<\/p>\n<p>Like their forebears \u2013 for the last 3,500 years.\u00a0 We\u2019d just visited the Minoan wine-press at Vathipetro, part of a palace complex built around 1580 BCE (probably less than a hundred years after the <strong>Santorini\u00a0<\/strong>explosion).\u00a0 Later that afternoon, in the village of Agios Thom\u00e1s, my companions and I stood on the edge of a giant, open-air treading tank \u2013 chiseled out of a limestone boulder the size of a small house during the centuries when Crete was the productive overseas Republic of Venice known as Candia (1205-1669).<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_295576\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/keyassets.timeincuk.net\/inspirewp\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2016\/03\/Cretan-limestone-2-630x417.png\" alt=\"Cretan wine, limestone\" width=\"630\" height=\"417\" border=\"0\" data-pagespeed-url-hash=\"4096265337\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Cretan limestone. Credit: Andrew Jefford<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>There\u2019s no automatic correlation, of course, between the length of a tradition and its present-day call on our attentions \u2013 but in Crete\u2019s case, something very interesting is going on.\u00a0 Here\u2019s why.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s big: this is the Mediterranean\u2019s fifth largest island, and the main wine-growing area, set back from Heraklion, is Greece\u2019s second largest wine district.\u00a0 But it\u2019s a late starter in the modern wine race: phylloxera, astonishingly, only reached Crete in the 1970s.<\/p>\n<p>Not only is replanting recent, but the island had the double handicap (or so it now seems) of having been replanted largely with international varieties, since that was what domestic and tourist consumers wanted at the time.\u00a0 Crete, though, has a splendid suite of indigenous varieties \u2013 and it\u2019s wine from those which has best export potential.\u00a0 They\u2019ve stepped shyly into the limelight as Greece\u2019s successive economic crises have eroded domestic consumption, leading Cretans to rethink the vineyard mix.<\/p>\n<p>Remember, too, that most Cretan viticulture is high-altitude: up to 858 metres above sea level.\u00a0 That fact, combined with evidently happy adaption of indigenous varieties and some first-class limestones and marls, means that Cretan wine defeats the expectations generated by its latitude.<\/p>\n<p>Most of it (68 per cent) is white, for a start, and it\u2019s the whites which for the time being show the most technical assurance.\u00a0 They\u2019re usually fresh, scented, nuanced, haunting and graceful, notched between 12.5% and 13%.\u00a0 The reds are a stronger, often light in colour, but remarkably structured \u2013 and wines of both colours impress for their complex, secondary flavour profiles, something seemingly built into the Greek gene bank: so much more than simple fruit, and very food-friendly.<\/p>\n<p>Ah yes, food.\u00a0 Why aren\u2019t there more Cretan restaurants around the world? With its delicacy and colour, its embrace of vegetables and its retrained use of meat, its use of a unique range of indigenous herbs and foraged greens with simply prepared fish and cheese, and its artful celebration of olive oil and of bread, both fresh and dried, it seems perfectly in tune with the gastronomic zeitgeist: light on the stomach, pretty on the eye, rooted in a culture and a place.<\/p>\n<p>The final Cretan call on our attention is the price of its wines. Before touring the hills above Heraklion, I spent a day tasting.\u00a0 There were many wines which weren\u2019t merely good but were original and exciting \u2013 and often on sale in Crete at well under six or seven euros a bottle.\u00a0 The British chain <strong>Marks &amp; Spencer\u00a0<\/strong>is one retailer which has noticed this combination of value and intrigue; it\u2019s due to list a 2014 white from the indigenous Dafni grape variety (also from Lyrarakis) in June, priced at just under \u00a310.\u00a0 Other importers, particularly those searching out intriguing wine for restaurants, should take a look.<\/p>\n<h2>A Taste of Cretan Wine<\/h2>\n<p>Here are eleven fascinating wines based on indigenous Cretan varieties and blends.\u00a0 There are four<strong> PDOs<\/strong>(appellations) on Crete \u2013<strong> Dafnes<\/strong> (for dry and sweet Liatiko), <strong>Archanes<\/strong> (for dry red Kotsifali and Mandilari),<strong> Peza<\/strong> (for white Vilana and dry red Kotsifali and Mandilari) and <strong>Sitia<\/strong> (for white Vilana and Thrapsathiri blends, and for dry or sweet red Liatiko and Mandilari).\u00a0 For the time being, though, and very sensibly, most Cretan producers simply use the comprehensible and easy-to-pronouce PGI of \u2018Crete\u2019 itself.<\/p>\n<h2>Cretan wine: whites<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Alexakis, Vidiano 2015\u00a0<\/strong><br \/>\nVidiano is the fragrant charmer among Cretan whites: I have recommended three, but there are a dozen or more on the island which amply merit export.\u00a0 Interestingly, it has a wide range of styles, perhaps depending on the altitude at which it is grown.\u00a0 This version from regional pioneer Alexakis, from two vineyards at 550m and 600m, is almost <strong>Viognier<\/strong>-like, with floral and ginger notes and some pleasing mid-palate richness. 89<\/p>\n<p><strong>Diamantakis, Vidiano 2015<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Vidiano from the skilled family team at Diamantakis is grown in exposed, stony vineyards at 500 m, and resembles a <strong>Roussanne<\/strong> from Savoie more than a Viognier: creamy, blossomy scents with an elegant, poised and almost crisp palate, backed by more petal-foam.\u00a0 90<\/p>\n<p><strong>Idaia, Vidiano 2015<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The beautifully labeled Idaia Vidiano is grown at a higher altitude still (600 m).