Wine Tasting, Greek Style
I love wine, and I love going wine tasting. I love the way those first few sips simultaneously excite and relax you with their buzzy promise. I love the way the sun seems to shine a little bit brighter when you’re with your best friends, talking and laughing without a care in the world.
While Sonoma and Napa Valley are in my backyard and Paso Robles has become my new favorite, there’s something special about wine tasting in foreign countries. On a random day off because of a Greek holiday, a group of my fellow volunteers and I decided to go wine tasting. Our second stop was Tzivani Winery, a family-run, organic winery that’s been operating since 1982. It was hands down one of my favorite wine tasting experiences in my many years of partaking of the fruit of the earth in countries around the world!
George and Chrissie are welcoming and entertaining hosts.
The owners, Chrissie and George, are the quintessential wine couple. Chrissie’s Greek name means Golden, a perfect description for her glowing personality and blonde-gray locks. We were lucky enough to visit during harvest which in Greece is usually the first two weeks of August for whites and the last two weeks of August for reds. On a tour of the production facilities, we got to see George in action directing his crew and tasting the fresh grape juice straight from the big, steel vats where grapes were being crushed as we watched.
After the tour, we sat down to taste in the open reception room that was decorated in all dark wood. The tables, the chairs, the shelves holding wine bottles that lined the walls. It was a little outdated and worn like a threadbare sofa that was once the favorite repose in the chambers of a queen. It was comfortable and inviting. The wine began to flow with descriptions and stories for each new varietal. Chrissie joked that they named the “1,000 Nights” Syrah after the length of time it took George to court her. She was uninterested at first but eventually came around after many days and nights! Chrissie is the front of the house entertainer while George would pop in and out, pouring himself a splash of the wine we were tasting, sticking his prominent Greek nose far into the glass, and nodding with satisfaction as he swallowed his life’s work.
George showing us how it is done. I ate a fig right off of the tree, and it was still a bit warm from the sun. Perfection!
The delicious wine was accompanied by small pieces of bread topped with either a spicy feta spread that I’m still dreaming about or a crab spread with a slice of hard-boiled egg. Fresh figs and grapes were served as we were slowing down on both the wine and food. If there’s one thing that I love as much as wine tasting, it’s fresh figs. I go bananas during the summer months in Europe when I can buy fresh figs for a few euro per kilo. They cost about $2 each at Whole Foods and don’t even taste good. Of course I was very vocal about how much I love figs while helping myself to several, prompting George to ask if we wanted to go pick figs to take home with us. Um, yes!
Zoe and I hopped into George’s SUV while still holding our half-full wine glasses, and he drove us up a hill to a vineyard at a higher elevation with neighboring fig trees. He taught us how to look for ripe but not overripe figs, and we filled a bag with them.
The deer with the antlers hogged most of the food while cute, little Bambi behind me went hungry.
The tour proceeded on to their small farm on the other side of the hill to feed goats, sheep, and deer. I laughed and squealed as animal tongues licked my hands trying to get every last piece of the feed. Then to top it all off, George gave Zoe and I fresh eggs plucked directly from the small chicken coop! George's generosity and interest in sharing his way of life with us was so genuine and touching.
We got back into the car with eggs in hand and smiles on our faces. The sun was shining so brightly, I had to squint behind my sunglasses.