Santo in Santorini

After France, the next leg of our honeymoon was in Greece. We visited the beautiful island of Santorini, where grapes have been grown for wine for thousands of years. Unlike pretty much everywhere else in the world, the vines are grown close to the ground and as the vine grows, it gets woven around in a circle to keep the grapes safe from the winds.

The Santo Winery is a cooperative and the largest wine producer on the island. Rather than doing expensive wine tours offered by our hotel, we walked 15 minutes to the winery ourselves. For under 9 euros each, we got a screening of a short film on the history of wine in Santorini and Santo Wines, a private tour around the winery and three tastings each.

Even though the grapes are still picked by hand the same way it has been done for generation after generation, the wine making process at Santo is totally modern. The winery itself is at the top of the cliff overlooking the caldera, a truly beautiful view that didn’t get old the entire time we were on the island.

We asked them to pour 6 different wines and we shared.

Assyrtico 2011: This white wine and one of the most popular indigenous grapes on the island had a citrus smell. The taste was light and refreshing, reminding me of a sauvignon blanc. I really enjoyed it. JC90

Nykteri 2011: Another indigenous grape, this white wine had a wine cellar smell to it. It was more full-bodied and not as smooth. I think this would be better with food. JC87
Ageri semi dry Rose 2011: There were floral and strawberry notes. A somewhat sweet wine with a smooth finish. JC89
Kameni 2010: This dry red wine is aged in oak for 12 months. There was a strong oak smell. A fairly easy drinking wine, however no real flavour. It may do better in the bottle for a little while longer. JC85
Imiglikes 2011: This wine smells and tastes sweet. It is chardonnay-like, but sweeter. The Greek version of semi-sweet is what I’m used to as sweet. JC85

Vinsanto 2004: I get the feeling that this wine is what Santo is most proud of, and they should be given the number of international awards it has won over the years. This wine was aged for three years in oak barrels and is made up of 75% assyrtiko and 25% aidani. The grapes are sun dried for 8-10 days. The wine had an amber colour, reminding me of a well-aged port. It had an oak and caramel scent and a honey and caramel taste. It reminded me of a low alcohol port. JC88

We ended up buying a bottle of the assyrtico to take home with us.

Drinking wine in France

One issue I’ve found in France is that almost all restaurants I’ve looked at just have the wine region and if the wine is red, white or rose. There are no other descriptors such as winemaker or vintage year. I suppose I could ask before ordering, but the name probably wouldn’t mean anything to me since I’ve been exposed to a limited number of French winemakers. I did enjoy a nice light and juicy rose from Coteaux du Languedoc, but since I ordered a glass instead of a bottle and didn’t think to ask anyone details at the time, I can’t provide anymore here.

Rochadour, Cote du Rhone. I had this wine at a restaurant in Paris. There was no distinct smell, perhaps a faint fruity smell after the wine had mixed with some air. The taste was smooth, light and fruity. JC85

Argine-Ferrari Iris & Figli Rosso di Toscana. This Italian red had oak notes and a strong smell. This was a full-bodied wine, not entirely smooth going down. JC85

Champagne – part 3

The third and final champagne house we visited was by far the smallest and newest of the three. We stumbled upon Paul-Etienne Saint Germain (PESG) while walking along Champagne Avenue. It was offering three tastings for I believe 12 euro. We were greeted by Agnes Lagneau, who along with her husband, Jean-Michel, founded and run PESG. She said it took them four years of preparation (getting all the necessary legal documents was not easy) and they have been producing champagne for three years. Agnes mentioned that they produce 30,000 (either bottles or cases, I forget which) a year, a small fraction of Moet and Mercier.

Even though they are small, they produce five different champagnes: Tradition, Rose, Charme, Divine and Exception, ranging in price from 16.50 to 35.50 euro. Jean-Michel had worked at leading champagne houses for 20 years and finally realized his dream by starting PESG. He dropped by during our tasting and we chatted. Both Agnes and Jean-Michel were very down-to-earth and it was a nice change from the corporate big-business champagne houses we had previously gone to. 

Tradition, the entry level of the five, is a brut grand cru blanc de blanc 100% chardonnay. There are apple and pear notes with a more apply taste. JC88

Rose, using 90% pinot noir and 10% chardonnay, has a candied apple scent. The wine is slightly sweet, but offers a nice balance. JC90
Charme has 75% pinot noir and 25% chardonnay. There is a cotton candy smell and slightly sour apple taste. It is creamier.  JC88
Divine is 60% pinot noir and 40% chardonnay. It has a hint of apple and a very nice balance. JC91

Exception is 100% pinot noir, known as a blanc de noirs. There is no distinct smell, the wine is slightly sweet, with a nice balance and a long finish. This wine was my favourite of the five I tried, it also happens to be the most expensive. JC94

My wife liked the Divine the best, so we bought a bottle of that to take home. I'm glad that we decided to make the trip to Epernay. It is a nice little town and there is a lot of excellent champagne to taste here! I recommend doing your own tour to save money, go where you want to go and at your own pace.

