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"These Old Cultivars"
Debate exists regarding the number of distinct cultivars inhabiting Greece. Until
recently, it was common to hear estimates in excess of 300. With the advent of genetic
testing, it seemed reasonable to assume that a consensus would be reached. This may
yet happen, but rather than resolving the question, research on the genetic makeup
of indigenous varieties has created more divergent estimates.
The relationship between indigenous Greek varieties and foreign varieties has been
the subject of speculation for years. Theories based on historical and ambelographic
analysis have suggested certain relationships, but only genetic analysis has created
a reasonably sure method for establishing the pedigree of the World's -and Greece's-
Vitis Vinifera grapes. Efforts are underway in several countries, including
Greece, to establish compatible databases that document the microsatellite markers
used in making such genetic comparisons. One such effort is headed by Dr. Kalliope
Roubelakis-Angelakis and Francois Lefort at the University of Crete. They have created
a web-based genetic database for germplasm management of Vitis resources in Greece,
called the Greek
Vitis Database.
In addition to helping understand what role Greek cultivars may have played in the
parentage of Western varieties, Roubelakis-Angelakis' efforts will eventually resolve
the mystery surrounding their real number. Like the recent, well-publicized, work
of Carol Meredith at UC Davis, the efforts of Drs. Roubelakis-Angelakis and Lefort
are also of cultural and commercial value. The process of sorting out the identities
of Greece's wine and table grapes reinforces efforts at varietal preservation that
had begun during the last century with the establishment of cultivar collections
in Greece as well as American, French and other collections containing Greek varieties.
While Dr. Roubelakis-Angelakis mourns the loss of cultivars that failed, in various
times and places in Greece, to overcome the insults of economic and political forces
and diseases such as Phylloxera, the very process of identification and cultivation
stems the further extinction of species.
Such research may provide commercial rewards as well: genetically diverse parents
produce
hardier offspring. Genetic analysis can decrease the risk of inbreeding in the development
of new (disease-resistant or climate-appropriate, for instance) species. The research
also benefits commercial winegrowers in Greece keen on establishing an international
reputation for varieties they have demonstrated capable of producing fine wine. According
to Mihalis
Boutaris, whose masters
thesis project under Carol Meredith at the University of California Davis involved
genotyping and comparing a large group of Greek cultivars from different collections,
"the expansion of viticulture into the New World calls for cultivars from Southern
Europe, which would probably be better suited to their warm climates"
- ...these are cultivars that have
survived due to both natural and artificial selection to best fit their environment.
They are unusually resistant to drought and disease, as well as sun and heat damage.
They are vigorous, since they have had to produce abundant fruit in very poor soils.
They maintain remarkably high levels of acidity even at extraordinary levels of maturity
and temperature. they are usually very rich in phenolic compounds and exquisite aromas.
Although most of them tend to have large clusters and medium-sized berries, there
are notable exceptions. This is the case especially among premium cultivars and some
cultivars that perished in oblivion, when Greek vineyards recovered from phylloxera
These cultivars may prove to be even more suitable than international varieties for
all the new lands of viticulture, where the climate is closer to the countries of
the Southern Mediterranean than Western Europe. Vineyard trials in regions like Mendocino
in California and Coonawara in Australia could show the merits of these old cultivars,
which still thrive in Greek vineyards.
[Greek Wine Grape Varieties:
A Microsatellite DNA Marker Analysis, Mihalis Boutaris, Davis, CA, 1998 p.81]
America was a key supplier of rootstock to Greek vineyards after the outbreak of
phylloxera in Greece during the last century. Now Greece may have something of value
to offer Californian growers. A well-organized inventory is an important step in
becoming a nursery to the New World.
The process of genotyping the Greek vineyard is even more difficult than it sounds.
To the layman, Boutaris' thesis reads like a frustration dream. There is no shortage
of instances in which two or more different grapes share the same name, or one grape
has several synonyms in different regions. Worse yet, there are instances in which
the labeling of varieties in the various collections are called into question, or
a plant from a foreign collection has no matching name in Greek collections. With
abundant conflicts, semantic issues beyond the normal scope of science and the difficulty
in evaluating collections for the purpose of confirming varietal identities, this
is difficult work. Boutaris entered this fray, hoping to bring the American collection
in line with others. Little wonder that Mihalis is now to be found tending the family
estate in Naousa, happy, one suspects, to be making wine at one of Greece's most
picturesque and highly-regarded vineyards rather than measuring allele sizes under
fluorescent lights in a laboratory in California. "Nonetheless," writes
Boutaris, "our modest goal of confirming the identity of the Greek accessions
at the USDA-ARS Germplasm Repository has been accomplished." Drs. Roubelakis-Angelakis
and Lefort and others (most notably, Dr. MN Stavrakakis from the University of Athens)
continue this effort with a wider scope and even more rigorous science. Conclusions
drawn from this work will be published regularly on this website.
The premium cultivars that Boutaris mentions are part of a group of roughly 40-50
varieties presently in commercial production in Greece. This number is growing slowly
but steadily as winemakers apply modern techniques to the cultivation and vinification
of varieties whose potential for quality wine could only recently be realized.
In the early 1960s, the first Cabernet Sauvignon grapes were planted in Greece at
Averoff
Estate in Metsovo in Epirus.
Beginning at roughly the same time as the establishment of appellation laws in Greece (1971-1972), more foreign varieties began
appearing in vineyards and bottled wine, achieving a muted, but solid impact on domestic
wine production by the mid 1990s. This trend reflects (in this order) the decision
by certain winemakers that the outside world would never accept Greek wines without
evidence based on comparable varieties and a domestic consumer trend towards cosmopolitan
wines.
