OENOLOGICAL NUANCES From "PYKNOS" to "YEODIS" The Greeks Had A Word For Them
IBy TULA LEWNESI
During a recent interview with Miles and the Cyclades); Mainland Greece; he also satisfied his voracious appetite Lambert-Gocs, author of "The Wines of Western Greece (The Ionian Islands for oenology by reading literature on Greece" - a comprehensive and fasci and Epirus); Macedonia; Thessaly; the subject during his ample leisure. On nating account of the multifarious Central Greece and Euboea; and the later visits to Greece he found that con wines, grape varieties, vineyards, pro Peloponnesos. temporary wine books did not reflect the actual circumstances of Greek wine, ducers and traditional wine-making The author's genuine interest in methods of Greece - his enthusiasm oenology was generated in his early so he set about preparing a text - which was a labor of love - to correct this not just for the wines, but for the his~ childhood by his Hungarian-born deficiency. It took more than a decade tory, land, people and food of Greece, grandfather, who made wine at home in for his efforts to culminate in this meri was truly infectious. Brooklyn, where Miles Lambert was torious work - so diligently prepared While browsing through this well born. At age 16, the latter voyaged to with such meticulous care - after visit researched reference book, I felt like an Greece where he became a retsina fan and ing Greek wineries; collecting and aging armchair traveler, as I traversed with Grecophile while visiting Athens and Greek wines; consulting a wide variety him the Aegean Islands (Samos and the staying with a taverna-keeping family in of written sources and resources over Eastern Sporades, Rhodes and the 1963. From 1969-1973, he served in the various periods, including numerous Dodecanese, Crete, Santorini, Paros Navy and taught himself modern Greek;
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SEPTEMBER, 1991 21 Greek language references; and compil cographer when he describes the ancient dark and harsh (afstira) wine and more ing his findings. Greeks' concept of wine. The lexicon in dry (xira) than others. Plato considered While contemporary Greek wine is the back has a transliteration key to aid the "afstiros" trait as a kind of rough the author's focus, it has been hardly in proper pronunciation and one mar (trakhys) and drying sensation, but one possible to avoid altogether Greece's vels at the chosen vocubulary and its less drying than the sensations called ancient past in wine and her sensory relation to the particular imagination of astringent (stryfnos) or bitter (pikros). language of oenology. Though Miles a language and the people who created From Plutarch it is known that acid was Lambert is an agricultural economist it. regarded as a major contributory com for the U.S. Department of Agriculture For example, "afstiros" meant the ponent of the "austere" sensation. - in whose employ he has been since antithesis of everything sweet. Accord In the late Middle Ages when the 1974 - and is currently with the For ing to Hippocrates, sweetness partici Greeks came under Venetian influence, eign Agricultural Service, with area of pated in wetness, which in wine was much of the vocabulary that described specialization: Eastern Europe and manifest mostly in "oily" texture. In his their wines disappeared as they adopted Greece, he emerges as a scholarly lexi- "Ancient Medicine," he mentioned that the Italian terminology. Before long, the term for rough and sharp wine - "brusco" or "brouskos", in Modern Greek, became the norm, in preference to their own authentic ancient term. "Anthosmia" (bouquet) referred to the flower smell of older wines. Now the word has been supplanted by the imported term "bouketo," particularly * REALTORS - Serving the community since 1972 among Greek oenophiles. If Greek * BUILDERS - New! Med./Prof. Suites available oenologists would use the term "anthos * N.Y. STATE REG. - MORTGAGE BROKERS mia" occasionally, they might perhaps ultimately rescue this ancient and indi genous word from disappearance. EXOVME OTI AKINHTO 0EAHI:ETE rIA rPHrOPH EEVnHPETHI:H Other descriptive characteristics of (718) 224-4800 wines are "apsitos" (unbaked, imma ture), "apeptos" (crude, uncooked, BOULEVARD PLAZA BUILDING immature, unripe), "aroma" (a smell 42-21 Francis Lewis Blvd, (Suite MIOO) arising from the earth as it was being for Bayside, New York, 11361 cultivation; in other words, an earthy smell), which eventually became "evos mia" (a good smell). "Yeodis" is another synonym for earthy. When a wine was "evarmostos" (well-joined or well articulated), it was harmonious or "armonikos. " In his "Enquiry into Plants," Theoph [)~G3(SQ)~~~ rastos uses the term, "drimys" (pungent, PACKING SHIPPING CO. acrid, sharp) to describe the smells of herbs (marjoram, savory, mustard and nArKOIMIA MET A
22 GREEK AMERICAN REVIEW (excellent, serious, important), "stron historian, and gourmet. One moment and was, therefore, designed to conform gylos" (round), "stryfnos" (astringent), you are on the windswept island of San with the EEC's system of appellative "synthetos" (complex), "trakhys" torini, where white wines called "Vol regulation. In coming years, other appe (rough), "tryferos" (mild, delicate, can" and "Lava" are produced by the lation zones will be added, and cur tender), "varys" (heavy), "xiros" (dry), Koutsouyanopoulos Brothers, and then rently legislation is being inaugurated and "xenologo" (an alternative name you find yourself in Crete where he tra and will most probably be enacted to for "malvasia/ malmsey") formerly used ces the essentials of systematic vinicul award "vin de pays" (country wine) or on Santorini as meaning "a foreign ture back to four millenia. "topikos oinos" status. sort" or "allofilon" (different breed), His love for gastronomy is reflected Once this is done and newer wines are recorded by Plutarch as something in the accurate pairing of regional introduced abroad, particularly in the "alien." dishes with local wines as he informs United States, their influx may cause the proliferation of mineral water to In antiquity each wine was prized you that the better wines are not decline. The novelty of their presence for its individuality. It was considered exported on an ongoing basis and that still fewer are ever distributed abroad may make Americans embrace them sacred and was preserved and protected like rising stars, and that will be the day as well as fully appreciated. The four outside Greek ethnic channels, thus remaining obscure. when the advocate of Greek wines is no cardinal wine colors were: "lefkos" longer a voice crying in the wilderness. (white), "kirros" (tawny), "erythros" Viniculture had persisted from antiq (red), and "melenas" (black). uity with considerable vigor through Miles Lambert-Gocs was bred in Washington, D.C. and now resides in Complementing the wine lexicon is a Byzantium up until the beginning ofthe Alexandria, Virginia. He holds a B.A. glossary of the prominent Greek grape five-century rule of the Ottoman degree in Political Science from Adel varieties and a very extensive biblio Empire (l4th-l9th century) when it seriously waned. After that, the Greek phi University and a Master of Interna graphy of the principal sources con tional Affairs degree from Columbia sulted. Besides, many interesting vineyards suffered from wars, disease, Univeristy. During his stint with the nuggets can be gleaned from the "Clas and emigration which left vast areas Economic Research Service of the U.S. sical Reflections" sections interspersed once covered by vines, virtually Department of Agriculture, he covered here and there. - abandoned. Greece for several years. As he glorifies the ancient and con Today, however, viniculture is thriv ing and the quality of wine has "The Wines of Greece" received an temporary vintners, Miles Lambert award from the Angelo Hellenic League wears many hats - acting as tour guide, improved substantially. A new plateau in modern Greek wine history was of London and was also a 1991 nominee reached in 1969 when appellation con for a James Beard Award. trols were introduced and wine The commendable efforts expended producing regions were given by the scholatly, clear-thinking author eWP'Y1o<; K.
Specializing in Travel to Greece and the Greek Islands
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SEPTEMBER, 1991 23