Dining with an Assyrtiko
Assyrtiko packed with silky tree fruit and minerality is the ultimate food wine that would pair with many dishes, including the toughies such as cream sauces, shellfish and dry meats. It is perfect for grilled, roasted or fried fish, seafood and chicken. Barrel aged Assyrtiko and smoked salmon are excellent together. The wine also cuts through rich sauces. Another great match is lamb with avgolemono sauce. We had great fun pairing Assyrtiko with Indian food.
Dining with a Moschofilero
The crispy acidity and the intense aroma, make Moschofileros the perfect interlocutors of salads. They are a perfect match to seafood. Mussels, calamari and oysters, as well as fish with delicate aromas, are also good companions. They are a good match to white, fresh cheese. I would highly recommend a Moschofilero with zucchini salads, lobster-spaghetti, chicken with okra and veal with hollandaise sauce. Also note that these are wines insusceptible to aging, and are therefore better consumed when fresh.
Dining with a Malagousia
It is very easy to recognise the Malagousia wines. The sensational nose gives us clean flower and herb aromas, including citrus, lemon and peach. They have a relatively high alcoholic content, with a full, round and deliciously spicy taste matching perfectly the Mediterranean cuisine and, specifically, vegetables, oysters and fish.
Dining with a rosé
It is amazing how well Greek rosé wines go with the local cuisine, full with garlic and other aromatic herbs. For example, try a nice rosé with dishes accompanied by a garlic sauce (skordalia), or even with artichokes – notoriously wayward to wine. You will be impressed with the magic of the harmonious combination. They are also very well combined to sausages and pasta. Simply make sure you taste more zesty rosés with your starters, the milder ones with your fish and keep the richer ones for the poultry, red meat and oily casseroles.
Dining with a Xinomavro
Complex Xinomavro reds with firm tannins and lovely backbone of acidity are the ultimate food wines. Terrific with tomato-sauce stews, charcuterie, sausages, pork, roasted lamb, game casseroles and aged cheese. Cooked red meats with spicy sauces, savoury game from the Macedonian forests, traditional filo pies, meatballs locally named «boubaria» and cheese (such as the salty batzos) are some of the products accepting well the intensive character of this wine.
Dining with an Agiorgitiko
Agiorgitiko is a food friendly wine and there is a big range of foods that go very well with it. Taste chilled rosés made from Agiorgitiko with tuna, red mullet and seafood with tomato sauce. The fresh aromatic reds are perfect with grilled meats while the full-bodied ones compliment steaks, roast beef, spiced game and hard cheeses.
Dining with a sweet wine
If you prefer your sweet wine as an aperitif, choose a fresh Muscat with an explosive aromatic character. The other traditional place for a sweet wine is at the end of the meal, when it arrives at your table along with fruits and desserts. In this case, the aged Samos and Vinsanto are in order. If the dessert is chocolate, you should honour it with a Mavrodaphne. But did you know that sweet wines are also perfect companions to main dishes? You can try, if you are daring enough, a dried apricot-and-plum-stuffed chicken with a wine from Samos, or you can put duck with chestnut and orange sauce next to an aged Mavrodaphne. Perhaps you will find it easier to accompany certain cheeses such as Kopanisti or Mizithra, or even a cheese pie or a soufflé, with a Muscat of Lemnos.
Dining with Tsipouro
Tsipouro never is served alone. It is always accompanied by meze (small plates): olives, pickled vegetables, salted anchovy and fried small fish.
