Greek Wine Event in New York

We had the pleasure of attending our third "Meet the Winemakers of Greece" event in NY on May 19 put on by our friends Sophia Perpera and George Athanas of All About Greek Wine and sampling the new offerings. One theme came out very strongly...they are experimenting with blends of the traditional indigenous grapes with more familiar international varietals. Some of the most interesting were:

--Mextoxi X 2008 from Tsantali, a blend of Assyrtiko, Athiri and Sauvignon Blanc...super rich and a nice balance of acid to complement food. (That's me and Perikles Drakos, the export manager for Tsantali) There's a great story here...the vines are grown on the slopes of Mt. Athos on a remote peninsula in the North Aegean populated only by Greek Orthodox monks...and for the past 600 years only males have been allowed to enter...including only male donkeys as farm labor.

--I was also impressed by George Skouras' Megas Oenos Red 2006 The name means "big wine" and very appropriately so...a virtual explosion in the mouth, with a wonderful blend of fruit, structure and a finish that goes on forever. It's a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Aghiorghitiko, one of the seemingly unpronounceble autochthons that the Greeks have co-named "St. George"...much easer to say.

--Yiannis Paraskevopoulos hosted the Gai'a table. He's one of if not the most influential of the new crop of winemakers in Greece with a Phd from Bordeaux and a teaching post at the school of oenology at the Univ. of Athens. Everything he makes is fabulous, and he pulled out an experiment/hidden gem for us to taste...an Assyrtiko made with wild yeasts. The star of his showing was the Gaia Estate 2006 Nemea St. George...big, powerful, and perfectly balanced and structured. I'd put it up against any of the cult California Cabs.

--I said there was a theme, and Pavlidis Estate which is in Drama (northeastern Macedonia) from Athenee Importers. They have a line of "Thema" wine simply named White, Rose and Red. Each is a blend of indigenous and familiar varietals. The rose was most interesting in that it is made from 100% tempranillo which is vinified as both a white and red wine and then blended to make a rose. I generally don't like rose's (in spite of all the recent hype they've gotten) but this was spectacular. Sphere: Related Content

But That's Not all...WSJ Cites Austrian, Greek Wines

For a second straight week, the Wall Street Journal highlighted a couple of our clients. In the Weekend Edition's "Tastings" section story titled "Singing the ABC's of Wine"...

G was for "Grüner Veltliner. Austria's signature white, far more widely available now than just a short time ago. It's so trendy that some people, unfortunately, call it GrünVelt, GrünV, GV or even GrüV, but we'd stick with GROO-ner felt-LEE-ner."

X was for "Xinomavro. Indigenous red grape of Greece, pronounced Ksee-NO-ma-vro, according to the Web site allaboutgreekwine.com, where you can hear it pronounced. Greek wines are interesting, well-made and often bargain priced."

Z was for "Zweigelt. Austria's most widely planted red grape, sometimes seen as a rosé. The red is fun, charming and a little peppery."

Authors Dorothy Gaiter and Richard Brecher also noted the influence of Blogs highlighting Dr. Vino (Tyler Colman) and Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV. Sphere: Related Content

Liquid Visits to Greece, Italy and France

It's been a whirlwind past few weeks with a focus on the wine business. And as we all so often remark, it's a small world and we ran into a bunch of folks we've had the pleasure of working with and meeting over the years. My wife Susan and I attended an enjoyable Saturday afternoon wine tasting Seminar at Bar Boulud in NY presented by Sophia Perpera of All About Greek Wines and hosted by sommelier Michael Madrigale. Daniel Boulud showed up for a sip and the event was also attended by Charles Curtis, MW, who is the North American head of wine sales for Christie's and whom I met at Vino 2009. Also stopping by was Michael Lawrence, COO of the Boulud empire.

The history and heritage of Greek wines is packed with fascinating stories...like the unique way Assyrtiko grapes are grown in Santorini...it's so windy on the caldera slopes that they train the vines into baskets with the grape bunches draped on the inside and the leaves on the outside. The vines end up so long that they have to restart the vines by burying cuttings adjacent to the mother vine every 75 years or so. Some of the vines are reputed to be more than 500 years old. After the tasting we had a fabulous evening of conversation, mezes (Greek tapas) and wine with Sophia and her husband George Athanas. Chef Michael Psilakis joined us for an hour and explained the concept of his new wine bar at Anthos.

And last night Meg Casey joined me for an evening of entertainment, great food and fine Italian wines presented by old friend Filippo DiBelardino of Castello Banfi. Philip is an original in the industry and unique in his ability to educate with humor...think Dom DeLouise with an MW. Sponsoring the event was Brescome Barton and we had a nice talk with John Goldstein, CEO and his son Seth who runs one of BB's four divisions. John used to be a neighbor of ours in Simsbury.

The prior week Jeff and I attended a dual Bordeaux event in NY "Today's Bordeaux" and Rive Droite de Grands Vins de Bordeaux. It was the first chance I had to taste wine en primeur, an interesting experience, but I really must say I'm not too sure my palate can appreciate what I was tasting. The Today's Bordeaux side of the show presented 100 wines between $8 and $35...part of the CIVB program to educate Americans that Bordeaux isn't all Grand Cru's...they have dozens of Chateaux producing affordable wines that exhibit terroir and are produced for current consumption. Sphere: Related Content

Greek Wine and why Long Tail Isn't Yellow

In conjunction with our client All About Greek Wines, I had a great meeting with a group of Greek wineries and importers in New York Friday. The primary focus of the presentation was the development of an ecommerce concept and system. It was great to see everyone's eyes light up when they "get" the concept of virtual inventory through the Beverage Network database and the 50+ retailers for whom they provide the e-commerce functionality. If you’re interested in more detail, check out the excellent article (and headline) Ian Griffith wrote: The Long Tail isn't Yellow. Sphere: Related Content

Wine E-commerce

In spite of the recent Costco et al. verdicts, e-commerce’s time is coming in the industry. As many of you know I’ve been a passionate advocate of DOING SOMETHING NOW rather than waiting for the perfect solution to magically appear sometime in the hazy future. That said, Mike Roth of Beverage Media and I had a very interesting conversation on the subject and I’m even more convinced that their network of retailer websites is the place to start. Following the philosophy of "Get the Free Stuff First" and "Use Other People’s Money" it is really a no-brainer. It’s an existing network of ecommerce solutions to add value to the BevMedia database in NY, NJ, MA, CT and several other states. The brilliance lies in the fact that to begin the process, all a supplier has to do is provide the content (and hey, they say Content is King right?...more on that later), and the retailer can sell out of the distributors' virtual inventory. It’s the “Long Tail” concept served up to suppliers with the vision to recognize the opportunities ecommerce has to to address the inequities of the US three-tier system for smaller, poorly distributed brands. To that end I had some great conversations (well, I talked they listened, does that still count as a conversation?) with a couple of producers…Yanni Papagiannis from Fantis Foods Inc, one of the major Greek Wine importers (Tsantali et al wines), a perplexed but interested group of wineries exhibiting under the aegis of the Madrid Chamber of Commerce . Sphere: Related Content