Post 164. It’s All Greek to Me

We’ve been away again! I know, it’s one never-ending holiday for us. This is probably the last for a while though so don’t get too envious.

The reason for this one (do we need a reason?) was to celebrate a significant birthday of a pal we’ve known for a long time. Not the birthday shown in the header, I don’t think I know anyone THAT old! Or maybe I do…

We used to go on wine tasting breaks, ending up with seven of us ‘regulars’, so obviously we named ourselves The Magnificent Seven. Over the years, we’ve been whittled down to The Fantastic Four.

The company we travelled with, Arblaster and Clarke, were bought by another company and somehow after that it was never the same atmosphere. The last one we went on was New Year 2018 / 2019 in Valencia (see Post 11 of 18th January 2019 for very brief details). However, Tim Clarke has recently started wine holidays again so this was an ideal way back for us. He is such an enthusiast and knows all about the places and history as well as the wines, so you feel you’re getting a full education as well as meeting the wine makers.

Today’s title may have given away our destination. We joined a small cruise ship in Athens (Harmony G), a 54-metre yacht (but no sails) owned by Variety Cruises, sailing around a few Greek islands to sample the different wines they produced.

https://www.varietycruises.com/ships/harmony-g/

It can take up to 44 passengers but we weren’t full. As well as JD and I, there were sixteen other winos, sorry, wine enthusiasts, our wine host Tim and our tour manager Stella, making twenty of us, plus the 18-strong crew who looked after us and made sure no-one fell overboard. We moved from one destination to the next overnight mostly, so had the day for sightseeing and sampling. The first thing we do on a new boat is the life drill, so above you’ll find the obligatory photo.

We flew into Athens to a torrential downpour and joined the boat. A quick glass of sparkling wine and we were off to our first destination. Due to the weather, there was a slight change in islands visited, but as we knew nothing about Greek wine or islands, that didn’t worry us. We were meant to visit Poros but went to Aegina instead. Saturday we were inland, Nafplio and Nemea via Mycenae. It wasn’t all drinking; at Mycenae we saw the ruins and Lion Gate. This is not it, but the entrance to the Treasury of Atreus or Agamemnon. A very large tomb, where we all stood right in the middle and sang (sort of) to sample the acoustics. We were there before the crowds so had the place to ourselves. Very atmospheric and worth a proper visit one day.

The Tomb of Agamemnon

On Sunday we sailed to Monemvasia in Laconia (also on the mainland but only just as it’s a citadel on a rock with a narrow road up to it). If you’ve not heard of Monemvasia you might know of Malmsey, from Shakespeare’s Richard III and the Duke of Clarence.

We had lunch in the town, thankfully under cover as the rain came down again and all the tables were waterlogged. These were the only two occasions on which it rained but when it did you knew about it! The locals were obviously used to it as they all had brooms and swept the rain out of their shops once the cloudburst had stopped.

Monday we visited Serifos, an actual island, and learnt that we’ve been pronouncing Gaia incorrectly. Well, JD and I have, it should be ‘Yaya’. However you say it, we enjoyed their wines over lunch. The morning tasting consisted of Retsina, not as horrific as you’d think. To start, they were upmarket blends, not the stuff we quaffed in our earlier years. If you consider it a Vermouth (fortified wine, but with resin instead of wormwood) and sip it as an aperitif before you eat, it is very presentable. Honestly.

Tuesday morning was a trip to a vineyard on Santorini, which I skipped due to the need to walk up and down steep slopes. I enjoyed topping up my Vitamin D onboard instead. As everyone was back on the boat for lunch with other Santorini wines, followed by a tasting of rosé wines, then wines from Crete with dinner, I don’t feel I missed out.

With nothing better to do than sunbathe, I made up two haikus as an aide-memoire for the names of our company. A haiku is a Japanese short poem, not rhyming, of three lines, with five, seven and five syllables in the three lines. Originally it was meant to reflect the seasons but I ignored that. It worked better for the men than the women, I had to take a few liberties with their preferred names. Must choose my travelling companions more carefully next time. Or maybe try limericks.

Gene and George and Greg
John, Jim, Tim, Richard and Rich
Vernon were the men.

Ange, Amanda, Jane
Two Ms, Suzie, Stella, Sam
And Pat and Sarah.

Wednesday I was not going to miss out. We were on Samos for nine wines at the Vakakis vineyard, then had a magnificent Michelin-worthy late lunch at ‘Orizontas’, where they paired the ten wines with suitable food for each. Dinner that night was a little subdued as we were all still full. We managed not to upset the chef too much though. Samos is very close to Turkey: we spotted the Greek navy patrolling the waters between us and the mainland.

Thursday, the last day, we visited Tinos, on the way back to Athens and home. The Volacus vineyard was in the middle of what appeared to be a lunar landscape, and certainly you could taste the minerality in the wines, compared to the other places we visited. Tinos, we were told, is famous for its decorative dove cotes (originally used to produce protein when food was scarce in the wars). My photos were all through the bus window so I need to go back sometime to take better shots.

The main grapes we experienced were, on the whole, not ones we’d come across. They tend to use local varieties rather than ‘international’ ones such as Sauvignon Blanc or Merlot. You will possibly have heard of Assyrtiko and Muscat, but how about Aghiorgihtiko (I think I’ve spelt it correctly, easier translated as St George), Mavrodaphne, Kidonitsa or Malagouzia? We had many others but my spellcheck is going berserk so I’ll stop there. We preferred the whites to the reds and the ‘stickies’ (dessert wines) to the whites, but it was interesting tasting and learning about them all.

Obviously, as it was a wine tasting cruise, we only had sips and used spittoons, so didn’t drink as much as you’d think. Most days we had three or four tastings, from early morning to dinner. Each tasting was accompanied by snacks to keep us going. The above plate was for two people. Tim gave us a saying: ‘buy on an apple, sell on cheese’, meaning that the wine will taste totally different depending on what you’ve eaten with it.

The Charming History Behind Why We Pair Wine With Cheese

We were given a booklet full of copious background notes and the wines we were expecting to taste. These lists had to be amended when the planned wines were not available or when the vineyard found others they thought we should try as well. Someone counted up the different bottles of wine and reckoned we’d had 125 over the week. Thankfully there was no examination at the end.

We should comment on the look, aroma, taste, texture and finish, with a conclusion on the wine. I have to confess to chickening out and not writing anything. JD has an interesting scoring system. Looking at his notes, the final column has a ?, a tick (sometimes two), an OK, an OK+, a Good or a V. Good. Also Get, Buy?, Buy or BUY! We brought home eleven bottles, mostly of dessert wines. No Retsina.

We didn’t neglect our cocktails, although the number of wines we’d sampled during most days meant we routinely missed the pre-dinner daily special. Fortuitously, the one we tried matched JD’s shirt: it consisted of pineapple, rum, coconut and blue Curacao.

Having arrived home, we found our clothes had mysteriously shrunk while we were away. We’re no longer eating cooked breakfasts or four course dinners, as on board, and we’re catching up with all the household tasks, so plenty of bending and stretching! I wouldn’t say we’re dieting, but we’ve not had any alcohol (or snacks) and I’ll not be making cocktails for a few weeks. I do have a recipe for one called ‘Naked in the Rain’ which sounds rather apt so I’ll keep it in mind. I’m not sure what I’m going to blather on about for the next few Posts.