#76- Vilana

Less than 25 grapes to go now and I can apply to the Wine Century Club!

Craig was actually at home for this wine so I have finally caught him for one of the pictures! The grape this week is the Vilana grape and I seem to be on a roll picking out white grapes that are very similar to each other so the last few, I feel like I'm drinking the same wine over and over again. And with a quick glance at the varietal table, I can see there are a couple more white grapes that I've picked up that aren't all that different from this one either. Not that I can do much- I simply go with the wines that I can find at the time.

The wine is from KreitikosWinery of Greece, more specifically Crete. What's interesting to note is on the website it says that it is 70% Vilana grapes and 30% other. But on the bottle it says nothing of the sort- says it's all Vilana. No matter- it is what it is.

For a Greek wine, it was pretty good. We finished it off no problem. No pine taste here (thank God).The wine had a very fresh taste and went very well with our meal of pork loin (perfectly barbequed) with seasonal vegetables. One day I should really try lamb with a Greek wine but I really am not a fan of the meat. Maybe someone can offer me a good lamb recipe and that may help.

Overall this was a great fruity wine, quite fragrant and easy on the palette. It is very yellow (as has the last few been, which makes sense seeing as they're so close to each other). It bears a citrus flavour with a hint of pineapple.

The Vilana grape is found in Greece, primarily in Crete. It is not an easy wine to cultivate and not an easy wine to find apparently outside of Greece. Take advantage then that this wine is available here and knock another grape variety off your list.

As you know it's getting harder and harder for me to find 100% grape variety wines. To keep going and actually try some of these grapes, I'll have to resort to blends. My plan is to try to find blends where the majority is the grape varietal I'm reviewing but that may be impossible too down the line. I'm really hoping I can exhaust my list and finish 2 full years of 100% grape varieties before going for the blends. I'm not sure if my task will become easier or harder for me but I will not attempt to do so until I really feel like I have no other choice but to go to the blends.