Wine Tasting (by a semi-pro)

Well, my dad asked that I begin to fill people in on the foods I am eating, and so on...feels that would make a good interest point for readers. I suppose I agree, if you are a food lover like myself, you will appreciate it. More important to the whole European experience however, is the consumption of tasty, (sometimes) frothy, always refreshing bevvies, that after a few, make the legs wobble and the mind foggy. I relish sitting out for a late dinner, enjoying the view available, and getting slightly drunk. Much like with Schwy 3 years ago, we are consuming a lot of the local delicacies, in particular, that wonderful juice of the grape, wine.
First off, let me say that Greek wine is VERY underappreciated internationally. For whatever reason, France and Italy dominate the Euro wine culture, and do not make wines any better than the Greeks. The region by region wine tasting breaks down like this:

Corfu: Despite having had the best wine I have ever tasted there 3 years ago, this time around I was left wanting more. Last time, we bought homemade wine in a small village, and it was so good. This time, we bought "local" wine at the store, and it was sickeningly sweet. I need wine to be bold and dry, not cloying.

Athens: Crappy and cheap, it came in a plastic 1.5 litre bottle, and really helped in our drunken revelry. Not a good wine, but servicable for the cause

Kardamyli: Excellent. Very simple in flavour, not at all complex. Dry, bold in flavour, but not in your face or over the top. Went great with a meal of stuffed tomato and peppers, but would suit any dish. Despite the lack of complex flkavour or aroma, this was probably the best, although the setting looking out over the Messinian Gulf was most likely a factor.

Nafplio: Had a variety of local wines, a red, a rose, and a white. All of them were good. The red was dry, with a tinge of sweet in the aftertaste. I had it with a meal of roast pork stuffed with goat cheese and peppers. It set off the flavour of the pork nicely. Highly recommended. The rose was simply ok. Had a bit of an afterbite, which I did not care for, but the initial flavour was fine. No real aroma to it. The white was surprising. I normally dislike whites, but this one took me by surprise. It was nice and sharp, but did not have the bitter aftertaste that dominates most whites. The meal was roasted turkey served in a light tomato sauce, with feta, mushrooms, peppers, and olives.

Santorini: Watching the sunset with two lovely ladies in Oia helped the wines cause, I am sure. All the same, it was very good. It had a strong, fruit aroma, but did not have a sweet fruit flavour. Instead, it had a very intersting "smoky" or "dusky" flavour, that set it off in the mouth to great affect. Very pleasing to the taste buds.

Sorry lads, but the beer choices here are somewhat poor. You can get Mythos (a lager), or Alpha (a lager), which are made in Greece, and taste OK, but do not hold a candle to the fine beers of home (no, not blue or coors - I am talking real beer, like keiths). Or, you can get Amstel or Heineken, but I am not a big fan of either...of course, the price is right at about 0.80 to 1.20 a tallboy, and you can drink them on the streets.

Ouzo, the traditional Greek liqeuor, can strip the paint off a barn (much like a bitchy otterman can). It tastes of black liquorice, but is not very good, unless its free, like at the Pink Palace Toga Party.

Greece is no longer the cheap drinkers paradise it once was. Wine in the store costs about 1.90-3.90 per bottle, a lot more than it is in other, generally more expensive (otherwise) countries. In France or Italy, a good bottle of vino is .80-1.20. Very odd that it is more here. Oh well, it is still a lot less than home.

Other than in Athens, we have not had a lot of chances to really party it up. Our budget does restrict us at times, as drinking out at a bar is 4x's more than drinking store bought bevvies. Once we hit Turkey, however, the cost will drop drastically, which will be nice. I just hope that there are still some travellers left, as the season is winding down now. The whole region is starting to slow up for the year. We will see.