#74- Roditis

It can also be spelt Rhoditis. Where do I even begin with this Greek wine?

I had this bottle of wine visiting my parents. We had chinese food and I know probably not the best food to eat with a Greek wine but after drinking this wine, I'm not any food would have done. And besides, I hadn't had chinese food in a while and I didn't care. It's not about perfect wine/food pairings anyway this little experiment of mine.

So what about the wine? I'm pretty sure that even if you didn't have a good wine palette, you'd be able to figure this one out. In fact, Craig pegged the smell and taste right away while my mom and I took a few sips (very strangled sips) to determine exactly what it was.

The taste is pine. Yes pine! Imagine sipping on Pine Sol cleaner and it's pretty much what you get with this wine. It was so bizarre. For the first while it was quite undrinkable, the stringent pine taste and smell was too overpowering. It just didn't seem right to be drinking a wine with such a pine taste.

I let the wine sit for a while and it did become a bit easier to drink but I'm not entirely sure if it's because you become instantly drunk (or high?) off the first few sips and then don't give a damn.

The Roditis grape is a lightweight and very similar to a Silvaner, Greco and Inzolia wines. Except I liked the others. I wouldn't buy this wine again unless I was attempting to show people an unusual wine of aromatic proportions (it's not often you get to pull a pine smell and taste from a bottle of wine- a long ways from the usual berry or tropical taste we're used to in a white wine).

So do I suggest you pass on this wine? Certainly not. It's one of the wines you have to try it to believe it. But don't say I didn't warn you...

#63- Greco

Sometimes when you live alone, dinner is dictated by what you have lying in the freezer. I haven't gone grocery shopping in quite some time so I hit the freezer and pulled out- bacon!

Yup, bacon dictated this dinner. Luckily I had some pancake mix in the cupboard so out came the best breakfast dinner I've had in a while. Who says you can't bacon and pancakes for breakfast? If you can do it for Mardi Gras, I figure you can do it at any time.

Anyway, the bacon and pancakes were absolutely delicious and actually went quite well with the white wine for the evening- the Greco wine. The winery is Feudi di San Gregorio winery in Italy. Yup, Italians do make white wines and not just for cooking with!

Greco di Tufo is the most noble grape of the white varieties (I'm quoting the website here, Greco isn't exactly known as a noble grape) and is one of the grapes to grow double clusters.  Their Greco wine is quite spicy and it more acidic on the tongue than typical Greco based wines. They describe their wine as having notes of balsamic and while I wouldn't desribe it as such, I do remember it leaving me with quite the pucker! I did enjoy this wine a lot. Very aromatic with hints of fruit- I thought it balanced nicely witht he pancakes and the fatty bacon!!

The Greco grape is thought to have Greek origins but for the most part, it is widely considered to be an Italian wine. Along with the Greco (white), there is a Greco Noir grape which I hope to try as soon as I find it!
While it wasn't a wine that stood out as exceptional and a definite go and buy- I will say that I did like it.