Wine Style: On the Grapevine ; Clive Platman Tastes Greek Wines for the Olympics

Summary

---

As the Olympic torch illuminates Athens and all things Hellenic, will the glare of publicity finally benefit Greek wine and raise its profile in the British consciousness? Apart from Oddbins, who can actually boast an impressive list, most of the High Street wine outlets or supermarkets offer little choice, usually limited to resinated Retsina or Mavrodaphne, a rather sickly 'poor man's port'.

Greece has been producing wine for at least 4000 years, but up to the recent past, the story has been dismal. All this changed when the nation joined the European Union in 1981, at which time most of the wine industry was in a fairly rudimentary state, and the best wines restricted to a few large-scale producers Membership has encouraged large-scale investment and from the early 1990s, this modernisation has begun to kick in, with a new generation of Greek oenologists producing a fascinating and exciting range of wines from unique, indigenous grape varieties. So, if Greek wine is so good, why is it struggling to become known? Clearly, the best means of communication with the customer is via the label. Simple branding with a name that trips off the tongue, such as Retsina, means the wine is easy to comprehend, remember and pass on by word of mouth. Use a label with the Greek letters and names, and already a language barrier has been created. It's a huge turn-off.

See the full content of this document

Extract

---

Wine Style: On the Grapevine ; Clive Platman Tastes Greek Wines for the Olympics

Furthermore, the volume produced is never going to be large enough to permit Greece to become a big player. Partly as a result of the small size of the producers, there is no single organisation in th...

See the full content of this document

---