My Big Book of Grapes

A few years back I received the wonderful gift of Wine Grapes : A Complete Guide to 1,368 Vine Varieties, including their Origins and Flavours, by Jancis Robinson, Julia Harding, and José Vouillamoz.

It came in very handy last night on tasting this Lyrarakis Psarades Dafni 2015. It was by far the most unusual wine I have tasted in the last I don't know how many months. Just look at my tasting note:

Nose: Vermouth, bay leaves, herbs. slightly sherried. A green, nutty note.

Palate: Dry, mid- bodied, mid acidity, mid alcohol. Herbal, green, bay leaves. Very very distinctive, unusual, delicious.

No kidding, this wine tasted remarkably like Noilly Prat. It was delicious.

So anyway, turning to Wine Grapes I learned that Dafni is a variety from the Greek island of Kríti (aka Crete), which had all but disappeared by the end of the 1980s. Fortunately, Lyrarakis, the producers of this lovely wine, continued to cultivate it, and is now back up to around 15 hectares. It seems that it needs to be intensively pruned for low yields in order to give these lovely flavours, which is perhaps why it fell out of favour.

I'm so glad it survived. I don't suppose I'd want to drink it all the time, but for a food-friendly change of style it's just about perfect.

If you don't yet have a copy of Wine Grapes, I cannot recommend it highly enough. It's worth it for the pedigree charts alone. Here's a not very good picture of the entry for Dafni:

Jeunes Vignes de Xinomavro

It's not often that a winemaker will announce the use of young vines. Old vines, gnarly, ancient, wrinkled, will always get top billing, but youngsters tend to be glossed over.

Of course, there are good reasons for this. Old vines, whilst low-yielding, can produce wines with complex, concentrated flavours. And if you are going to charge more for your wine because you didn't produce very much, then extreme age seems to be an acceptable explanation.

On the other hand, vines can, in the first flush of youth, bear fruit of good character and concentration. But generally a viticulturalist would aim to always be replacing the oldest vines in a vineyard, so as to ensure continuity from year to year and decade to decade.

So what I'm drinking tonight is a Naoussa 2011 from Domaine Thymiopoulos which bears the legend, "Jeunes Vignes de Xinomavro". It's interesting that this wine is labelled as "jeunes vignes" - the French influence on the Greek wine industry, as on so many countries, runs deep.

The nose offers an interesting combination of bright, fresh, youthful, fruity flavours with earthier (or perhaps animal?) notes. Over the top there is also a classy floral note - violets I should say. The fruit character is red rather than black.

The palate is bone dry, mid bodied, and fairly tart. The attack is very juicy, with tangy redcurrant notes. This moves onto a nice slippery or waxy texture, before giving way to grippy but super-ripe tannins. It is a little hot in the finish.

In conclusion, an excellent and also very gluggable wine.