Sorry for going dark for a while, we’ve been incredibly busy, but I’ll catch up with a few posts now.

OK, so the headline quote isn’t the most original, but it was thematically correct yesterday.  New Wines of Greece and the Wines From Santorni under the guidance of George Athanas and All About Greek Wine hosted a super event at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center.  Food was supplied by Michael Psilakis of Anthos and it was better than fantastic.  I don’t think I’ve ever had better haddock.  Great seminar hosted by Steve Olson and Doug Frost with an interesting twist on procedure…blind tasting, but with a bit of guidance.

MW Konstantinos Lazarakis who was acting as MC made some comments closing the NWOG session that were informative for all of us in the industry.  He was looking 10 years out and said:
1.  Being good will be irrelvant.  Good wine in the bottle is assumed.  To compete, brands will have to deliver something even more than high quality at a reasonable price.
2.  Being different is what will make sense.  Not just the provenance or a label…but what’s in the glass.  People are expanding their horizons and looking for new experiences.
3.  Stories! Every wine has a story and you need a story to stand out.  What makes it unique, special.  In a sea of sameness a wine needs to be notable to compete.
4.  Drinking the wine is more important than tasting.  Greeks enjoy wine; it’s the social lubricant that makes agoraphobia a word that simply doesn’t signify in their country. 

There’s a host of new wines coming from Greece.  We tasted the four varietals being focused on:  Aghoritiko, Moschofilero, Assyrtiko and Xinomavro, and what the wine makers are doing is nothing short of amazing.