All of these were brought from home, with corkage.
WHITE
2015 Sigalas Assyrtiko-Athiri Santorini
Floral aromatics, bright lively acidity, fairly strong bitter kick on the finish. Excellent appertif wine for salads & cheeses in the sub-Mason-Dixon heat & humidity.
2 x XINOMAVRO RED
[both opened the night before]
2011 Kir-Yianni Xinomavro Ramnista Naoussa
Of the two, this would be the pop-n-pour choice; definitely the heavier wine, and strangely “older” in taste - I don’t know whether this sense of aged-ness is an artifact of the house style, or the vintage, or the heat exposure in the distribution channel that year. Much more of a crowd pleaser. Drink circa 2021-2036?
2012 Domaine Karydas Xinomavro Naoussa
More aromatic, lighter, much brighter acidity, vastly more youthful, pronounced grip. What Italian Nebbiolo used to be at this price. Drink circa 2032-2052, at which point I suspect that it might well have evolved into an orangeish-clear rose?
DESSERT WHITE
2006 Sigalas Vin Santo Assyrtiko Santorini
Brown in color. Reminds me very much of the Hiedler Chardonnay TBAs which we never see around here anymore. Magnificent. The perfect accompaniment for Kipos’s bakery desserts. Drink from now until forever. Courtesy of John Marikakis.
Nice notes. On our honeymoon in Greece back in 2015, we drank widely and brought home a couple of cases as well. That Sigalas Assyrtkiko-Athiri is consistently great, and their Vin Santo (as well as that from several other producers on the island of Santorini) is beyond great - for me it’s just magical.
Thanks for the note on the 2011 Kit-Yianni Xinomavro- we brought a bottle of this home and have been figuring out when to drink it. Sounds like now is as good a time as any!
Went to Santorini and visited Sigalas in 2014. We also had the 2006 Vin Santo. Excellent wine, amber brown color, with some honey and even some butterscotch notes. We brought 6 bottles back with us.
I think the Kir-Yianni Ramnista should be a 20-year wine; I just don’t know whether it’s going to be a 40-year wine.
And it’s definitely what you’d want to pour for neophytes.
Also, consider opening it a day ahead of time.
The Karydas Xinomavro, on the other hand, is yugely AFWE, with a power & purity & cleanliness of acidity which almost puts you in mind of an hypothetical Red Riesling. I should think the typical Loire-head acid-freak AFWE-geek would love it [even if normal folks would largely prefer the Kir-Yianni].
We stumbled upon Kipos a few years ago, while the truck would be getting its oil change or state inspection at Jiffy Lube, and we’d start walking up and down Franklin Street, and one time we ducked into Kipos on a lark, and lo and behold they had this wonderful pastry bakery which was open all day long. So we started getting pastries every time we went to Jiffy Lube, but this was the first time we had sat down for an actual meal.
And my goodness, is that Sigalas Vinsanto the perfect accompaniment for Kipos’s pastries.
Mr Mariakakis was telling me that he only purchases through the 3-Tier System, and that it could be another 6 months or more before the distributor might have a Sigalas Vinsanto to sell to him again.
And just from glancing at how few listings there are on Wine-Searcher, I’d guess that if you’ve got six bottles, then you might be sitting on one of the larger stashes in the entire USA.
Back in the day, when I went to tastings all the time, I had a pretty strong feeling for how to score a wine [vis-a-vis the standard American critics’ 100-pt scale], but I don’t get to tastings anymore, so I haven’t kept abreast of what’s out there these days.
But drawing on my memory of how I used to score wines, I’d score all of these wines in the 90s, with the Sigalas Vinsanto being way up there.