May 2025 - Greece
May 2025
Greece
Featuring:
Semeli
Oenops Apla
While the Republic of Georgia may have the longest wine producing history, we owe it to the Greeks for exporting their love affair with the grape practically the world over (by way of Western Europe, of course). This country, with a 4000 year history, was responsible for scattering olives and grapevines across the Mediterranean and Northern Africa. And while they have an incredibly long wine history, they also have one of the most misunderstood.
For the better part of the last century, Greek wine wasn’t thought of as much more than cheap white wine and offensive, pine-flavored Retsina that would always play second-fiddle to the greater wines of Italy, France, and Spain. However, in the last 30 years, thanks to some amazing winemakers on both the mainland and the islands, we’ve seen a renaissance in the quality and precision of Greek grapes. Today you can find wonderful high-acid, salty white wines, deep and brooding reds with focus and precision, and even good Retsina.
Climate and Geography
Greece’s climate can be separated into three key geographical regions: Northern Greece, Central / Peloponnese Peninsula, and the Islands.
Northern Greece would be defined as the regions along the borders of Albania, North Macedonia, and Bulgaria. Here, a cooler continental climate prevails, with colder winters, high winds, rain, and snowfall in the mountains. Wines from here tend to be lighter in alcohol and ripeness and higher in acidity. This region has more limestone than other parts of the country, which lends more muscular, tannic profiles to the red wines, particularly Xinomavro.
Central Greece and the Peloponnese Peninsula is very much a Mediterranean-style climate; mild winters, with warm and dry summers. Here most sought-after vineyards feature some sort of extreme terrain - whether they are in the mountains or a valley. This region tends to produce ripe, bold wines with structure and full character.
The Islands - Cyclades, Ionian, and Crete - are geographically very different but climatically share one key feature - extreme wind. Being exposed in the southern Aegean Sea, these islands bear the brunt of the Meltemi wind coming from the eastern Sahara. This wind is powerful enough to have steered viticulture to certain innovations (like basket training on Santorini) or prompt the finest regions to be located behind wind blocks (like behind a mountain range on Crete). In the worst case, the wind makes viticulture impossible. In the best case, it only affects the character of the finished wine - robust phenols due to a thicker skin and sometimes lower ripeness due to photosynthesis shutting down.
While these three groupings are a vast oversimplification of Greece’s viticulture regions, they provide a general idea of what is happening in each major area. All in all, Greece has 33 PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) regions and an estimated over 300 native grapes. An encyclopedia series wouldn’t even do the breadth of Greece’s wine-growing culture and history justice.
Semeli, ‘Feast’ White, Nemea 2023
Semeli is an ambitious winery project located an hour or so West of Athens on the Peloponnese peninsula. Founded in 1979, the family owned project is focused on high-quality wines from prime terroir in the Nemea region. Leonidas Nassiakos is the third-generation proprietor and winemaker of Semeli. Having inherited the Nassiakos family winery from his father in 2000, Leonidas then went on to merge with Chateau Semeli in 2005.
The winery and vineyards are located in the Nemea region, which is Greece’s largest appellation for Red wines. Vineyards are often found between 1500 and 2000 feet of elevation, which affords them an ample amount of sun along with plenty of wind, allowing for low sugar, high phenolics, and vibrant acidity in the wines. While Nemea might be ‘red wine country’, Semeli is actually known for its whites - particularly from the Moschofilero grape.
One notable fact about the Semeli winery is that it is entirely gravity-fed. The state of the art winery was rebuilt in the mid 2000’s along the hillside to allow the whole winemaking process to be done without pumps.
‘Feast’ white is 80% Moscofilero and 20% Roditis. Moschofilero is a native white grape to Greece but primarily found in the Pelopennese. Roditis is a pink-skinned grape (like Pinot Gris or Gewurtz) that is often used as a blending variety throughout Greece. The two varieties are grown at about 2000ft of elevation in mostly clay soils. After harvest in early-mid October, the grapes undergo a gentle pressing before fermentation in stainless steel. A young fresh wine, this ages for just a few months before bottling and release.
This is the perfect summertime porch-pounder, with honeysuckle, chamomile, melon, and citrus notes. With bright acidity and a touch of bitterness on the palate, it would pair very well with food. Lunch-time items like a crunchy vinegar-laden sandwich, fish tacos, and - of course - Greek cuisine all come to mind.
Oenops, ‘Apla’ Red, Macedonia 2020
Nikos Karatzas founded Oenops Wines in 2015, after two decades of studies in France and at home in Greece. His studies were originally in chemical engineering, but after some time he ended up in Bordeaux to study oenology. There, he learned how to make wine from a classical, technical perspective. When he returned to Greece and founded Oenops, he brought that knowledge to his own project. Oenops is located in Greek Macedonia, a region to the NE of the country just south of the border with Bulgaria.
As the story goes, the first vintage Nikos was not satisfied with the work of their borrowed destemmer - berries came out damaged and some stems were left intact. Nikos, alongside friends and family, spent 24 hours destemming fruit by hand to start the fermentation of his first wines with the care they deserved. While his destemmer issues have long been sorted out, that dedication carries over into all of the wines Oenops makes today.
“Apla” is a label within the Oenops brand, focused on blends of native varieties that come together to make easy drinking, approachable wines. The red iteration of Apla consists of 50% Xinomavro, 30% Limniona, and 20% Mavroudi - all native grapes to the region. Grapes are sourced from certified organic, contracted vineyards in Macedonia and the sub-region of Drama. Grape clusters are carefully sorted, partially destemmed, and placed in a combination of open-top barrels, stainless steel tanks, and concrete vats. The grapes are given a short cold soak, to lock in fruit flavors and freshness, before fermentation begins. After fermentation, the wines age in the same combination of vessels for 9 months before blending and bottling. No new oak is used, preserving the purity of the fruit.
The resulting wine is a bright, fresh red perfect to welcome the late spring and early summer. Red cherries, strawberries, and a hint of tomato leaf come out on the nose. The palate is defined by bright acidity, medium body, and a lower alcohol content. Easy to drink on its own (chilled or not), this could also pair well with simple Mediterranean grill food - seasoned meats, herbs, and salty cheese are the perfect match.