Can someone recommend a good Greek red wine on the value end of the spectrum that is also readily available in the USA? Thanks!
Xinomavro… look for Alpha and Kir-Yanni… Remove the restriction to Greece only and my recommendation does not change!
Karydas
If you want something nebbiolo-like (more acidic and tannic), xinomavro is the way to go. Alpha and Karydas are good choices as is Thimiopoulos. If you can find some 2005 Katogi & Strofilia, it is amazing for the price.
If you want something rounder, agioritiko is a good option. Gaia and Tselepos make good ones.
I’m withdrawing my backing of Karydas. Approach it with caution.
I just bought a bottle of 2009 to check out. It has an aroma that I associate with women’s cosmetics that I find unpleasant. I found the same with the 2005 but not the 2007.
It brings unwelcome flashbacks to childhood, family events, and unwanted smooches from my dolled-up grandmothers. I want to remember them through the scents of gingerbread cookies and plum pudding, not lipstick. ![[snort.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/b/bdc3944606213c4dca6c1169cf0a166c8bc4f8c9.gif "snort.gif"){kind=small}
Thymiopoulos is usually a great wine.
I personally avoid Alpha. Whenever I tasted their wines, they seem totally devoid of varietal character.
Check out Paliokalias by Dalamara and the Xinomavro of Estate Voyatzi.
Is Paliokalias imported to the US? It’s difficult enough to locate a bottle of Dalamara in Athens, Greece 
I agree that Alpha is quite soulless.
I am a great fan of Fountis (don’t know if it’s available in the US).
Boutari’s Naoussa GR can be very nice wines and can be had for a song, considering the quality.
Yowsa Bowsa, gimme some Naoussa! Boutari is reliable but not often fine. Kir Yianni Ramnista can be great wine, a term I rarely use. I set it up about 10 years ago (the '95) at a charity tasting with a Barolo and a Griottes-Chambertin from mediocre but sound producers in a fine vintage and it won, as I planned.
Nemea is consistent, but hard to find anything beyond industrial swill. Boutari is reliable (sigh). Skouras, Gaia, Spiropoulos should be better, but may not be. There’s fine wine out there in Greece, but it’s not in the U.S. I used to import Papaioannou (on my labels Pape Johannou, I wasn’t going to subject American consumers to their real name). If you can find a bottle of their Nemea, it will be excellent.
Sorry to say, Naoussa is better represented here. It’s as if it was easier to find fine Burgundy than fine Bordeaux.
Dan Kravitz
No clue on Paliokalias.
I drank a Boutari Naoussa GR 2007 not so long ago, but it was shut down.
I had an unoaked agiorgitiko from Palivos, the Anemos. It was GREAT with all the standard Greek Easter specialties (lamb, goat, kokoretsi etc).
The 2005 was available in the SF Bay area last year. I checked out a bottle. I wasn’t blown away at the time but was curious about the potential. Planned to buy more but never got around to it and regret that.
We recently had a tasting of some Greek wines. Our clear winner considering the price was a 2006 Driopi Reserve (Agiorgitiko) by Yiannis Tselepos followed by a 2009 IGP Dafnes (Liatiko) by Douloufakis. From a quick google search, both seem to be imported into the US. We also had good Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah from Kokkalis, but they are not really on the value end of the spectrum. The wines by Alpha and Kir-Yanni didn’t blow me away.
We’ve been drinking a Boutari Xinomavro here, and it is a dead ringer for Nebbiolo.
Another plug for agiorgitiko - Parparoussis Nemea Reserve. The 2005 I had recently was full of tangy red fruit along a savory herbal/dried flower character. An articulate riposte to spoofulation.
Dimitris Koutsoumpas?
You beat me to it Ken.
The Ramnista could not possibly have been a '95, as '97 was the first vintage the wine was made. Giannis only left the family firm in 1996.
Papaioannou’s Nemea wines are beautiful across the range, from entry-level to the Mikroklima.
(BTW, what is it that American consumers so dread about the “Papaioannou” sequence of consonants and vowels as opposed to the “Pape Johannou” sequence of consonants and vowels? Earlier this week, Eric Asimov in NYT: “The white wine grapes of Greece — with names like moschofilero, roditis and assyrtiko — sound a bit scary, like alien beings.” What exactly is the problem?)
That is a beautiful wine.
Very nice wine. (The oaked cuvee, “Terra Leone”, has wonderful, deeper fruit but needs time.)
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