A Bit of a Mezze

So, my husband surprised me with a bottle of Retsina. His intentions were good:

1. I love Retsina

2. I love Greek food/mezze style meals

3. I love cooking

4. It gave me content for my next blog

For those of you who don't know what Retsina is or have heard about it but never tasted it it is a wine from Greece that has been infused with pine resin adding notes of of lemon, lime and, you guessed it, pine. Retsina has a long history interwoven with Greek wine. When wine making was taking its first unsteady steps in the world it was fermented in clay pots called amphorae. These large pots were incredibly porous which meant lots of oxygen was able to enter and essentially turn the wine to vinegar. To prevent this, the amphorae were lined with with pine resin. It was also used as a preservative, much like sulphites in today's food, and allowed the wine to be stored for longer without spoiling - perfect for those long wars all the Greek heroes were constantly engaged in!

However, as with a lot of drinks across the world, quantity over quality became a bit of an issue, and the overall effect of this was a wine that was almost reminiscent of bathroom cleaner.

Luckily for me/us, there has been a resurgence of top notch retsina being created - check out Mylonas's Retsina, it's a fantastic introduction to this style of wine. They only add 250g of pine resin for each 1000L of wine which means the focus is still on the wine itself. This means that the Savvatiano (the grape variety used in this wine) is the star of the show giving bright citrussy lemon, with soft peach and apricot, ripe mango, a touch of jasmine, and then a green herby seasoning from the pine itself.

Unluckily for me, this was not the purchase made this time! Still it's fun to try new things and it's very rare that I don't enjoy a wine...

This little number was a rogue Lidl purchase. I found it a little lacking with just citrus and a heady piney nose and maybe just a touch of apple on the palate, nothing to shout about but what else do you expect when you are spending less than £6 on a bottle?

So, I whipped up a feast and hoped it would help the wine go down, and do you know what? It wasn't half bad!

Homemade tzatziki, courgette fritters, spanokopita, a block of griddled Halloumi and a Greek salad - with a whole block of Feta on top, we weren't messing around here! The herby notes in the wine were levelled out nicely by the dill and spring onions in the fritters and spanokopita. The high acidity in the wine cut through the tangy, fatty Feta, and the salty Halloumi let the lemon and lime notes from the wine sing. Overall the freshness of the wine with the food was enjoyable, but I would say this particular bottle was probably a little overwhelmed and overpowered by the food.

Not a complete loss, but I think when looking at this style of wine it's better to spend a little bit more to get the best possible enjoyment from it.

CHEERS!!