![]() Even now, the flavors of the grape are already there, and seeds are ripe. Says Perlegos: “We’ll monitor the grapes this week, and probably end up picking them, if we can get the pH to about 3.2. Hence, Perlegos’ explanation as to why producers in Santorini often finish their Assyrtiko with a little bit of perceptible residual sugar, to take the edge off the sharpness of the grape’s typically high acidity. If Perlegos had picked then, this would have produced a white wine between 12% and 13% alcohol if fermented completely dry but would be almost as puckery as biting into a lemon. Perlegos, as of August 28-29, 2021, the grape sugars in his Assyrtiko blocks were at about 21° Brix, with a pH (i.e., reading of the strength of acidity) of 3.15. Adds Perlegos, “I actually ran an analysis on a bottle a few months back, and it had 0.9 grams per liter of residual sugar” - technically, well within the spectrum of “dryness” for the vast majority of people.Īccording to Mr. The 2020 Sigalas Assyrtiko, however, tasted dry, and the opposite of heavy. Jeff Perlegos demonstrating the ultra-fine consistency of Mokelumne River-Lodi’s Tokay sandy loam soil. Typically, they finish their wines with some residual sugar to balance the high acidity, so I can see how they appear a bit thick and full-bodied.” Most producers in Greece pick their Assyrtiko ripe yet still have the acidity to deal with. Perlegos commented to me: “It did not seem heavy to me either, despite its alcohol. In fact, it came across as moderately weighted, even light-feeling in the body. It certainly did not taste like a wine with that much alcohol. The day after our dinner at the Passalacqua cottage I went online and read that the 2020 Sigalas also weighed in at 15.1% ABV (i.e., alcohol by volume). Many consumers now want their wines to taste “pure,” without a lot of winery machinations. Oh, and with minimal, or zero, taste of oak. The Sigalas Assyrtiko, in fact, possesses sensory qualities to which more and more consumers are gravitating: wines with slightly sharper natural acidity than most commercial American white wines, less overt fruitiness, more subtlety, and some degree of earthiness. Image of vines courtesy of The Society of Wine Educators’ Wine, Wit, and Wisdom. Only, of course, it was much more pleasant than that - it tasted like a lemony crisp wine, with its subtle citrus-like fruit tinged just enough by those nuanced, briny minerals to give you that kind of overall impression.ĭomaine Segalas Assyrtiko and Assyrtiko grapes cultivated in traditional kouloura (“wreathe” or “basket” shape, meant to create shade, conserve water and withstand high winds of the Aegean Sea) in Santorini. By “minerally,” I mean that the first thing you taste is sort of what you imagine lemon water steeped in chalky rocks with a little briny ocean water would taste like if you mixed it all up in the kitchen. The best way to describe the Sigalas Assyrtiko is, basically, dry, lemony crisp, and very minerally. Perlegos described the Domaine Sigalas as “the gold standard” of imported Assyrtikos. Perlegos and I, however, did taste a 2020 Domaine Sigalas Assyrtiko, imported from Santorini, just last week, along with some close friends (the bottle was sprung upon us by Turley Wine Cellars winemaker Tegan Passalacqua, who had invited us over to his Victor, Lodi cottage for dinner). The Perlegos family’s Assyrtiko vines, trained on own-rooted vertical cordon vines in the deep sandy loam soil of Mokelumne River-Lodi’s east side. And like many of Lodi’s old vine plantings, they are own-rooted presumably immune to the root louse, phylloxera, because of the Greek islands’ sandy soils (Lodi’s Mokelumne River AVA is defined by sandy loam soils). It’s probably not possible to say if Assyrtiko was one of those grape varieties planted 3,000 or 4,000 years ago, but some of the Assyrtiko vines cultivated today - most notably on the island of Santorini, although it is also grown on Crete, other islands, and in northern Greece - are said to be as old as 150 years. (re Kostrzewa, Ancient Greek Varieties Making Thoroughly Modern Wines). Haroula Spinthiropoulou, has been quoted to say: “Wine has played a central role in everyday Greek life for more than 4,000 years,” and that there is evidence of bustling wine culture and trade on islands like Crete and Santorini as well as the mainland Peloponnese region that can be traced back to the 2nd millennium B.C. įirst of all, it is one of some 300 native grape varieties purportedly cultivated in Greece. Travel brochure overhead of Santorini islands, the native home of Assyrtiko, in the Mediterranean’s the Aegean Sea.
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