Sometimes we buy a bottle of wine to pair with a meal or an event, situations where the wine enhances the experience. Other times, the wine IS the experience. For me, finding a bottle of Nemean red wine means that whatever else I had planned is off the table, I don’t care if it’s dinner plans with friends or trying to survive the apocalypse, none of that matters now because I’m about to drink this wine.
So, there’s not a good wine shop in my neighborhood. It’s better than Roger’s Park, where I used to live, but most of what I find is mass produced or, honestly, just boring. To be fair, the one shop I do kinda like carries this same wine, but they only had the 2014 vintage and I’d already tried that. There’s a Binny’s a couple miles South of me and it was a nice day, so I decided to take a walk and see what they had. I’m glad I did. I cannot express how excited I was to discover the new vintage of Nemean reds had finally arrived, an excitement neither shared or understood by those standing near me.
I’ve always been a bit of a Greek geek, but I caught it bad in college. Plato, Aristophanes, Xenophon, Herodotus, I was reading anyone I could get my hands on. Once I started getting into wine, I had to see what the Greeks were doing. I was not disappointed.
Nemea is a wine region in Greece located in the Northeasten Peloponnese, it’s wines are made from 100% Aghiorghitiko wine. The best usually spend some time in oak. These wines can be elusive, even if you know what you’re looking for. Trust me, I’ve taken day trips into Chicago’s Greektown just to look for bottles I haven’t tried, they’re not easy to find.
Skouras is the producer I have encountered most frequently and they are a fantastic representation of what the region has to offer. Domaine Skouras was founded in 1986 after George Skouras returned to Greece from studying agriculture at the University of Dijon. Since that time they have shown exceptional growth. You can find several of their wines in the US, I’ve tried everything I’ve seen and I’ve never been disappointed.
This particular wine held up to my expectations, which were high. I savored the plum and clove flavors alone, too greedy to share the experience with anyone else, afraid they couldn’t possibly understand something so beautiful and unwilling to allow them to interrupt my mindgasm.
I can’t tell you that you’re going to have the same experience if you try it, I hope you do. Wine can be a subjective experience, but Nemean reds approach the summit of how great wine can be, at least in my mind.