Keith Levenberg
Keith Levenberg
That's Domaine Ligas in Pella, Greece & these are some pretty exciting wines that should be famous. Assyrtiko and Xinomavro, but not like you've ever had them before and from the whole other side of the country, up north.
Ligas Assyrtiko 2017
Served as one of the pairings with the tasting menu at Komi. Pale and cloudy straw color with funky scents. Tastes like it got some light skin contact, enough to take on that slightly tannic texture and deepen the tone a bit from the grape's usual lemony brightness, but not too much - if you like Dirty & Rowdy semillon, it's kind of in that family. The sommelière insists there wasn't any skin contact and what I'm tasting is just because it's natural and organic without pesticides and therefore fully ripe unlike all the other wines I might be used to, which I guess is the kind of thing they teach in somm school these days. Anyway, the Internet confirms the obvious, of course it saw some skin. The fruit profile features some melon and the more zesty, as opposed to juicy, side of citrus, but it still holds onto its refreshment value and pairs transcendentally with sea urchin.
Ligas Xinomavro "Spira" 2016
Retail purchase from Domestique in DC. Did you guys know about this shop? You ought to! Lots of goodies from Selection Massale (I picked up some Loirette beer) and other oddballs that make the Baudry Chinons the most mainstream wines in the store. Xinomavro is the great black grape of Greece. You can't make out the color of this through the dark, heavy bottle, but the back label says "vin blanc." Say what?? It pours out a beautifully radiant hue somewhere in the haze between orange and a coppery rosé. Despite the vintage date it is apparently actually a solera of several vintages, but I don't taste any hint of oxidation. The fruit is so vivid it's almost a molecular gastronomic experience - you drink this weirdly yet enticingly colored liquid and then it's like nymphs plucking fresh white cherries from the trees and dropping them in your mouth. The flavors are deeper than the assyrtiko but it *feels* more white-wine-like than the assyrtiko; whatever skin contact was enough to give it color was not enough to impart any of those fierce xinomavro tannins as this is smooth and slick and goes down the gullet like an oyster.
Ligas Assyrtiko 2017
Served as one of the pairings with the tasting menu at Komi. Pale and cloudy straw color with funky scents. Tastes like it got some light skin contact, enough to take on that slightly tannic texture and deepen the tone a bit from the grape's usual lemony brightness, but not too much - if you like Dirty & Rowdy semillon, it's kind of in that family. The sommelière insists there wasn't any skin contact and what I'm tasting is just because it's natural and organic without pesticides and therefore fully ripe unlike all the other wines I might be used to, which I guess is the kind of thing they teach in somm school these days. Anyway, the Internet confirms the obvious, of course it saw some skin. The fruit profile features some melon and the more zesty, as opposed to juicy, side of citrus, but it still holds onto its refreshment value and pairs transcendentally with sea urchin.
Ligas Xinomavro "Spira" 2016
Retail purchase from Domestique in DC. Did you guys know about this shop? You ought to! Lots of goodies from Selection Massale (I picked up some Loirette beer) and other oddballs that make the Baudry Chinons the most mainstream wines in the store. Xinomavro is the great black grape of Greece. You can't make out the color of this through the dark, heavy bottle, but the back label says "vin blanc." Say what?? It pours out a beautifully radiant hue somewhere in the haze between orange and a coppery rosé. Despite the vintage date it is apparently actually a solera of several vintages, but I don't taste any hint of oxidation. The fruit is so vivid it's almost a molecular gastronomic experience - you drink this weirdly yet enticingly colored liquid and then it's like nymphs plucking fresh white cherries from the trees and dropping them in your mouth. The flavors are deeper than the assyrtiko but it *feels* more white-wine-like than the assyrtiko; whatever skin contact was enough to give it color was not enough to impart any of those fierce xinomavro tannins as this is smooth and slick and goes down the gullet like an oyster.