\u00a0 Pure, fresh and vivid yet with beguiling inner complexity, this has a soft sappiness and leafiness which works well with its gentle green-apple fruit (just 12.5%).\u00a0 Impressive refreshment and subtlety here. 91<\/p>\n<p><strong>Klados, Great Hawk, Vidiano 2015<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s worth mentioning the Klados Vidiano since it is grown in Rethymno, the coastal city between Heraklion and Hania where the variety originated.\u00a0 This is just 12%, but there\u2019s no sense of shortness or rawness; indeed it\u2019s vinous, long and sappy, if a little less fragrant than the wines from the Heraklion hinterland mentioned above.\u00a0 88<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lyrarakis, Armi Vineyard, Thrapsathiri 2015<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Thrapsathiri variety, at least when grown at 600 m under the sheer rock walls of Mount Ida (also known as Psiloritis), is almost Albarinho-like: delicate perfumes and a cascade of sweet fruits and flowers.\u00a0 Barrel-fermentation plus a couple of months in oak just tease in a little cream.\u00a0 91<\/p>\n<p><strong>Monastery of Toplou, Thrapsathiri-Vilana 2015\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This blend of two indigenous varieties doesn\u2019t come from the high-altitude vineyards above Heraklion, but from a unique, remote, red-clay terroir at the far east of the island, close to Sitia.\u00a0 Suddenly we are in the presence of a much richer, denser, more succulent white wine, packed with wild grass and summer-fruit notes.\u00a0 91<\/p>\n<p><strong>Silva, Psithiros, Moschato Spinas 2013<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Psithiros means \u2018whisper\u2019; the variety here is Moschato Spinas:\u00a0 a distinctive Cretan strain of white<strong>Muscat<\/strong> which provides remarkably complete dry wines, like this chewy, vinous, pear-fruited wine from the Daskalakis family\u2019s fine range of wines.\u00a0 89<\/p>\n<h2>Cretan wine: reds<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Lyrarakis, Plakoura Vineyard, Mandilari 2013\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Mandilari is considered Crete\u2019s greatest red grape, with potentially extravagant tannins and acids, though it can be almost deficient in alcohol unless cropped very low.\u00a0 This 13% version had just three days on the skins (with the IPT reaching 74 on the third day); after old-oak ageing, though, it is a lively, almost refreshing red wine with a smooth central palate; the tannins only grown palpable at the end.\u00a0 Plum flavours with a Byzantine note: incense on the nose, and something almost like mastic on the palate. 91<\/p>\n<p><strong>Douloufakis, Dafnios, Dafnes 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Cretans are almost apologetic about the Liatiko grape variety because of its generally light colours and need for protective handling to keep oxidation at bay, and it is mostly used to make pleasant but unexceptional sweet wines.\u00a0 I fell in love with its dry wines, though, since they have huge personality, a beguiling inner sweetness and ample structuring tannins \u2014 of a much plumper style than the tannins of Mandilari.\u00a0 It can resemble traditionally aged Piedmontese reds (owner Nikolas Douloufakis, as it happens, studied in <strong>Alba<\/strong>).\u00a0 Sweet, exotic red-fruits scents and a perfumed, grippy, haunting flavour make this wine from the PDO of Dafnes a reference bottle.\u00a0 92<\/p>\n<p><strong>Milarakis Estate, Peza 2010<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Peza is the most widely used of the island\u2019s PDOs, and this now-mature blend of 80% Kotsifali with 20% Mantilari puts it through its paces: balanced, lively and pure, with wild sloe and cranberry fruits.\u00a0 Light and refreshing (12.8%), yet with complexity to finish, too.\u00a0\u00a0 89<\/p>\n<p><strong>Monastery of Toplou, Liatiko-Mandilari 2013<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Grown on lower-lying, stony schist soils in the arid, windy conditions of Sitia, and skillfully vinified by Manolis Stafilakis, this blend of 80% Liatiko with 20% Mandilari\u00a0 is compelling and unique, deeply satisfying and Italianate in style: sweet apple and sweet mushroom scents, with a nutty, fleshy, tannic, low-acid palate packed with more mushrooms, autumn leaves and almost honeyed red fruits, despite being a dry wine. 92<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Andrew Jefford visits the high-altitude vineyards of Crete and finds an ancient wine culture in renaissance&#8230; Mantilari Plakoyra Vineyard. Credit: Nikos Somarakis The sun shone; the wind howled.\u00a0 Ten degrees of latitude further north, and this would be a ski run.\u00a0Crete, though, is the chin on Europe\u2019s face; we\u2019re even south of Pantelleria here. There [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"categories":[96],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3895","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-foreign-sources"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>\u03a4\u03bf Wines of Crete \u03c3\u03c4\u03bf Decanter | Wines of Crete<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.winesofcrete.gr\/en\/press-reviews\/foreign-sources\/to-wines-of-crete-sto-decanter\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u03a4\u03bf Wines of Crete \u03c3\u03c4\u03bf Decanter | Wines of Crete\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Andrew Jefford visits the high-altitude vineyards of Crete and finds an ancient wine culture in renaissance&#8230; Mantilari Plakoyra Vineyard. 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Credit: Nikos Somarakis The sun shone; the wind howled.\u00a0 Ten degrees of latitude further north, and this would be a ski run.\u00a0Crete, though, is the chin on Europe\u2019s face; we\u2019re even south of Pantelleria here. 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