1890 AD A poor road network had most Xinomavro regions in relative isolation Human and goods transport was limited Vines were ungrafted Then an American visitor arrived outside Thessaloniki and unleashed havoc Phylloxera vastatrix By the 1860s it had devastated the French vineyards For a shortterm fix inkyblack Paros Mantilaria was shipped in cask to Marseilles to boost the thin and anaemic vin ordinaires The pest eventually arrived in Greece in 1890
Varietal wines as we know them today were unknown at the time Farmers had other priorities foremost survival The field blend in Naoussa included a hotchpotch Cinsault Gallika Negoska was a solid partner to Goumenissa Xinomavro Over the Mount Vermion in the coolerclimate isolated Amyndeo newly arrived Pontic Greeks 1922 and nursery specialists from Anatoliki Romelia todays southern Bulgaria expanded Xinomavro planting by sourcing cuttings from old vines The everresourceful Romelians who were not allowed to practise cheesemaking in Bulgaria knew a thing or two about vine propagation The furriers in Kastoria and especially Siatista kept another bank of rare Xinomavro clones in their marked continental climate Here vines struggled to mature they therefore resorted to airdrying their grapes under cover inside their stonebuilt houses Further south on Rapsani hillsides Xinomavro thrived alongside other unique local grapes All this unfolded with the speed of a slowframed Theo Angelopoulos film until Phylloxera arrived Then things went haywire
This inherited Xinomavro panorama still remains today however It is as clear as mud What happened next has had longlasting ramifications most of which we taste today in our glasses Are there any old Naoussa clones about One such wine is the cuve nature made by Thymiopoulos Vineyards It is hauntingly different None of the tomato vine aromatics Dense mulberry with spice It is out of this world yet so different from the allspice of old vines in Amyndeo A few vineyards were perhaps replanted with the old Naoussa clones Now though they end up blended in with the newer arrivals from Amyndeo from where most of the Naoussa replanting material was sourced Tastewise they are very different from the Amyndeo stock used in restoring the Naoussa vineyard in the 1970s There is another factor to consider though Naoussa is a warmer site than Amyndeo Until recently Xinomavro from inland isolated Velvendo came to prominence with the discovery of different clones to all of the aforementioned The Velvendo clones have now also been tried in Naoussa
These are some of the points that have surfaced while I was trying to make sense of this delightful puzzle as I prepare a Xinomavro Master Class for my students in Switzerland If there is a hidden gem in all this it comes from an unsuspecting corner and it is not my technician friends The feedback from advancedlevel students of the cole du Vin is invaluable They simply look at the tasting panorama of mesoclimates and sites as we enjoy the great wines of the Piemonte We receive by giving
Originally published in Monopol