The great white Greek grape Assyrtiko is having a new lease of life around the world, thanks to interest from winemakers as far flung as Australia (Peter Barry is one of its biggest fans) and drinkers on both sides of The Atlantic. It's original home is the stunning Greek island of Santorini where, despite the hot climate, it has adapted to retain relatively high acidity, which gives its fresh taste when youthful and preserves it as a great wine to age too. If you're looking for the ideal white to drink with seafood, here it is. Also a great aperitif white.

Powerful, dry, lemony and richly full bodied. This is one of two exceptionally tasty, characterful Greek wines made from the Robola grape variety. These are exciting whites made entirely from the Robola, which grown mostly on the Ionian Islands in Greece, particularly Kefalonia (the fifth largest of all Greek islands), Zakynthos, Kerkyra (Corfu) and others. 

The best Robolas are full bodied wines with  naturally high acidity which provides beautiful balance. With aging, this wine will develop complex flavours of chamomile, caramelized pear, fresh almond and honey with a long aftertaste of mineral sage and celery.

Kefalonia is just south of the more famous island of Corfu to the west of the Pelopponese peninsula and the soils combined with the altitude (up to 900 metres above sea level) are diverse, resulting in a range of different styles of wines. 

About the Petrakopoulos winery

Petrakopoulos winery is located near to Thiramonas in the south of Kefalonia. Its grapes are grown on Mt Ainos and nearby and the winery is housed in a small villa, run by winemaker Kiki Siameli. 

This is an outstanding white and we also have a lower priced, exceptionally nice Robola, a younger sibling to this wine. 

Dry with fleshy red plum flavours and a savoury grippy note, thanks to the Greek red grape, Agiorgitiko, which is used to make this wine. Agiorgitiko ("Ah-yee-or-yee-teek-o") is the most planted red grape in Greece and it provides red currants and fresh flavours in this interesting, refreshing rose.   

If the word Robola doesn't ring any bells, that's because it's from the relatively remote Greek Ionian islands, such as Kefalonia, the fifth largest of all the country's islands and home to this super fresh, dry, full bodied white. 

Kefalonia is just south of the more famous island of Corfu to the west of the Pelopponese peninsula and the soils combined with the altitude (up to 900 metres above sea level) are diverse, resulting in a range of different styles of wines. 

About the Petrakopoulos winery

Petrakopoulos winery is located near to Thiramonas in the south of Kefalonia. Its grapes are grown on Mt Ainos and nearby and the winery is housed in a small villa, run by winemaker Kiki Siameli. 

This is an outstanding white and we also have a lower priced, exceptionally nice Robola, a younger sibling to this wine. 

Bottled in 2021, this retsina from Gaia has a screw cap to preserve freshness. Retsina dates back to the Greece of ancient times and is made with the addition of resin from the pine tree Pinus halepensis during fermentation. 

European wine legislation has recognized it as a "traditional appellation" wine that can only be produced in Greece. Although in the past Retsina has been associated with bad oxidized and resin-exaggerated wines that many tourists have experienced during their holidays in Greece, today Retsina is a completely different delicate taste experience. Gaia decided to create a "new wave" or style around Retsina, RITINITIS NOBILIS, to redefine and reposition the quality context of their traditional wine.

Gaia produces Ritinitis Nobilis using modern winemaking technology and by adding a very carefully calculated amount of pine resin as fermenting "must" from selected grapes of the Roditis variety growing on the hills around Corinth in the Peloponnese. The result is an elegant and refreshing wine with a perfect balance between pine and grapes. Ritinitis Nobilis is a lovely partner for Greek dishes and Spanish tapas and is best enjoyed chilled to around 8?-10?C.

The Famed red varietal wine from Greece Xinomavro, makes for some of the most complex red wines in the world, medium bodied, perfumed & earthy, like if Nebbiolo and Pinot Noir had crossed.

Tastes of black cherries, dried rose petals, oregano, whilst having softer tamer tannins for a Xinomavro.

Some 60% of the grapes fermented spontaneously in open top amphora with the rest in 500 litre oak barrels. After blending, all the wine went into amphora to spend an additional 10 months ageing on its lees before being bottled unfiltered.

 Wines was founded in late 2015 by Nikos Karatzas and friends and it is the most recently established winery in the region of Drama, in northern Greece. Their main production is from Greek grape varieties, mostly from Macedonia.

Agiorgitiko (pronounced Ah-yor-YEE-te-ko) is a fragrant red wine grape native to Greece's Peloponnese peninsula. The vineyards are located near to Koutsi, a semimountainous village. The vineyards here are known for their chalky soils and good drainage. The cool temperatures, the ideal sun exposure and the steep inclination of the vineyards combine to produce lower yields than other parts of Nemea, but the berries have excellent concentration of flavour.

Selected grapes were hand-picked, destemmed and crushed, followed by a cold soak for approximately 48 hours at 10°C. The must was inoculated with selected yeasts and fermented for approximately two weeks at temperatures between 22 to 26°C, with regular pump overs and some plunging of the cap. Malolactic fermentation followed and the wine was aged in oak casks for 12 months, of which 90% was French oak (10% new) and 10% was American oak (10% new). The wine was cold stabilised prior to being cellared.

A blend of Xinomavro from Naoussa and Mandilaria from the island of Santorini.

The Xinomavro grapes are dried outside for 3 days, which softens and concentrates the flavours and, as a result, the wine has a depth and complexity that you rarely find in an everyday red. Despite Xinomavro’s reputation as a tannic variety, this wine is anything but a brute. In fact, it’s soft and succulent and remarkably fresh with red fruits aplenty on the nose and palate.

Apostolos told us that he puts his wines through a slow and gentle maceration to tame the grape’s rustic side, leaving just a pinch of structural tannins (suggesting it has time on its side) while coaxing plenty of wonderful juicy and playful flavours out. Imagine a juice blend of strawberries and blackberries picked straight from the bush and given piquancy by a squeeze of pomegranate overlaid by flowers and sweet spices from the Xinomavro and white pepper from the Mandilaria. A really fresh and succulent wine that doesn’t know how good it is. 13.5% alc. Unoaked.

This stunning little Greek white is a blend of native, local varieties Vidiano and Thrapsathiri, cropped from 10 to 100 year old vines that are organically farmed off schist soils in the southern part of Crete. The wine is bottled without filtration or fining, with minimal added sulphites.

Iliana Malahin is one of the stars of the modern wine movement in Greece who focusses on reviving native varieties and sites found around the village of Malampes, in the mountainous south of Crete.