One can easily fall into the trap of thinking that the life of a wine communicator is an endless parade of hedonic experiences in the fine settings of winery tasting rooms with unfolding views of neat rows of vines or snowcapped mountain ranges Nice restaurants even The occasional pick nick with vineyard workers Well it does not always come like that Being on the move one has to strive to accommodate the workload of a host of other professionals in what ends up being rather long days
On a recent update with ampelographer Kostas Bakasietas the best he could do to accommodate my flying visit in Nemea was 830 in the evening for a supper tasting Translated into Greek time this means sitting down at 915 hardly the ideal time to taste Thankfully the Argitiki grill house has proper wine tasting glasses The crowds had not arrived and it was a smokefree environment Bakasietas brought to the table a portion of his 12yearlong clonal research from diverse regions These were microvinifications of the 2014 harvest from a bevy of clones he had planted in his vineyards in Nemea He kicked off with two Cretan specialties a floral spicy Vilana followed by a vibrant Plyto Both hitting typicity and a notch above in character What followed was six clones of Moschofilero This was like opening a new window They were all different and all offered more gravitas It got my second wind going making me really focused Aromatics were varied What stood out was structure and interesting tannins offering a spine we do not see in the current wines coming from the Arcadian plateau It makes one sit up and think that there is a whole new world out there
Virusfree healthy planting material is invaluable Yet nothing gave away what was about to happen Another Cretan specialty red this time a Kotsifali Palecoloured The aromatics and soft seductive tannins followed by a haunting aromatic complexity on the palate were simply beyond words I sat there speechless This was a wholebody experience such as when first tasting a Mazis Chambertin Epiphany Kostas is serious hard working and modest His face was glowing with satisfaction Eventually I collected myself and landed back or terra firma well almost On my recent time on Crete there was no hesitation in keeping Kotsifali on my darkhorse shortlist of red grapes That gutdriven feeling that there is something going on here Just taste recent vintages by Douloufakis and Lyrarakis Yet nothing in 23 years of covering Greek wine had prepared me for this moment If planted in the right place and farmed as it should be according to the modern knowhow this is the next great international grape Above Assyrtiko That good