Champagne – part 2

From Moet, we ventured down Champagne Avenue in Epernay to Mercier. Both Moet and Mercier are owned by luxury goods conglomerate LVMH. Tours are cheaper than Moet, starting at 11 euro for one sample, 16 euro for two and 19 euro for three. We ended up doing the two sample option. When you first enter the building, there is a massive barrel that Eugene Mercier had built for the 1889 World Fair in Paris. The barrel could hold 200,000 bottles worth of champagne and apparently it was one of the leading attractions at the fair, along with the Eifel Tower.  

There definitely were similarities to the Moet tour, going by countless bottles in the tunnels and hearing about the process for making Champagne, however there were differences too. The Mercier tour was more of an attraction. I thought it would have been something Disney would design. It starts out by taking a slow elevator ride down to the tunnels. One side of the elevator is glass and you pass by different settings that you can see from the elevator. Once in the tunnels, there is a train that takes you around.

The first sample we had was the Mercier Brut. It was not as light-tasting as the Moet and no real noticeable scent. It was slightly sweet, still well balanced. JC90

The second sample was the Mercier Brut Rose. It had a slightly sweet smell and was well balanced between dry and sweet. JC92

Champagne – part 1

From Paris, where we were staying, it is about 1 hour and 10 minute train ride to Epernay, home of some of the world’s most prestigious champagne houses. Before the trip, I had reserved tour spots at Moet & Chandon, a 5 minute walk from the train station. The tickets are pricy, ranging from 16.5 euro for one taste, or 23 or 29 euro for two tastes, depending if the second taste is the rose or the grand vintage. It is hard to fathom the immense amount of champagne that is stored underground. Moet & Chandon alone has 28km of tunnels, representing 10’s of millions of bottles!!  

After watching a film narrated by Scarlett Johansson and taking a tour of the cellars, it is time for a tasting. We just got the basic tasting, the Imperial Brut, because we knew we would be drinking much more champagne before the day was done. I had never had Moet before and was wondering if it would live up to the hype of the tour guide and the price they charge. I ended up being very impressed. There are subtle cotton candy and apple notes. It is smooth, bubbly and delicious. Excellent balance. JC96

We ended up buying a bottle of the Imperial Brut, which was much cheaper here at 32 euro, which equals about $41.60 versus in Ontario, Canada at $60.65.

Making Wine Part 2

I mentioned a number of weeks ago (May 10 post) that we were making our own wine. We received notice that our wine was ready to be bottled. We had been saving up bottles, so of the 30 bottles of wine we made 22 were reused bottles, with the remainder being new. The new bottles look a lot nicer for bringing over to someone’s house for a dinner party, but for everyday consumption, I don’t really care what type of bottle my wine is in, as long as it’s been sealed properly.

The Wine Butler (where we made it) was great. They have friendly, knowledgeable staff and equipment to make the bottling process easy. There was one machine that bottled, one that put the cork in, and one that heated the neck seal onto the bottle. It took about half an hour altogether. They also provided small labels to use.

The taste:

The Wine Butler told us that the wine will continue to mature and will be more optimal for drinking in two to three weeks. Of course we couldn’t wait that long, so we cracked open a bottle an hour later during lunch. The smell was of black cherry and strawberry. The taste was smooth and fairly light. This is supposed to be a South African Cabernet Sauvignon, but it tastes a little too light for that. As well, the alcohol content doesn’t seem to be too high. Overall I think this is a versatile wine and I will be interested to see how it tastes over time. Currently I would rate it a JC87.

Two Bordeaux Reds

Here are a couple of wines from the Bordeaux region I had while in France:

Pavillon Royal Bordeaux 2011. There was no distinguishable smell. The tastes was smooth, somewhat juicey and not as dry as most Bordeaux’s I have experienced. A nice wine overall. JC88

Chateau Genins Bordeaux 2011 3.40 Euro. This wine had a jammy smell with a smooth taste. It was a dry wine, what you would expect from a red Bordeaux blend, but not much flavour. I suppose you often get what you pay for. JC84

European Travels - Intro

I haven’t posted anything for over a couple weeks now due to my honeymoon in France and Greece. The great news is that I had the opportunity to try a number of wines, many very good to excellent, which I will be posting about in the coming weeks. Two highlights I will mention and elaborate further on are a day trip to the Champagne region and a winery on the island of Santorini in Greece.

A wine I had on the plane to Europe was Les Tanner Syrah-Grenache 2011, from France. There were nice cherry and raspberry notes on the nose. This was a smooth, young, enjoyable table wine. JC87