Opso pioneers all Greek wine list

Modern Greek restaurant Opso in Marylebone is pioneering what it claims to be London’s largest Greek wine list to shine a light on the country’s indigenous grapes.

The 34-bin list features red, white, rosé, sparkling and sweet wines from across the country, demonstrating Greece’s diversity in terms of grape varieties and styles.

The wines are divided up by style and region, with Macedonia & Thrace, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Crete, Santorini and Samos all featuring.

Among the drops on the list are a barrel fermented Assyrtiko from Argyros Estate in Santorini; an Agiorghitiko from Gaia Estate in Nemea; and a sweet wine made from Assyrtiko, Athiri, Aidani and Liatiko from Montofoli Estate in Evia.

A wine fit for the Tsars?

Topping the list in terms of price is the 2008 vintage of Kormilitsa Gold, a Cabernet Sauvignon/Limnio blend from Tsantali Vineyards in Mount Athos that was once the official wine of the Kremlin.

Priced on the list at £170 a bottle, the Tsantali website describes it as being a wine of “imposing character” boasting “seductive tones of underground vegetation” and “a muscular and exuberant structure”.

A Retsina also makes an appearance on the list, which has been produced in Greece for thousands of years.

Winemaker Panagiotis Papagiannoupoulos crafts the wine from organically grown Roditis grown near Aegeon, collecting the resin by hand from pine trees next to the vineyards, adding one kilo of resin for every 1,000 litres of wine.

Greece boasts one of the longest winemaking histories in the world and has recently garnered praise from the press for the distinctive character its native grapes stamp on the wines.

Sweetness was sought after in ancient Greek wines, which were made from grapes laid on frames to ripen in the sun.

The ancient Greeks worshipped Dionysus, god of wine and fertility. Associating wine with divinity, they believed that god was present in the wine they drank, transforming their character and freeing them of their inhibitions.

The son of Zeus and Semele, Dionysus’ devotees, the Maenads or “raving ones”, were driven into wild hallucinogenic states of ecstasy that gave them supernatural strength.

During more extreme worshipping rituals, the Maenads were known to tear apart wild animals such as bulls with their bare hands and devour the flesh raw.

The all-Greek list is due to debut at Opso on 1 April. To celebrate the launch, the restaurant is hosting an Easter-themed, three course wine pairing dinner priced at £65 per person.