May 30, 2014

The Sofitel Hotel restaurant is named Mesoghaia. They offered a very complete breakfast buffet, which included a number of Greek specialties like cheese pie, traditional fillo pastries, dried figs, and sesame seeds in honey. I filled a plate and thoroughly enjoyed.

After breakfast, we were met by Sofia Perpera, who is George's wife. George and Sofia had been extremely busy planning this tour for us and the additional guests who would also take part. George took one group to the wine regions of Northern Greece, and Sofia would lead Darrel, I, and the second group across southern Greece. Both groups would meet up on the island of Santorini for the last three days of the tour. Darrell and I arrived 1 day ahead of our group so Darrell could visit a very special friend. Sofia arrange for a cab and the three of us were off to the heart of Athens. The roads were very modern and smooth. There was a toll road into Athens which ran 2.80 Euros ($3.80).

It took about 25 minutes to reach the home of Madame Stavroula Kourakou-Dragona, the friend Darrell was looking forward to seeing again.

Madame Stavroula Kourakou-Dragona holds the distinction of being the world's first female enologist. She was born in Athens in 1928. She holds a PhD in Chemistry, with studies in Oenology in France, and for twenty years (1964-1984) was director of the Wine Institute, a technological research foundation of the then Ministry of Agriculture.

In 1964, as head of the Wine Institute, she recommended the establishment and protection by law of those wine varietals from Greek regions which could constitute "Appellation of Origins" . She initiated a research project covering the whole of Greece, in which forgotten indigenous Greek wine varieties were enhanced and viticulture was expanded to regions that were famed for the quality of their wines in earlier centuries but had been abandoned. She has visited almost all of the wine growing countries in the world, acquiring experience and offering services to the international community, in recognition of which she has been decorated by France and Spain. In the 1970s, on her recommendation, the first geographical names of origin were acknowledged by legislation and the first Greek wines "Appellation of Origin" appeared in the market.

Madame Kourakou greeted us with a very warm welcome. She only speaks Greek and French, so Darrell spoke to her in French. Darrell gave Madame Kourakou a gift and she opened it right away with a smile.

Tiny mandarin oranges growing on Madame Kourakou's balcony.

Madame Kourakou gifted Darrell and I each a signed copy of one of her books, then we sat as she served us some wine and snacks. The first wine was Semeli Mantinia Nasiakos 2012 made from the indigenous white Greek varietal called "Moschofilero." It was delightful with a nice floral and exotic fruit nose. The flavor had a mineral character and nice lemony finish. As our first taste of wine in Greece, it was wonderful.

The second wine was also a white made from the Assyrtiko variety. This wine came from the island of Santorini where the grape vines have to weather very high winds and salt spray. The vines are unique in the world as they are trained into a circular basket keeping the vines low to the ground and offering protection to the grape clusters. More on this topic later. This wine was a bit lacking in scent, but a had a wonderful mineral quality with nice citrus notes.

Madame Kourakou brought out a sweet wine to finish with delicious custard tarts and tiramisu. The 2010 Monemvasia Malvasia was just like raisins dancing in my mouth. Malvasia was the most famous wine during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The Franks named the Byzantine town of Monemvasia "Malvasie" as well as their wine. Malvasia was seen in the markets of the East and West for five centuries, from the 13th century under the Byzantines in Monemvasia until the mid-17th century in Venetian-occupied Crete. This was as good a sweet wine as any other I've tasted. Darrell gives his impressions about the wine as well as more history in the next video.

Darrell and Madame Kourakou enjoyed their conversation, which lead to her showing Darrell a few things from her collection of wine related treasures.

The visit lasted over two hours, but seemed to pass quickly. Sofia had to be back at the airport to meet one of the arriving guests who's plane was delayed, so it was time to go. We bid Madame Kourakou our fondest au revoir after thanking her for the wine and snacks.

We hailed a cab and made our way to the Benaki Museum a few miles away. Sofia continued on her way back to the airport. There seemed to be quite a few Greek pastry shops along the route, which gave the unmistakable feeling that we were definitely in Greece.

The Benaki Museum in central Athens is unique in all of Greece. Not only does it exhibit artifacts from prehistoric to modern times, it is the only museum in Greece that takes its visitors through all of the ages of Greek history and culture, as well as it recognizes and celebrates the foreign influences on Greek culture over history. It was one of the top things on Darrell's list to see.

