Hatzidakis Aidani 2016
While probably half the wines I buy in Greece invariably end up being Assyrtiko, or Assyrtiko-lead blends, I am always on the lookout for new (to me) grapes. Last year at a wine festival in Athens I tasted a 100% Athiri. Could I find it anywhere to buy? No of course not. Not on that or any subsequent trip. I did, however, get my hands on another grape often blended with Assyrtiko, Aidani.
Aidani
One of Greece’s many indigenous white grapes, Aidani grows mainly in the Greek islands, particularly the Cyclades and Rhodes. Finding it on its own is a rarity. Most often, Aidani gets blended with Assyrtiko as part of a white blend called Brousko. Although my experience says that you’ll seldom see Brousko on a bottle as labels usually just display the grape names.
The rare varietal Aidani wines indicate that the grape gives wines with floral and tropical fruit aromas and accompanied with some herbal and mineral notes. The latter particularly when grown on Santorini. They are medium-bodied with relatively high acidity. That same high acidity makes Aidani particularly appropriate for sweet wine production. Indeed winemakers do use it to make Greece’s famed sweet wine, Vinsanto.
Hatzidakis Aidani, 2016
Producing it under the PGI Cyclades, Hatzidakis Winery, or Οινοποιείο Χατζηδάκη as we would say in my Greek class, makes one of the rare varietal Aidani wines. I’d not had a 100% Aidani before I got this bad boy home. What I found in the bottle came as a bit of a shock. Made from organic grapes and fermented with native yeasts before six months of sur lie ageing, after a mere 12 hours of skin contact, this poured nearly amber.
Floral and savory on the nose with white flowers, tobacco flowers, citrus peel, sweet tobacco, and tarragon underlined by raw hazelnut. On the palate the wine presented dry and full-bodied with 14% abv. Intense blood orange peel with a dash of bright grapefruit, tarragon, and popcorn flavors framed by fresh, effervescent acidity. A nutty streak along with musky flowers lingered on a medium finish.
In the end I can’t truly say I exactly enjoyed the wine. I found it very interesting though.