The Greek Moschofilero Grape

Greek wines are wonderful, especially the whites, which go with seafood like they were made for the job.  In fact, they were.  The Moschofilero grape has come into its own fairly recently.  Abundant in Greece's Peloponnese region, the peninsula at the bottom of the Greek mainland, the grape earned the nickname of "the Chameleon," according to Wine Enthusiast.  It can produce wines of varying styles and expressions.  WE offers this pronouncer for Moschofilero:  mow-sko-FEEL-err-oh.

Gai'a Wines makes a 100% Moschofilero wine they call Monograph.  I had the 2018 vintage at a Beverly Hills restaurant - Avra - which offers a number of Greek wines to pair with the cuisine.  The huge restaurant also offers indoor/outdoor seating, so you have a front row experience as Ferrari after Lamborgni race up and down that one block of Beverly Boulevard.  The Monograph on their list was $17 by the glass, but you can buy the bottle elsewhere at $13 retail.  That's quite a markup, even by Beverly Hills standards.

Importer Winebow gives this pronouncer for Gai'a:  Yay-ya.  The winery has been around since 1994 and is called a pioneer in "the modern Greek wine revolution."  Winebow says the grapes for the Monograph Moschofilero "come from vineyards located in the Arcadian plateaus in the Mantinia region of Peloponnese, at an altitude of 1,500 feet."  In this cool-climate region, "the pink-skinned Moschofilero thrives, developing intense, spicy and floral aromatics and crisp acidity."  They say it pairs well with seafood - it does - as well as Middle Eastern and Asian cuisines.  The wine was vinified and aged in stainless steel tanks and has a reasonable alcohol level of 12% abv.

The nose gives a sense of the seashore, with salinity driving the smell and a light floral note lifting it.  The palate is spicy, with that wonderful salinity and earthy minerals leading the way.  The wine has a nice acidity and a lengthy, earthy finish.  I paired it successfully with a crab cake and grilled octopus.

Follow Randy Fuller on Twitter