Greece
2016 Gold: 2 Silver: 8 Bronze: 1 Commended: 4
2015 Gold: 1 Silver: 7 Bronze: 5 Commended: 4
Greece may not have quite managed the explosive energy of Turkey over the past few years, but it’s getting there. Go back three or four years, and the country would be lucky to pick up a handful of medals, so to get 15 this year was encouraging – particularly since eight of them were silver and two wines made it on to the Gold List.
Somewhat counter-intuitively, given its southern location, Greece seems to be far better at whites than reds, and so it was again this year. The whites took more medals (and more top medals) than the reds did.
Interestingly, both of the Gold-Listed wines were Malagouzias – a grape variety that was practically extinct until Domaine Carras began to work with it 30-odd years ago. We should thank them. Both of these were excellent, with the Gerovassiliou a truly sublime bottle of wine that utterly captivated everyone who tried it.
Oh, and well done to Hallgarten Druitt Novum (and Greek-loving buyer Steve Daniel in particular), who dominated this section, with eight of the 11 medal winners.
FROM THE TASTING TEAMS
‘Greek wine is getting there – you have the typicity, lots of variation and different varieties. A couple of customers ask for them, and they are good value. The reds are good with slow-cooked meat.’ Vittorio Gentile, Theo Randall at the InterContinental
‘Greece does lovely blends and wines with floral notes. I would say By The Glass is the way to go for unoaked whites. If you want to get people out of Sauvignon Blanc then these wines are definitely fresh.’ Sarah Jane Evans MW, team leader
‘We had a few interesting whites at entry level, mid-price and high end. It’s good for people to try something different.’ Julien Sahut, Sexy Fish
‘People in the UK are more open-minded in terms of grape variety – but not country of origin.’ Carlos Ferreira, The Sign of the Don