A Tale of Two Wines
Mar 21st, 2008 | By Hank Shaw | Category: Greek, Wine | Comments | 2 Comments |
I do not consider myself an expert wine taster, although I suspect I am better than the average bear. Still, when I hear reviewers talk about notes of this, that and the other thing, I can usually “get” one or two, but am at a loss for what is probably either the province of the super-taster or bald-faced pretension.
That said, two red wines cannot be too much more different than the last pair I opened: a 2005 Cotes du Rhone blend from the Sierra Foothills called Tranquille, by Holly’s Hill Vineyards, and a 2005 Erasmios Agiorgitiko from Nemea in Corinth, Greece.
The Holly’s Hill is a blend of 54% grenache, 31% mourvedre and 15% syrah. And let me tell you it is pure velvet. Absolutely smooth, with what seems like a little residual sugar that is really just the fruitiness of the grenache. Its rounded tannins are a given — grenache and syrah aren’t really known for being overly felty — but the depth it gets from the mourvedre makes this wine one of the best I have opened in a long, long time.
Tranquille is not a vino da meditazione, something you stare at while listening to Astrud Gilberto cooing about Corcovado on the hi-fi, with a fire crackling in the background and a curled-up cat purring next to you. It lacks the heft and, quite frankly, the complexity such wines require. But then again those wines sometimes make my head hurt. This is indeed a by-itself wine, although it did just fine with my venison with morel sauce the other day.
In hindsight, I ‘d wished I’d opened the agiorgitiko for that meal instead. This wine is as sharp as the Tranquille is soft. It screams for something fatty and rich to offset it. Maybe a lamb shank. Or a plate of bacon. It’s not that I don’t like this wine, it’s just that it is so acidic, sour even. The front end is a little like sour cherries, and the back end — long after it’s gone down — is hot. This is weird, because the wine only clocks in at 12.5 percent alcohol.
Bottom line: Leave the agiorgitiko for mealtime. Relax with the Holly’s Hill.
Very few Greek wine is suited for sipping alone. Remeber that the Greeks are like the Romans: they make their wine to go down with food, not just to get a buzz.
Lesson learned, Andrew! I kinda knew that going in, but I was still surprised at just how jarring the difference in wines was.
Besides, Greeks drink raki or ouzo to get a buzz, no?