Monday, May 18, 2009

Visit at Christos Kokkalis


On the 15th May I made my way to Skafidia to pay another visit to Christos Kokkalis. It is always such a pleasure to spend some time with him! The car journey was very pleasant. May is such a nice month, as everything is in full bloom, the landscapes are beautiful to look at. After the 3 1/2 hour journey, I arrived around midday. Christos's sister and niece had stayed with him for the last days and we drove them to Pyrgos where they wanted to catch the bus to Athens. Afterwards we made our way to the sea and had a nice lunch at a fish taverna, which was followed by a relaxing siesta at Christos's house. Late afternoon we drove to his vineyard, the one where I planted vines in March. They had already grown nicely, most were about 20 to 30 cm in height. Christos showed me how to thin out the vinebranches and leaves from the Syrah vines that were growing vigorously (they were planted 7 years ago). I love learning about the work in the vineyards, and I feel very privileged having such a great teacher! At about 10 pm we went to a restaurant where some friends of Christos were waiting for us. It was a great evening, I had brought along a bottle of Kuehling-Gillot Kreuz Spaetburgunder 2006, which Christos really liked. He brought a bottle of his Trilogia 2006 - what a wine! The nose was full of cassis and coffee, it is extremly rich on the palate with bags of tannins. This is the best Trilogia to date, we were all struck by its density. Christos also brought a bottle of Volnay Marie Mairgnot Les Chenes Premier Cru 1997. It had a bit of a rough time as we served it after the Trilogia, nevertheless it was a good wine that it is still going. I stayed overnight at Christos's house and we went to bed about 1:30 am. In the morning we had breakfast and coffee, some more discussions about Greek wines, and I left at 09:30 am and made my way back home.

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