獨一無二的希臘酒

Compared with some European countries like France， Spanish and Italy， Greek wine is quite a stranger to our Chinese， though some are sold in China.

“Real Taste Great Living”

International \"Kerasma\" Conference on Greek Gastronomy and Food， Wine and Spirits Industry Partenariat was held in Athens， Greece at the end of 2008. The conference is one of the most influential exhibitions in Food Industry in Greece. This third conference， with the slogan of “Real Taste Great Living”， gathered more than 100 promising companies from lines of food and wine.

It took four years to relay the Olympic torch from Athens to Beijing. However， we only took less than 14 hours from Beijing to Athens， including connecting flight in Tashkent. We arrived in Athens on November 30th，And then， we started full touch with Greek wines.

The Unique Greek Wine

Mr. Panagiotis Papastavrou， in charge of the organizers HEPO (Hellenic Foreign Trade Board) introduced us the characteristics of Greek wines. In his view， the most obvious feature of Greek wine is its rich breeds. and this breed is more different from those in other countries.Its breed is similar to Burgundy in France except for the technics to some extent.

It can be found that there are much more Greek white wines than Greek dry red wines in the exhibition hall. Moreover， the prices of Greek dry red wines are more expensive. The retail€13 price is only intermediate in Greece. In fact， the white wines like Assyritiko， Athiri and Roditis are brewed by the autochthonic grapes in Greece. Also they are always the best wines and have special taste. Over the years， the most popular Greek wine is always B1anc de Blanc which is a mixed brewing wine by Sauvignon， Uqni Blanc， Roditi and Athiri.

The unique character of Greek wines is the grapes they use. Thanks to the natural geographical advantages， Greek wines have distinguished features. In Greek vineyards， there are few grape trellises. Instead， grape vines crawl on the ground. Also due to the sunny， hot and dry weather， the vines have no choice except keeping themselves on the ground to makes full use of the natural moisture. Another advantage of ground-creeping vines is that grapes can fully absorb the sunshine which can make the dry grapes have higher sugar content. By using the oke tuns for fermenting， the grapes with higher suger make the taste of alcohol much stronger， and also improve the quality of the wines.

Though Greek producers convinced that the prospect of Greek wines lies in the unique grape breeds， still they have introduced a lot of the European grape breeds such as Cabernet， Syrah and Merlot， for the purpose of obtaining top-grade red wines. Acting on the Greek’s climate， these breeds have some differences in character， compared with those in other places.

In the afternoon， the journalist tasted some wines recommended by some famous Greek enterprises in Tasting Center. The most impressive wine is Moschofilero Boutari 2007 recommended by the Boutari， which is more suitable for the palate of Chinese people. It has a natural rose and orange flavor with a balanced sweet and tart taste. When the wine hits the back palate， it becomes thicker and the taste lasts for a long time. It is very suitable for seafood， cheese and fruit.

Boutari is one of the most popular Greek wines. It has seven vineries in different areas of the country. For its products are sold in many cities around the world， including Beijing and Shanghai， Boutari is the only one enterprise that has the Chinese document in the whole exhibition center.

Greek Night

Greek Night was a large banquet for celebrating the successful closure of the meeting which was hosted in a famous hotel--Athenaeum intercontinental on December 1.

The aperitif wine in banquet was anisette. In fact， the Greek anisette is also famous in Europe. The Greek anisette appears to be transparent. However， if you add ice into it and then shake it， the anisette will become milky white. Its scene is very magical.

It is necessary to have red wine for dinners. It was a pity that I haven’t taken photos of the labels of the wine I drank that day. Generally speaking， the red wine was not complex， but with a strong hint of tannin. It belongs to upper level of red wines in Greece. Maybe because of different grapes breeds， the whole prices of red wines are higher in Greece than in other counties. Therefore， most of the guests in the banquet enjoyed white wine that day.

The highlight in the dinner was the performance. The sponsor did not arrange professional and special shows， but all belonged to spontaneous dance which revealed passionate character of Greeks.