That a wine industry so rich in native varieties, on the verge of reestablishing
its place in world markets, would water down its portfolio with foreign varieties
seems, on one level, incongruous. Likewise, the trend towards Cabernet and Chardonnay
among consumers at just the time that traditional varieties had begun producing world-class
wines. I raised this issue with George Skouras, a Dijon-trained enologist, veteran of the quality
revolution in the Greek wine industry and now owner of Skouras Wines, one of Greece's
most successful medium-sized wine operations.
According to Skouras, "international varieties are the passport for Greek wine."
At a time when the greater number of Greek vineyards were still geared towards bulk
wine production, yields were much higher than is standard for the production of premium
wine. Skouras, employing a one-of-a-kind metaphor, asserts, "wines are like
a train - they need a locomotive. Big wines are a locomotive." Cabernet, Chardonnay
and certain other foreign cultivars produced just such big wines at a time when much
Greek wine was short on substance. In his view, though, the use of Western species
not only turned heads in foreign markets, it also assisted winemakers in measuring
their own progress. It happened also to display marketing savvy: the use of foreign
cultivars brought enviable success in domestic and foreign markets to the group of
pioneering wineries that employed them. For a time their products eclipsed similar
attempts by producers using traditional Greek varieties.
The domestic market for the cosmopolitan wines created by Skouras and producers like
him was partly the result of national pride and partly the result of the fact that
these were some of the best products available to consumers. Still, Skouras has no
illusions concerning the future of Western varieties in the Greek vineyard. Ultimately
he knows that indigenous
cultivars will be the calling card for the Greek wine industry in years to come.
Having risen to the technical challenge of meeting global standards of vinification,
the next stage, he believes - exploiting the full potential of terroir - will be
the most difficult. "It will take time, but small steps - steps we have already
begun to take - will lead inevitably to success."
Giannis
Paraskevopoulos,
perhaps the most visible enologist in Greece, takes a more humble view of Greece's
progress to date. "Arriving where we are has been relatively easy. Now comes
the hard part, specifically, learning about our unique terroir and which marriages
of cultivars and locations produce the best wines. We have the technology to produce
great wine; we have highly favorable microclimates; we have suitable, if not superior
cultivars. Yet we know little about how they all interact. It will take years to
understand the best way to use our resources. We are now, really, at the beginning."
After years of focused development by an increasing group of winemakers concerned
with producing world-class wines, the idea that this is only the beginning is hard
to swallow. It is essential for the industry to set ambitious long-term goals beyond
what has thus far been achieved, yet the number of products in Greece's portfolio
that meet international standards for superior wine is already impressive, especially
taking into account the relatively small size of her industry. The shift to the application
of knowledge, technology and craftsmanship to indigenous varieties is in full swing.
Greece's public relations skill now lags far behind her ability to produce quality
products. Educating the world about her abundant varietal resources will be an important
step in overcoming a bothersome stigma that continues to inhibit sales of Greek wines
in world markets.
Chief Varieties
Employed in the Commercial Production of Red Wine
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Of the Greek red cultivars, two,
Agiorgítiko and Xynómavro, account for a healthy percentage of bottled
wine production. In part this reflects the importance of the appellation zones in
which they are predominant. Mavrodáfni is, perhaps, the most storied of red
varieties, a producer of (mostly) fortified sweet wines highly valued within and
beyond Greece's borders for nearly a century and a half. There are an additional
twenty or so other varieties of note vinified singly or in varietal blends. Some
of these are just now coming into their own, others have long and noble traditions.
Certain red grapes also find their way into blanc de noir and rosé wines.
For more detailed descriptions of all these grapes click here. |
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Chief
Varieties Employed in the Commercial Production of White Wine
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White wine production in Greece is
spread more evenly over the range of predominant species. In Greece, white wines
are often described - even by cognoscenti - as lagging behind the reds. This is a
peculiar and confounding insecurity that, from the American perspective, seems unwarranted.
Undoubtedly, it has more to do with the collective Greek pallate than with considerations
of quality, for the premium white wines (the ones that count) are less worrisome
for those concerned with opening foreign markets, especially those in the New World.
There may be fewer white varieties than red in Greece producing flavors that could
be described as being acquired tastes. But as always, this is a matter of
taste.
The big names in white grapes in Greece include Savatiano, (a variety once associated
more with Retsina than with the new, more elegant, breed of wines it has spawned),
Assyrtico (an Aegean grape prone to exhibit noble attributes, especially on Santorini)
and Vilana (a Cretan grape only recently having received the kind of treatment that
will reveal its true potential). The most famous white cultivar is the White Muscat.
Inhabiting an ever-widening geographical area, it is best known for its role in wines
from Samos, where it is the sole white variety permitted under the VQPRD-equivalent
appellation of the same name. An additional 15 or so species comprise the rest of
commercial white production, most of which are fairly distinct and produce unique
products either singly or as blending components.
For more detailed descriptions of all these grapes click here. |
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Blanc
de Gris Varieties
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Greece is fortunate in having an
important blanc de gris cultivar. Moschofilero is native to the Peloponessos
and believed to be related to Traminer.
For a more detailed description of this grape click here. |
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A Grape
Index
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I have compiled a list of cultivar
names and descriptions containing information from as many sources as possible, including
the Greek
Vitis Database, the extraordinary
1990 work, The Wines of Greece, by Miles Lambert-Gocs, the aforementioned
Greek Wine Grape Varieties:
A Microsatellite DNA Marker Analysis, by Mihalis Boutaris and Wine Varieties of the Greek Vineyard
by Haroula Spinthiropoulou (Olive Press) as well as my own notes taken during discussions
with winemakers and enologists in Greece. This index will be updated as frequently
as possible.
Click
here to view the index. |
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