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Blind tasting of a Greek Chardonnay:

2016 Papargyriou Winery Ca, ç’est Correct.

Last year we were in Xylokastro, Greece visiting one of our favs – Yannis Papargyriou. You know him through his wines. The wines of Papargyriou Winery, particularly the Roi des Montagnes Cuvée and Unfiltered are amazing wines and hopefully we will slip them in one of the club shipments soon. So, Yannis invites us for dinner at this hole in the wall joint not far from where we were staying. It was in Diminio (near Kiato), the place is called Malinovrakas (slang for “woolen underwear”).

The proprietor was a colorful Greek who apparently was twice deported from the US for not having his papers in order. The food was just delicious and I for one wouldn’t have minded if Immigration had looked the other way. We can use restaurants like that here!

The appetitezers make their way to the table which sort of indoors and outdoors. Yannis had carefully chilled a bottle of the freshly bottled Ca, c’est Correct in a bag with some ice. He takes out this beautiful etched bottle with a silver wax seal. Pops open the cork. Pours it in the glass. The power goes out! I mean, the whole place is bathed in darkness. A stunned silence permeated the Peloponesean summer air. It was brief and then a few people started laughing. Most of us reached for our cell phones and used the flashlight mode to orient ourselves. Now, my glass had the wine already poured. I gingerly reached for it. I can honestly say that this was a “blind tasting”. You can look up my descriptions of this Chardonnay somewhere else. But let me tell you, in the darkness, this wine was like some beautiful woman playing footsie with you. For some of you who haven’t done this, I recommend both the footsie in the darkness and this amazing Chardonnay!