This past week we celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary. So naturally, our Wine of the Week has to be a special bottle. Normally, we don’t pre-select our Wine of the Week; we decide which wine we enjoyed the most and write about that one. This week, however, we knew as soon as we pulled the bottle from the cellar and packed it for the drive to the Mendocino Coast that this would be the one.
Some readers may recall that a few weeks after our wedding, we embarked on our Big Fat Greek Honeymoon. Of course, while in Greece, we visited some wineries on Santorini (Domaine Sigalis and GAI’A), and went on a guided wine tour on Crete. (If you go, check out Chania Wine Tours.) It was on this tour in the hills above Chania, Crete, that we discovered this gem. By happenstance, one bottle managed to come home in our suitcase.
The Anoskeli Olive Mill & Winery started in 1983, and was named for the nearby town. The hillsides around Chania are covered in olive trees, and many of the families who live there make their own olive oil. So it was for the Mamidakis family. For three generations, they have produced olive oil privately. After establishing the family business, they purchased the town’s olive oil mill and eventually neighbors started to bring their olives for pressing. Soon, the family was producing Extra Virgin Olive Oil commercially. (We tasted their award winning olive oil, too, and a can of that came home with us as well!) In 2009, the Mamidakis family built the winery facility and started producing Cretan wine.
Greece has hundreds of native grape varieties, but wine grapes from other countries, like France, thrive there, too. The Anoskeli Playa Dry Red Wine 2018 is a blend of 80% Syrah, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 10% Grenache Rouge. As with all the Greek wines we tasted on our honeymoon, and in the two years since, this wine displays a distinct sense of place; a terroir that takes us back with the first sip. A truly special bottle for our anniversary.
Though the Anoskeli Playa Red would pair magnificently with a host of foods, we opted to open it and simply enjoy it while sitting on the balcony of our hotel room, overlooking the Northern California headlands, and the crashing waves of the Pacific Ocean. (Yes, purists, we forgot to pack wine glasses, so the hotel water glasses had to do.) The wine, the view, the company, and the occasion combined to make this a magical and memorable evening.
Deep garnet with copper rim. Aromas of cherry and lightly stewed plum. On the palate, black cherry, blackberry, and stewed plum, with cedar, tobacco, vanilla, and baking spice notes. There is a certain terroir; chalk and saline; that speaks Crete. Medium body and tannins with bright acidity. Long finish of ripe red fruit.
We usually try to feature wines that are relatively widely available, but this bottle was just too good to not share. You can purchase directly from the winery, if you want to pay the shipping. Like many Greek wines, in Greece they are remarkably affordable. (Our notes indicate we paid €8 at the winery in 2019. The price on the website today is €14; about $16.50 USD; still a screaming deal!) However, international shipping is very expensive, so many of the best Greek wines stay in Greece. Still, if you get the chance, we definitely recommend you give this wine a try. You will not be disappointed.
Yamas!
- By Kent Reynolds and Robyn Raphael-Reynolds
- Photos by Robyn Raphael-Reynolds
Appetite for Wine 