Assyrtiko

From retsina to Assyrtiko wine, from the neighborhood taverna to major New York restaurants and from local papers to glowing articles in the New York Times, over the past decade Greek wine has made great strides in terms of international recognition.

The cutting of the first bunch of Assyrtiko on the southern Aegean island of Santorini on August 4 signaled the start of the 2017 wine grape harvest across Greece. The harvest takes roughly three months, ending in late October in the vineyards of northern Greece.

Ever had a Retsina wine? Greek wine is growing in popularity, though it’s not likely to enter the mainstream any time soon. The wines of Greece come in a variety of styles, and the white Assyrtiko grape in particular has been turning sommeliers’ heads for a while now. Retsina is a very particular type of Greek wine, made partially from the trendy Assyrtiko grape.

Wines of Greece hosted its Grand Tasting at City Winery in New York City on May 9, showcasing thirty-nine wineries from throughout the mainland and islands of Greece.

Along with their bottle of white Assyrtiko wine, a jar of split-pea dip (fava) and photographs of blue skies and sparkling white houses, the thousands who visit the Aegean island of Santorini every year can now leave with another souvenir of their holidays: Santopoly, an ingenious board game created by a young Greek couple.

Imagine a metal cage full of bottles of wine, with two buoys attached, being gently towed by a boat off the southeastern coast of Santorini. Then, it is slowly lowered to the seabed. And there it remains, at a depth of 25 meters, for five years, a temporary attraction for the creatures of the deep.

Agricultural Development Minister Vangelis Apostolou vowed improvements to Greek legislation protecting the ancient vineyards of Santorini, telling Kathimerini that efforts will also be made to designate this wine-producing island a "high-yield zone" to curb the expansion of construction.

Santorini, the island that has launched a thousand postcards, is famous for its white sugar-cubed houses perched ontop of the caldera, its volcano and the exquisite beauty of its sunset.

By Ioanna Fotiadi

The secret of Santorini’s Assyrtiko is rapidly making its way through the grapevine of New York’s gourmands, who are raving about the grape variety grown on the southeast Aegean island.

“The Americans are mad about Assyrtiko,” the general manager of the Union of Santorini Cooperatives, Matthaios Dimopoulos, says with no small amount of pride.