Produced from the fruit of 80-year-old Assyrtiko vines, this wine is pale straw in colour. You can smell the volcanic soil in which the grapes were grown, giving it a minerally, smoky, melon nose; it’s medium-bodied with a crisply dry, crab apple flavour carried on lively acidity.
Gaia Thalassitis Assyrtiko, 2011, Santorini, Greece, $21.95. Vintages #315010
Post City Magazines’ wine columnist, Tony Aspler, has written 14 books on wine and food. Tony also created the Ontario Wine Awards and has been inducted into the New York Media Wine Writers’ Hall of Fame. He can be heard on 680News.