50 Great Greek Wines Goes Big in London
Two days, a hundred and fifty wines on the table, and a room of people who taste for a living.
Why we went
The British wine trade is a small number of people who decide what a great many others get to drink. You do not reach them from Kannaviou. You reach them by carrying the bottles to London and opening them.
“50 Great Greek Wines Goes Big in London” ran on 28 and 29 May 2024, under the auspices of the Greek National Tourism Organisation.
The masterclass
The first day was a masterclass at The Great Scotland Yard, led by Yiannis Karakasis MW and Stefan Neumann MS, with thirty people in the room — Masters of Wine, sommeliers, wine writers. A small room, deliberately.
The tasting
The second day was the trade walk-around at Moonchu Hall, China Exchange, in Soho. Thirty-three wineries from Greece and Cyprus, roughly 150 wines, and more than 150 buyers and professionals moving between the tables.
This is the unglamorous half and the half that matters. You pour the same wine two hundred times and answer the same four questions about Cyprus, and somewhere in there a handful of people write something down.
The dinner
The two days closed on the evening of the 29th with a dinner cooked by Niklas Ekstedt at Ekstedt at the Yard, with sommelier Klearchos Kanellakis on the pairings.
What came of it
Dimitris Fragakis, Secretary General of the GNTO, made the point that wine and food are not a sideshow to tourism but part of what the region is known for. Peter Richards MW, Lenka Sedlackova MW and Stefan Neumann MS all spoke well of the range on the table.
What we brought home is harder to photograph than a medal: a set of names who now know the valley exists, and who can place a Cypriot indigenous variety when they next see one on a list.
Back to the journal