Paleokerisio
Traditional Semi-sparkling Orange Wine
Ioannina
2018
Domaine Glinavos S.A.
Zitsa, Ioannina, Greece
What a beautiful weekend! (May 2-3) My lovely friend Claudio, even while social distancing, introduced me to Paleokerisio. This is quite a welcome surprise, and means I’m now traveling to Greece.
The color is bright orange w tiny bubbles. Breathe in and there’s orange peel, cloves, dried apricots, pine, and hoppy beer. The taste is an explosion! There’s honey, cloves, orange peel, maybe orange blossoms and oddly orange jolly rancher, pine, and here comes that beer taste again. Tingle tingle. Am I going insane?
Pairs with Cheez-Its: brings out more of the tang and bubble zing, and the beer feel.
I love this wine because it hits so many different notes. It’s sweet, semi-dry, tingly, it’s heavenly, and a little bit like a beer
Domaine Glinavos has quite a history (which is beautifully documented on their site). Lefteris Glinavos had a passion for wine, and left Greece to study in Bordeaux and hone his craft. Upon return to Zitsa, he kicked off Domaine Glinavos bringing in modern methods yet sticking with the local native grapes. His son is now at the helm and continues this same passion and creativity. According to the site, they are still dedicated to the native grapes such as vlahiko, bekari, and debina; and they are now also including many other grapes such as malagouzia, cabernet sauvignon, merlot of Epirus, traminer, and sauvignon blanc. They also make three different types of tsipouro, which honestly I had never heard of before. From what I’m finding it is an un-aged brandy, and their award winning Tsipouro Asimenia Limni, received the bronze medal in 2019, and the silver in 2017 from the Thessaloniki International Wine and Spirits Competition. Someday, I’m going to have to get my hands on a bottle.
So starting to look into Ioannina. Wow, what a beautiful land. The Perama Caves are other worldly. From what I read they go 5 kilometers down, but only 1 km has been explored. Would love to go on a tour and see their collections of fossils, which one is a “rare cave bear”. Can’t find out more about the bear, but am curious as to what makes it rare. The images, I’m finding conjure up images from the book “The Devil’s Cave” by my favorite author Martin Walker. If you haven’t heard of him, check him out. His books will help you travel in your head. Back to Ioannina…every google comes up with incredibly beautiful images. Then there’s Lake Pamvotida which has the only inhabited island in Greece that doesn’t have a name. From what I’m finding the lake also sounds like great place for birding. There’s so many other natural sights, architectural wonders, artwork, and more, but the moment I saw a page about Pavlos Vrellis Museum of Wax Effigies, I was immediately intrigued. It’s a private institution that chronicles the local history of Epirus, all the way back to 500 B.C. The figures are said to be life-size, so I wonder how big this space must be. Info and great pics click here. It’s really cool and yet creepy doll at the same time. I can’t wait till we can all mingle again, and I can experience all of this in person!
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