"It was all Greek to me..."

Ever had Greek wines?  Didn't know the Greeks made wine?  Greece is actually one of the oldest wine-producing regions in the world.  The earliest eveidence of Greek wine has been dated back 6,500 years ago.  The spread of Greek civilization and their worship of Dionysus, the Greek god of wine (Bacchus in Roman mythology) spread throughout the Mediterranean areas during the period of 1600 BC to the year 1.  It was also the Ancient Greeks that introduced Vitis vinifera and made wine in their numerous colonies in Italy, Sicily, France and Spain.
I was fortunate to have been invited recently to taste some of these amazingly delicious Greek wines.  Faith and Flower in Downtown Los Angeles was gracious enough to host an intimate tasting.  The focus of the tasting was on Xinomavro.  The Xinomavro varietal is the principal red wine grape of the uplands of Naousa.  The rough trasnslation of the name means "sour black".  These intriguing wines are highly acidic and have strong tanins, think Barbaresco from the Piedmont.  Like the wines of Northern Italy they are best when aged for several years.
The wines pictured above were stand-outs and I would recommend them as wonderful examples of Greek prowess. The two pictured above are from Thimiopoulos Vineyards and the bottom two are Domaine Foundi.  The wines were clean with beautiful dried raspberry and burnt orange notes, beautiful racy tanins and medium to long finishes.  In both pictures the more premium wines are the ones on the left.  The wines on the right represent good values, but are younger and brighter fruits with shorter finishes.  Definitely worth seeking out!  Yiamas!
http://ktimafoundi.gr/en/index.htm
http://www.atheneeimporters.com/works/thimiopoulos-vineyards
http://www.faithandflowerla.com/