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Miliarakis (Minos Wines)
The firm is currently headed by Nicolas, a grandson of the company's founder. Miliarakis studied economics in France and speaks English with a noticeable French accent. Concerned with the dual objectives of maintaining the company's role as a volume producer while adapting to satisfy new markets for premium wine, the well-spoken Miliarakis is mindful of the need to maintain consistent style for current buyers while making small, but sure, steps towards improved quality. The company has its own vineyards but its annual production can be met only by purchasing fruit from local growers. Because the Peza region is well known for its prodigious output, we asked whether his contracts with growers really provide a sufficient guarantee of quality fruit. "Yes," he answered, "but it is a situation that must be approached patiently. One cannot demand changes overnight. This year was better than last in terms of getting stabile quality. Next year will likely be better. It is a matter of making gradual steps rather than creating waves." The products are traditional, meaning they are comprised of regional varieties entitled to the Peza appellation. Whites are from Vilana, reds from Kotsifali and Mandilaria. Efforts are underway to increase plantings of the two red varieties. More vineyard area will create leeway for lower yields. The packaging, which capitalizes on the regions rich, Minoan imagery, is designed for maximum effect on the substantial Cretan tourist market. The wines: Minos Palace white 2000 This appellation white undergoes cold temperature fermentation: the Vilana skins may contain the variety's best attributes. It is light-bodied, fruity and fragrant–summer wine by any standard. It lacks some acidity and the structure is not impressive by Western standards, but it is a wine that should be judged in its context. The soft, fruity tradition from which it comes is in harmonious contrast with the rugged feel and relentless climate of the island. This is the kind of wine tourists, natives and visiting webmasters enjoy at the end of a long, hot day in Crete. Minoiko white 2000 This estate Vilana is produced in limited quantity (for Milarakis , that's about 25,000 bottles) from choice fruit. This wine is all about extraction. Dry extract is huge, creating earthy, sweet aromas and real tropical fruit–especially banana–on the palate. Acidity and structure are more present in this wine than in the Minos Palace, an important feature for their top of the line white. Minos Palace Dry Rosé 2000 The classic red vinification of the Kotsifali and Mandilaria varieties has always intrigued us. At its best it is a wine that ages like Bordeaux, produces more yellow in its color than any wine we can think of and develops in the bottle a little like Tempranillo. Kotsifali rosé has also been a favorite, a wine that is often conspicuously like Spanish versions. The firm, tannic Mandilaria is often left out of these. In this case it is in the same proportion as most appellation Peza reds, about 20%. Half a day of skin contact brings out plenty of character. The result is yet another tropical profile featuring more banana than we can remember having tasted in a rosé from Crete (or anywhere else). Keeping in mind the wine is truly dry and that we have a known soft spot for the genre, it is one to add to the list of the extraordinarily various styles produced on the island. Minos Palace red 1998 This appellation red (80% Kotsifali, 20% Mandilariá spends about a year in French oak. It is a light wine, in color and in body. Showing a maturity in fruit, it is characterized by marketably light tannins, the signature of an old oak approach to the barrel aging of these varieties. Minoiko red 1998 This is a limited production wine (20,000 bottles) from choice grapes. It spends 15 months in barrel and can benefit by some years in bottle. It is a well-balanced wine showing some nice, soft fruit supported by more acidity than in the previous wine. The concentration is good, the fruit again somewhat tropical. Reminiscent of some Portuguese and Spanish reds we like. Red Imiglyko 2000 Imyglyko (half sweet) as a specific national genre is fairly unique to Greece. Red versions are even more rare. Not surprisingly, it is a category that occupies the territory within table wine in which residual sugar is pronounced, but is still well below the level of dessert wine. Nicely, a higher ratio of Kotsifali augmented by vin de presse creates a more an intense feel of fruit than of sugar per se. It is fermented in stainless steel to preserve the integrity of its fruit. Perhaps its nicest aspect is the window it provides into the complex flavor of its predominant Kotsifali Miliarakis produces a number of other products which we haven't tasted, including an Imyglyko white, Minos Kava, a barrel-aged Vilana, the select, barrel-aged reds Castillo and Santa Antonio and the off-dry (imixiros) white and rosé. We will get to them later this year. The winery is well suited to oino-tourism. It features all the amenities: an auditorium for audiovisual presentations, a comfortable public tasting room, a small museum and a gift shop that sells not only wines, but local delicacies and other products as well. Plans are underway to resurrect the family's innkeeping legacy by creating an auberge at their traditional house in Peza. The area is currently plagued by its lack of accommodations for travelers. |
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Imyglyko
white
Imixiros
rosé
Castillo