Happy New Year!
Yes, fellow travelers, we have made it once round the year and twice round the alphabet. We started our tour of discovery on 1st September 2013 and have reached the start of lap 2 on 31st August 2014. We have tasted 26 red wines and 26 whites (one of the reds was actually a rose, but the grapes were red), mostly varietals, but with a few blends, so our target of 52 wines in 52 weeks has been met.
So, off we go again.
St George got about a bit. Slaying dragons all over the place it would seem. He is the patron saint of 20 countries, 24 cities and the Scouts. Both Christian and Muslim traditions venerate him, and he is pressed into service by organisations assisting sufferers of leprosy, plague, herpes and syphilis. Way to go, Georgie.
The Australians have a bank named after him and I expect he would have been pleased by that, but I like to think such a great man would have been far more excited to know that in Greece he has an eponymous wine grape.
Week A (2014) Tetramythos Agiorgitiko 2012. Vinoteca Farringdon £10.75.
If it needs spelling out (and it is a Greek word, so it probably does) Agiorgitiko means St.George. It is one of the two most widely planted red grapes is Greece, the other being Xinomavro that we tasted three weeks ago in week X (2014), and the wine that is made from it in the Nemea region is sometimes referred to as 'the blood of Hercules', so it would appear to have more than one heroic connection.
Agiorgitiko can make wines across a variety of styles, but this one is a medium intensity ruby colour with simple fruity aromas of red fruits and not much else. It has 13% abv and low acidity. It is pleasant and easy to drink, but not spectacular. The tannins are subtle and most noticeable 'in the finish', after it has been swallowed, where they leave a slightly green or unripe flavour which is a little bitter.
It is an organic wine, produced in a winery built ten years ago near the northern coast of the Peloponnese region of southern Greece, where a range of eight wines are made in different styles. My impression is that this one is designed to be drunk young, although I think it could be kept for a few years without the expectation of it developing into anything more than it is when it is bottled. Oak is used a the winery for some of their output, after fermentation in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks, but there is no hint that the Agiorgitiko has spent any time in barrel.
Of the two recently tasted Greek wines I would have to award this on the runner-up position as the Xinomavro had been a pleasant surprise, where as this is just pleasant. It also costs 25p more.
Yes, fellow travelers, we have made it once round the year and twice round the alphabet. We started our tour of discovery on 1st September 2013 and have reached the start of lap 2 on 31st August 2014. We have tasted 26 red wines and 26 whites (one of the reds was actually a rose, but the grapes were red), mostly varietals, but with a few blends, so our target of 52 wines in 52 weeks has been met.
So, off we go again.
St George got about a bit. Slaying dragons all over the place it would seem. He is the patron saint of 20 countries, 24 cities and the Scouts. Both Christian and Muslim traditions venerate him, and he is pressed into service by organisations assisting sufferers of leprosy, plague, herpes and syphilis. Way to go, Georgie.
The Australians have a bank named after him and I expect he would have been pleased by that, but I like to think such a great man would have been far more excited to know that in Greece he has an eponymous wine grape.
If it needs spelling out (and it is a Greek word, so it probably does) Agiorgitiko means St.George. It is one of the two most widely planted red grapes is Greece, the other being Xinomavro that we tasted three weeks ago in week X (2014), and the wine that is made from it in the Nemea region is sometimes referred to as 'the blood of Hercules', so it would appear to have more than one heroic connection.
Agiorgitiko can make wines across a variety of styles, but this one is a medium intensity ruby colour with simple fruity aromas of red fruits and not much else. It has 13% abv and low acidity. It is pleasant and easy to drink, but not spectacular. The tannins are subtle and most noticeable 'in the finish', after it has been swallowed, where they leave a slightly green or unripe flavour which is a little bitter.
It is an organic wine, produced in a winery built ten years ago near the northern coast of the Peloponnese region of southern Greece, where a range of eight wines are made in different styles. My impression is that this one is designed to be drunk young, although I think it could be kept for a few years without the expectation of it developing into anything more than it is when it is bottled. Oak is used a the winery for some of their output, after fermentation in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks, but there is no hint that the Agiorgitiko has spent any time in barrel.
Of the two recently tasted Greek wines I would have to award this on the runner-up position as the Xinomavro had been a pleasant surprise, where as this is just pleasant. It also costs 25p more.
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