Here is a link to their website - www.benaki

We stopped to look at the gift shop, which was stocked with many interesting things like silk ties, paintings, books, and even hanging incense burners.

After the gift shop it was time to explore the museum.

After making our way through 2 of the 3 floors and countless exhibits, we stumbled across a wonderful place to take a sit drown break. The museum has a very nice dining area and balcony patio with views of the Parthenon slightly to the west, and of the Hymettus mountain range to the east. We sat and ordered ham and cheese toasts. Darrell had a Greek pilsner beer. I wanted something more in the way of a boost, so I ordered an iced coffee. It was a perfect snack in a relaxing place.

We went back into the museum to cover the 3rd floor exhibits. After a wonderful visit, we left the museum and walked down the street heading west towards Syntagma Square. As we walked down the block, I told Darrell that the neighborhood looked a bit like an embassy row. He chuckled because it was exactly that with the Greek Parliament just down the street. We reached Syntagma Square and wondered what to do next. We thought about a few possible options nearby and considered the time. We were at the entrance to the Athens Metro line. Since the Metro would take about 35 minutes to get us back to the Sofitel hotel, and we had to be ready to go to our first New Wines of Greece tour wine tasting and dinner in under two hours, we decided to hit the subway station and head back to the hotel via the Metro.

We made it back to the hotel with enough time to freshen up and take a little rest. Sofia arranged for a very roomy Mercedes limo van and a driver to shuttle our group around. It arrived to the hotel promptly at 6pm to take us to Domaine Vassiliou for the tasting and dinner. When boarded the limo, we met two members of our group. Zachary Sussman, a Brooklyn based Wine Writer, Educator, & Consultant, and Pano Karatassos, executive chef of Kyma in Atlanta, which is part of his family's Buckhead Life Restaurant Group of 12 restaurants there. We had to wait to meet the other two members of our group as they were stuck in Istanbul because of flight delays. Domaine Vassiliou winery is just an 8 minute drive from the airport located a bit south east of the village of Koropi.

Here is a link to their website - www.vassilioudomaine

After taking a look at the grounds, we entered the winery where Sofia and George arranged a wine tasting with a dozen tables each representing at least one Greek winery. We all grabbed a glass and the tasting note sheet. It was time to taste. We randomly moved from table to table. We swirled, sipped, spit, and maybe even swallowed occasionally through all of the wines.

The white wines we tasted were largely made solely from indigenous Greek grape varieties with some blended with French varietals. There were very few made only from French varietals alone. I was very impressed with the white wines. There were fewer red wines in the tasting. It seemed by the reds tasted, that the producers don't embrace their indigenous red varieties in the same way they do their whites. There were more examples of Syrah and other Bordeaux varietals either on their own or blended with red Greek varietals largely done in Brodeaux or California styles with wood and tannin. After we finished tasting, we were taken down into the cellar for a quick tour, then upstairs to a very nice space where they seated us for dinner.

The upstairs space had access to an outdoor balcony, so I had a chance to take a look before everyone was seated. The sun was setting into the Hymettus mountain range to the west. There were moments that the mountains seemed to be on fire just below the highest peak at 3000 ft. The passengers on the left side window seats of an EasyJet flight into Athens International were treated to quite a fiery Athens sunset during their landing as seen in the next video.

Some of the wines from the tasting were brought up to dinner and set on the tables. A bread basket, cured olives, and fresh tomatoes garnished the table. We were served a very fresh garden green salad before the entrees arrived. Two variations of moussaka ( A layered Greek specialty usually made of sautéed eggplant sometimes with tomato and minced meat) came next. The first with minced meat, and the second with flaky pastry, vegetables and cheese. We also had a dish of stewed meat over rice, and a delicious traditional Greek dessert made of shredded fillo dough with creamy custard, whipped cream honey and nuts called Ekmek Kataifi.

Darrell stood and gave an impromptu speech to the producers and guests. Here's a segment of the speech. Please forgive the bit of coarse audio. The speech was truly impromptu. Darrell wasn't on the wireless microphone, so the audio is a bit noisy.

Dinner was both delicious and filling. Dinner came to an end, so we said goodbye to our new friends in Greece and made our way back to the hotel for a good nights sleep.

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