Christina Boutari Explains Greek Wines

The Boutari family owns one of Greece’s oldest most respected wineries. It was founded in 1879 by Yannis Boutari and the family has shepherded the winery over five generations into the top tier of value wines in the world.

In fact, while Christina Boutari was in Austin recently, Wine and Spirits Magazine announced that the Boutari Winery was receiving the Winery of the Year Award. That in itself is something for the family to celebrate, but how about this: It was the sixteenth year in a row that Boutari won that award.

Christina was elegant and quite knowledgeable, and since Greek wines are still relatively unknown, it was a great experience to taste through some of her best. We tried five wines (they make dozens) and enjoyed how well they tasted with the cuisine at El Naranjo. Her Moschofilero ($17) was a delightful white quaffing wine that married up perfectly with the Mexican food. Their flagship in the world of white wines is Santorini ($23), an incredible bargain that is complex and probably should cost $50. Chalk the bargain up to the fact that the Boutari’s are trying to build a market in the U.S., so they are keeping their prices relatively low.

The classic grape, the Naousa ($18) was the main grape at the wineries founding and it’s still quite special. Their flagship red is the Grande Reserve ($27), a sturdy wine that, at eight years old still tasted brand new.

Christina was kind enough to sit for an interview and I hope you find this 12 minute discussion with her as fascinating as we did. By the way, the spelling for the grapes she mentions are: Moschofilero, Assyrtiko, Agiorgitiko, and Xinomavro.