Greece
2017 Gold: 7 Silver: 5 Bronze: 0 Commended: 5
2016 Gold: 2 Silver: 8 Bronze: 1 Commended: 4
Sommeliers like Greek wines so we always thought that if the Greeks submitted half-decent numbers of wines to this competition, they’d pick up a good stack of medals. But even we didn’t expect this.
Seven Golds was an astonishing performance – that’s more than the Rhône, which is traditionally one of the hottest areas of the Sommelier Wine Awards!
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the white wines were the stars. Their combination of freshness, flavour and individuality, allied to some truly skilful, sensitive winemaking won over pretty much every team that tasted them.
If we had to pick a star variety, on this evidence it would be Malagousia, so it’s fitting, perhaps, that the man who rescued the variety from oblivion 20 years ago, Vangelis Gerovassiliou, got two Golds here, even if one of them was, ironically, for a Viognier!
STAR PERFORMER
Many congratulations to Papagiannakos, whose sub-£10 Attican Malagousia picked up Gold for the third year on the trot. Terrific effort!
FROM THE TASTING TEAMS
‘I adore Greek wine. The thing for me is the taste of the sea, of seashells, so they go with oysters, crab, shellfish, and the lighter styles go well with salads, light fish. The more oaky styles would work in more fine dining restaurants.’ Andrea Briccarello, team leader
‘Sometimes I forget about the red wines from Greece, but there’s a lot of great wine here, with good balance. They were easy to drink, with minerality and good acidity. Perfect for summer, at all price points.’ Julien Sahut, Sexy Fish
‘Where I am, the clientele is very old fashioned, so wines like this would have to be hand sold, people aren’t just going to select it off a list.’ Michael Fiducia, Coworth Park Ascot
‘I was very impressed. Great wines for everyday drinking and to enjoy with a serious meal.’ Stefan Kobald, Jason Atherton Group
‘Consumers always like to try new things, and a lot of these wines offered something unique without being too wacky.’ Giancarlo Cuccuru, The Ned Hotel
‘Greek whites compete well against other regions in terms of price.’ Tanguy Martin, La Trompette