A taste of Greek wine and tourism

I just had a little jaunt across the border into Greece. I got to taste a very nice Greek wine, and I had a not particularly Greek dinner at a very elegant Greek restaurant in Thessaloniki. While I do not often post restaurant reviews, I do have a few words to say on the subject.

For many of us the thought of Greek wine brings up recollections of pine needles and disinfectant. There is a world of Greek wine beyond just Retsina, and while my most recent foray was limited to a wine list it bears pointing out that there is a modern and thriving wine industry in Greece.

The wine list was full of the usual and all to ubiquitous Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlots that you would expect to find anywhere, except these were all of Greek origin. I didn't explore these transplants to the Hellenic wine scene, opting instead for a more traditional bottle of Asyrtiko .

Speaking of Cabernet Sauvignon's recent emergence in Greece, a recent book by Miles Lambert-Gocs "Desert Island Wines" suggests that Cab may just be tracing back its roots to its ancestral origins in Greece.

I won't do my usual song and dance about how Cab, Merlot and Chard are eroding the once varied landscape of international wines, honest. Suffice it to say that I have yet to go anywhere in my travels that these revered grape varieties, once relegated to France and California, have not been prominent on every wine list.

The Asyrtiko I had was a fun and different white wine indeed. It is hard to even find the descriptors for this wine, since the flavor is above all else, unusual for one used to the classic French varietals. This made the wine that much more interesting to try and to recommend you discover. It may well be that any examples of this grape you find in the US have suffered from the long boat ride, so if your impressions don't jive with mine, consider it an excuse to visit sunny Greece.

The restaurant we ate at was a delightful tourist trap perched high on the top floor of the Electra Palace Hotel. We went for the view, and were well rewarded for our efforts. The view and the wine were our favorite parts of the meal, but we knew this going in, and so were well prepared.

The view and wine were Greek, the food was closer to French than not. It was an ambitious menu, especially for an outdoor venue where night time temperatures never fell below 80. A lighter, more elegant approach would have been more to our taste than the heavy handed dishes we ended up with.

We started with a Crab Napoleon and a "Lobster," Shrimp and Scallop dish in a Parmesan Cream Sauce. The quotes are because it was of course a langoustine and lobster was probably just a translation.

The napoleon was fun, with a rich cream sauce in with the crab and pastry, but there was also a slightly sour cream sauce around the sides of the plate that went well with the roe it was decorated with, but clashed with the main sauce. The pastry itself was a bit soggy and even a touch musty tasting. The downside of being a few feet away from the sea. Had the pastry been made fresh it would have been more impressive.

The langoustine et al. was really flavorful, in a heavy tarragon cream sauce, but it became a chore in that heat to eat more than a few bites. The presentation was delightful, albeit hard to eat, with heads and shells intact.

We chose our main courses to accompany the wine, and ended up with Swordfish with Tomatoes and Capers, and an Escallop of Pork in a Mint cream sauce.

The swordfish was terribly overcooked and more reminiscent of tuna from a can than a fresh steak should be. But then it isn't like they pulled the swordfish from the bay we were overlooking. It was disappointing and dry.

The Pork to was cooked to death, but this may be due to the reflex to over cook pork that many restaurants have. It turned this potentially lovely dish into shoe leather. Missing too was the mint flavor. There seemed to be flakes of a dried herb in the sauce, but the mint flavo, if any was subtle even for my usually discering palate.

We paid dearly for the view, but honestly, it was what we were after. Our expectations were met right down to the server that forgot about us for over an hour, but it just gave us that much more time to drink in the view, and the lovely white wine.

I had in the back of my head finding a perfect little out of the way spot for a bit of moussaka and a few dolmas, to see how they compared to my own cooking, but Thessaloniki is a cosmopolitan city catering to tourists and our experience was probably more indicative of the flavor of the city itself.

For more on Thessaloniki and a look at the views, pop on over to our travel blog .

Bulgaria: Mavrud and Muscat

Mavrud may mean black in Greek, but the wines I have tried from the grape of that name have been lighter than not. Exclusive to the Thracian region of Bulgaria, this unusual wine is pretty common through out the capital city of Sofia where I am currently residing.

The more familiar grapes of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot are widely used in Bulgaria, but I know those, and so I have been experimenting with this local variety. The examples I have been able to taste so far have been memorable for their forest floor flavors and soft tannins. It is a taste that is not familiar to US wine drinkers, but that may be its main charm.

In its youth there is a strong mushroom flavor although pleasant and far from overwhelming. With age there is little change in flavors, just a gentle overall softening. Without pronounced tannins to resolve with time, there is little that would allow this wine to develop in the bottle. The relatively high acidity keeps the wine fresh and allows it to survive at least the 15 years of the oldest sample I have tasted.

It is exactly this crisp acidity that makes Mavrud work surprisingly well with food. It stood up nicely to a steak and fries, and didn't over power a delicate pizza.

Chances are this is not a grape that is going to travel well, so any Mavrud you find in the States may well have lost its charm, but be sure to try it if you get the opportunity to visit Bulgaria (I recommend it, we are having a great time).

Muscat has been our favorite white to date. This grape is found in almost every wine producing region of the world, and the Bulgarians have been pretty successful with it. American wine drinkers often think of Muscat as being a dessert wine, but in Alsace, and Bulgaria, it is usually produced in a drier style.

The result is a floral wine with just a hint of sweetness. Lighter than a riesling or Gewurztraminer, it is reminiscent of both. The ubiquitous pizza joints that are found every few blocks here in Sofia almost universally have a decent Muscat on their menus. For about $7.50 in a restaurant or $4 in the store, this wine is not only delicious and surprisingly perfect with pizza, it is too cheap to ignore.

I am still working out how I am going to visit the widespread wine regions of Bulgaria, but even if I don't get out there in person, I will continue to do my part to help the economy, one bottle at a time.

Good cheap wine in Bulgaria

I have long asserted that one of the stumbling blocks to wine being more widely accepted in developing countries is the price, especially when compared to beer. I may be changing my mind a bit on that position.

I have only been in Bulgaria a few days, and I have only had a few very inexpensive wines so far. I would no sooner judge the Bulgarian wine scene from these examples than I would judge the whole of the US from 2 bottles of the cheapest wine I could find. That said, the $4 bottles of Cab and Merlot I tried were not bad. No real varietal character, but not bad.

Like I said, wine starts about $4 a bottle here, and beer runs closer to $.40 for a 1/2 liter bottle. At first blush this seems to support my original contention that wine cost so much more than beer that the locals eschew wine. In China where it is all about the alcohol this may be more accurate than here, but even then I have to wonder.

China's prices are similar, so if I just look at the alcohol content I see that it takes about 4 beers to equal the buzz of 1/2 bottle of wine. That makes the comparison much closer as the wine runs $2 and the beer then would be $1.60.

So the price difference is not as great as I originally thought, unless you are comparing volume to volume. As any neo-prohibitionist will tell you with alcohol equivalence one drinks more volume of beer than of wine.

And so I am rethinking what it takes to make wine acceptable to emerging countries. Maybe price is not the bugaboo I have always asserted it is. Culture, familiarity and habits play a much bigger part. Here in Bulgaria they have a rich tradition of wine that makes it much more likely that the locals will enjoy wine now and then, and not just beer.

In China they have no such traditions, and so just like the US not so very long ago, they are a nation of beer drinkers. India and Asia in general are in the same boat. No history of wine consumption. It is not just a price obstacle, it is a cultural one.

I will be bringing you more details on the wines of Bulgaria and in 3 months, even a look at the Indian wine scene, stay tuned.