Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Working week in Germany Part 3




On Thursday, I had a leisure day in Hamburg. I met with Christos Kokkalis at lunch time and we strolled around the city, had coffee, and as always talked a lot about Greek wines. Late afternoon I received a call from Mario Scheuermann, who asked if I could provide him with some more Greek wines, as he had enjoyed the tasting so much.
In the evening we met again with the lovely Sommelier couple Dagmar Willich and Rene Baumgart. We were in for a treat, as they had organised a table with a great view in the Carls Brasserie, the newest member of the Jacob dynasty. What a great setting this place has - our table was perfectly located to enjoy the views of the harbour and the Elbphilharmony. The food was delicious, and the conversation was flowing easily. Both Dagmar and Rene are such friendly, knowledgeable, and interesting people, I am really glad to have met them.
Friday morning I drove to Mario Scheuermann and provided him with another 6 Greek wines. After this, I had an appointment with a wine importer. I had a very fruitful discussion, and I left 30 labels there, from which a selection will be presented by me in August. It was time to make my way back to Siegen. There was heavy traffic and the drive took nearly 7 hours. On Saturday morning I took the plane from Duesseldorf to Athens, ready to tackle the workload that expected me there. It still amazes me how quickly work can pile up!

Monday, June 29, 2009

Working week in Germany Part 2: Meeting the big guys


On Wednesday morning I woke up at 5:00 am and drove 5 hours to Hamburg. I arrived at the Hotel Baseler Hof around 11:30 am. A Twitter meeting was planned for the afternoon. This was organised by Mario Scheuermann alas weinreporter, who is a very well known wine critic and journalist. The agenda was for me to present and discuss Greek wines. Also invited were Dr. Eckhard Supp alas enoworldwine, who is the publisher of ENO WorldWine, as well as Michael W. Pleitgen alas weinakademie, who runs a Wine Consulting and Education Business in Berlin. Mario Scheuermann's charming wife odorfa also was expected to join us. I had invited my good friend Christos Kokkalis as a surprise guest.



The Tschebull Restaurant was chosen as the venue. At midday, I transported the wines to be presented to the Restaurant in order to cool the whites and decant some reds. The setting was impressive, the Tschebull is a very modern and light-flooded place, at a very central location. At 2:30 pm I picked up Christos Kokkalis from the Central Railway Station. He checked into his hotel and we arrived at the Tschebull just after 3:00 pm.

After a short while, Mario Scheuermann and Eckhard Supp joined us. Michael Pleitgen was delayed, as he was training some chefs and sommeliers in Luebeck. We had a very lively and constructive discussion about the Greek wine market. The presentation/tasting started at 4:00 pm. I had selected eight different wines, 2 whites and 6 reds, out of about 30 labels that I carried to Hamburg. Christos brought a bottle of his 2006 Trilogia. We took time to taste and discuss every single wine, and odorfa joined us half way through. It is always fascinating to hear top tasters arguing with each other about personal preferences, as this just shows that complex wines waken different perceptions in different people. Everyone at the table agreed that all wines presented were captivating - and half of the wines shown received particular high praise. I was of course very pleased with this, as I believe so strongly in the quality of selected Greek wines available today.


Michael Pleitgen arrived at 6:00 pm, he interviewed me and tasted a few wines as he had to catch the train to Berlin at 07:00 pm. Eckhard Supp, Mario Scheuermann and odorfa stayed until 08:00 pm. Christos and myself were then joined by the Sommelier couple Rene Baumgart und Dagmar Willich for dinner at Tschebull. I arrived back at the Baseler Hof at 10:30 pm and surfed the Internet. Mario Scheuermann had already twittered about the Greek wine tasting, the next morning I found articles by Michael Pleitgen and Eckhard Supp, also reporting about the event.
Links to reports in German:
Weinakademie Berlin: Mutiger junger Mann
ENO WorldWine: Griechenland
Drinktank: Tetramythos

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Working week in Germany Part 1

I spent all of last week in Germany with a tight and full schedule. On the 20th June I flew to Duesseldorf and arrived at my base close to Siegen in the afternoon. A week before that, I had sent a pallet of mixed wines from Greece to Germany (one pallet carries roughly 600 bottles), a total of 30 labels from 10 different winemakers. I needed quite a few hours on Saturday and Sunday to group some of the wines into different parcels, deciding where to show which wines.
Monday morning I made my way to Montabaur, an hours drive by car, to catch the ICE train to Munich. The train ride was quite pleasant and I used the 4 hours to prepare myself for the week. My appointment was with a wine merchant at a very central location in Munich. It is so important to meet face to face - it is the only way to really learn what personalised services one might be able to offer. After about 45 minutes I left some samples and made my way back to the Hauptbahnhof (central railway station) with suggestions and comments received. I waited a couple of hours before taking the ICE back to Montabaur, arriving at my base at 12:30 pm. I worked for another hour on the PC before hitting the bed.
The next morning I took a two and a half hours drive to Kempen to meet with a potential client. The meeting went very well, again I left my samples there. Usually I try and taste the wines with the customer, in order to guide through. But Monday and Tuesday were exceptions, as both times the time schedule did not allow for this. I drove back in the afternoon and arrived in Siegen in the early evening. Samples had to be selected and packed for the next 3 days. The boot of my car was full with wines by the time I was finished.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

AVIN - An ISBN for Wines by Adegga

Adegga, the Social Wine Discovery service, has recently introduced AVIN codes for wines. AVIN is a free unique code for wines, similar to an open ISBN for books. When naming wines, people often use different names while refering to the same wine. This is certainly true for Greek wines abroad, as the consumer can easily be confused about the name. I fully support Adegga's efforts to unify wine names in a single database, thereby providing simple ways to access this information. I have already updated all tasting notes from the Dionysia with the AVIN codes, and plan to use AVIN codes on any new references to wines in this blog. This should be very helpful to pinpoint any single wine. Please comment your suggestions/feedback.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

World famous oenologist explores co-operation with Alpha Estate


Eric Boissenot, one of the most famous oenologists of the winemaking world, was recently invited at the Alpha Estate in Amyndeo, Greece, by the vineyard's oenologist Angelos Iatridis.


Eric Boissenot maintains his wine laboratory in the region of Pauillac, Bordeaux. He has many high-class co-operations, amongst others with Chateau Lafite, Chateau Latour, Chateau Margaux, Chateau Palmer, Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou, Chateau Gazin, and Chile's Concha Y Toro.


He is a low profile oenologist whose wine philosophy is primarily based on the accentuation of the terroir elements. The friendship between the two colleagues, Iatrides and Boissenot, dates back to the time when they both studied at the faculty of oenology at the University of Bordeaux. Their relationship now seems poised to become one of a professional nature from the next harvesting season. As a first reaction, Eric Boissenot was positively surprised by the evaluation of the property's ground and climatic elements; the wineries wine production processes and infrastructure. He stated that he views his involvement in the wine production at the Alpha Estate as a challenge.


This is just another sign that the quality of some Greek wines has skyrocketed in the last few years. It also shows that the people responsible for this success do not rest, but push further to keep this important process going on.