One of my earliest recollections in tasting grapes was a type of Muscat It was cut from a pergola between an olive grove and a beach It came with instructions Wash it before you eat it After a frisson or two of running across the piping hot sand I found myself washing my gift in the Ionian Sea This cocktail of berries bursting with sugar and Ionian salinity dripping down my chin has been one of my happiest experiences in those longlost days of innocent carefree existence It was an impossible act to followNone of this was going through my mind while visiting the windswept barren stony vineyards of Ioannis Batistas situated on the inner side of the easternmost finger of the Peloponnese I was absorbing the afterharvest almost leafless battered from winds Kidonitsa vines This grape is named after the aroma of quince We visited the cellar where the 2011 vintage had just finished fermenting No reliving the Corfu childhood years How would that be possible Yet something was at hand not felt in ages a hunters reward From the vat a hazy glass of simply the most grapey wine I have ever come across Ticking off aromatic grapes Malagousia and Moschofilero pale in comparison Transcends Muscat Frontier stuff I do not know what Leif Erikson felt when he discovered what he named Vinland Labrador where he saw wild vines symbiotically clinging to trees or if his Nordic settlement ever attempted to make wine from grapes But this find in Laconia was an unexpected revelation Previous tastings were prone to inconsistency The picture is now lucent The owner of this patch of Kidonitsa restaurateur Ioannis Batistas explained that this specific vineyard has farming issues The current plant stock produces very low yields mostly reduced by the exposed location Planting it to a more sheltered from the wind cooler site in a less extreme environment should reveal more of this highly promising grape Current Kidonitsa total acreage is estimated at 20 hectares This invaluable DNA bank is more than worth tapping into It is a nobrainer that a new discovery of such personality with a burstingtotheseams grapey character has a bright future To farmers reading this note Get your vine nursery in order early Ditto for forwardthinking estates from more northern latitudes that should evaluate a pearl from a warmer climate Could this rarity turn out to be the Greek vineyards Little PrinceYellow goldgreen tints Mealy Redolent of peach Gunflint Kumquat zest earthnotes mineral backbone Round Silky textured saline finish Stylistically it resembles Aegean island cultivars such as Santorinis Aidani or Cretes Vilana In reality an equally attractive though different aromatic picture Singular Best 20122015