Some twelve boutique addresses have emerged in the past decade on Crete For several reasons some more obvious than others they continue to fly under the radar If they are close to a tourist zone they sell directly Export is a large slice of their small production Online sales are not yet in their daily action list Others languish in a rather long under construction period Most farm their own vineyards or buy grapes from quality sources My umbrellaterm for these otherwise worthy efforts is hidden cellars Finding them demands a whole new approach in research
Brothers Manolis and Antonis Maragakis were top of my growing tovisit list Indeed they were the very prototype as they tick all of the above boxes Though farmers to the bone their winery was financed thanks to their gas station They also realized that some of the best vineyards are in the claylimestone ridge at Stavrakia 430m where they planted risingstar white grape Vidiano This is one of the promising rediscoveries of the Cretan vineyard which is now going through much soulsearching with a raft of changes and pragmatism sweeping across the once sleeper region
Manolis is succinct with the public image of Cretan wine in Greece It is only after 2000 that we started delivering our potential We came late to the party it was impossible to break into the Athens market Since the fiscal crisis we concentrate on exports Their white wines are a runaway success Interest has now focused on a recent KotsifaliSyrah blend from Belgium Holland and Germany The gas station now having been leased they do what they like best as fulltime farmers selling their wine Their nononsense attitude and humility is exemplary Greek wine needs more of these egoless efforts Thankfully the wine routes of Crete now sport such addresses beckoning discovery The unique to Crete grapes offer more than a sense of place Missing out on the Athens bubble now burst was not such a bad thing it may have saved them
10yearold vines Place name Xerolia 430m Exuberant fruity with apricot aroma Fleshy Persistent More stone fruit peaches No oak Lees contact adding roundness Good fruit acid balance Vibrant with verve Textured grapey delicacy Useful at 126 ABV and more balanced than the overthetop 2013 Distinctively different to the other local white specialty Vilana Tastewise nothing else comes near to this unusuallooking screwshaped grape berries No wonder there is a renewed planting spree on these picturesque limestonerich hillsides up to Agios Thomas 750m Best 20152018