Cuvée 15 is a unique organic wine from Santorini clearly included in the choir of the legendary Hatzidakis winery along with Mylos and Louros.
| Style: | Dry white wine |
| Variety: | 100% Αssyrtiko |
| Harvest: | 2016 |
| ABV: | 14% |
| PDO: | Santorini |
Santorini vineyard: the wine beasts of Thira
For the first time we read the name of the island on the Mycenaean plates of Linear B, with syllables that nowadays are recorded as Qe-Ra.
It is the same syllabary that the almost mythical Palamides chose to become our theta, so every time we write about the island, we make similar moves to those Mycenaean scribes nearly 4 millennia ago.
Every time we drink the wine of Santorini, we probably go even further back in time.
The word we find on the signs is Thirassios, as we say Thirassian wine, or better as Theophrastus described the famous Santorini sweet wine a millennium after the Mycenaeans. He didn’t know the word vinsanto apparently.
Despite what is said and written about Greek wines, Thira is one of those magical places, where the wine tradition – and indeed with wines of high quality and international level – has hardly ever stopped. I say almost because Santorini is the volcano and the volcano is Santorini.
When Enceladus wakes up, as in the explosion of the 2nd millennium BC, the ash covers everything. At other times, it is the earthquake that more or less interrupts human activity, and therefore also viticulture.
As the story goes, when Enceladus woke up again with a 7.5 Richter earthquake in 1956, many people fled for the safety of the mainland and primarily to its large port, Piraeus.
Some forty years later, a girl would return and point out her family’s rather abandoned vineyards to her young Cretan husband.
Just like that, with Konstantina Chryssou, who was the girl in the story, and Haridimos Hatzidakis, who was the Cretan husband, the legend of Hatzidakis winery was born, within the myth that is Thera.
A myth within a myth
I will not talk much about the wine beasts that Thera now produces. These are more or less intimate to wine enthusiasts.
Nor will I relate much about Assyrtiko, which in the island’s dry, self-rooted vines transforms the unyielding, this legendary moisture that the sea gives off and crowns the island and its vines like a crescent moon, into this deep-laid liquid we refer to wine.
But I will say a few words about my favorite Cuvée 15.
Somewhere between “plain” Santorini and the heavyweights of Hatzidakis winery, Mylos and Louros, Haridimos made this wonderful label.
I first encountered Cuvée 15 at Fabrica de Vino and I clearly remember my query as to how it is possible for a wine that produces such quality and emotion to have such a good value for money.
It was love at first sip.
Cuvée 15 is a wine made from organic grapes – and how important this is for an island where glyphosate is still used ruthlessly and recklessly – fermented with native yeasts.
Aging in stainless steel tanks, with noble lees for six months. It was bottled unfiltered, by hand, and that hand stands out, as in all important works of art.
Looking through the glass…
Cuvée 15 has a golden yellow color with some iridescent highlights.
The nose is evolving with a multi-layered variety of aromas. You can spin the glass with your eyes closed and let your mind meander for hours.
Flowers dominate, but no longer young, remind a bit of chamomile or maybe ripe honeysuckle, from what we sip the nectar dated back in our childhood the recollection of the volcano and of course the alcohol.
Clear notes of nuts.
In the mouth rich and impressive, ripe texture with depth, with the acidity spectacularly present, but rounded.
Aftertaste long, intense and complex, distinctly mineral, with delicious salty notes.
Tips for Food & Wine pairing
Ideal for shellfish, big fish and cheeses.
I can’t get out of my head the combination with grilled lobster, as they make it in Skyros, which I dare say highlights the umami potential of its flesh.
I’m thinking of trying Cuvée 15 with grilled scorpionfish which I find most easily in Souniada and it’s the closest to lobster flavor I know to see if it will have the same effect.
Wine aficionado: Kosmas Theodorides
English (UK) 
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