Wine > Fikardos 2004 July 5, 2006
Posted by grhomeboy in Wine & Spirits.add a comment
Theodoros Fikardos harvested grapes for the first time in 1988 – there was just enough to fill up a barrel. His interest in wine making, though, grew year by year. Through the 90s Fikardos managed to become an established winemaker not only in Paphos and Cyprus but abroad as well. Wine connoisseurs from Finland especially enjoy his wines.
Theo believes that the essence of great wine lies in vineyard work. He starts from the year before his harvest, inspecting the vines to decide the quantity they can bear and thus how they should be pruned.
Everything has to be in balance to get ripeness. Harvest date is crucial. He works alone studying the art of winemaking – never afraid to admit his mistakes and learn from them. More importantly, he listens carefully to those with more experience. And he taste wines from other wine makers, other regions and other countries.
I remember 1996, when he ventured with Chardonnay, which was a big gamble. The result might have put many winemakers off trying again. But not Theo. After three years he managed after three years to produce quality Chardonnay worthy of this noble grape. This is Theo Fikardos, a winemaker who never gives up.
The winery is situated at Mesogi industrial area on Paphos’ outskirts and has a yearly output of 300,000 bottles. This output is made of twelve main brands of wine. In whites we have a successful blend of Xinisteri and Semillon grapes and the aforementioned Chardonnay. He also experimented with Riesling and Semillon varietals, but these were not available on the tasting.
Cabernet Sauvignon and Mataro are the two grape varieties used extensively by the winemaker in reds and rosés. His winery is one of the best on the island, equipped with the latest in winemaking technology. The investment in technology is an ongoing process. he has a passion for wine-tasting and objective evaluation. He is a consummate professional well-respected among his fellow professionals.
Tasting Notes
2003 Amalthia, Xinisteri-Semillon, Alcohol Volume 12%, Price £2.50
Theo realised Xinisteri might improve by blending. Therefore a few years ago he experimented by choosing one of the main white grape varieties of Bordeaux, that of Semillon. Harvest for this grape variety is as early as August, whereas for Xinisteri in early September. The vineyards are planted in Tsada and Stroumbi villages.
Youthful yellow-greenish colour, slightly effervescent, herbaceous green apple fruit, vegetal, lime and wild flowers appear on the nose and on the palate. Fresh still, high in acidity from the Semillon grape, the aftertaste cuts a bit short. Served between 6°C and 9°C try this wine with the green salads, tomato and feta cheese, asparagus as well as fried Mediterranean fish.
2003 Alkisti Chardonnay, Alcohol Volume 12%, Price £4.10
Chardonnay is found in Letymbou and Stroumbi villages and is harvested in early August. This is unoaked Chardonnay with a pale yellow and greenish colour. Fresh Chardonnay on the nose, with ripe yellow and white fruit and with compelling notes of citrus fruit and particularly that of pineapple. Lemons and grapefruit crowd the round intense and concentrated palate, with notes of chalky minerality. The high acidity sustains at the aftertaste. Serve at 10°C seafood cocktails are the perfect match to this wine along with asparagus, artichokes and salads with nut dressing.
2002 Xilogefiro, Chardonnay fume, Sur-lies, Alcohol Volume 11.5% Price £5.05
Harvested in mid August the Chardonnay grapes come from Stroumbi village and after gentle press and fermentation the juice is kept in oak barrels for nine month on their lies. Deep gold colour, a result of oak storage, discreet oak aromas are mingled with lemon, apple, melon and honey fruit to make a delicate yet complex nose. This is supported on the palate with grapefruit and green apples on the long finish. Interesting wine served at 11°C ideal for fish with rich sauces or roast veal with light cream sauce, cheese and grilled white fish like turbot and Dover sole. Ageing potential for two more years at least.
2003 Ayia Irini, Semillon-Xinister, Alcohol Volume 11.5% Price £2.50
A slight sweeter version that that of Amalthia with grapes from Stoumbi and Polemi villages. The Semillon is higher in volume than Xinisteri and is harvested in mid August, a bit late than the Semillon used for Amalthia, mainly for more concentrated sugar to add to this medium dry white. Yellow greenish colour, grassy, orange peel, herbaceous mixed with blossom aromas of white flowers on the nose. The palate is vibrant with mouthwatering acidity with a hint of sweetness - tropical and citrusy with a firm mineral structure. Try this at 6°C to 9°C with mild coconut curries.
2003 Katerina Xinisteri-Semillon, Alcohol Volume 11.5% Price £2.50
Grapes exclusively from Stroumbi – Semillon harvested at early August and Xinisteri in mid September. A touch more yellow than the Irini, candied lemons, warm honey, ripe white fruit on the palate - reminiscent of visits in fruit markets, the palate is mouth coating, powerful with grapefruit and beeswax, intense and lengthy finish. Try this with creamy curries and pork with rosemary and plums.
2003 Iocasti, Mataro, Alcohol Volume 14%, Price £2.50
Most of the rose wines that I personally like are made from red grapes. Mataro comes from Kallepia village and is harvested in late August. Pale ruby colour, this wine is clean fresh and fruity. Wild strawberries and raspberries on the nose, the palate is even more interesting soft structure on tannins, berries style with a slinky finish. Try this at 9°c with gammon ham, mixed meze particularly with grilled lamb chops.
2003 Valentina Cabernet Sauvignon and Mataro, Alcohol Volume 13.5% Price £2.85
Late August harvest from Stroumbi and Kallepia villages. Good combination of two red grape varieties to make a rose wine with medium body. Paler than the previous this is a medium sweet rose with intense scents of ripe berries, cherries and pink roses. Sweet fruit and soft structure on the palate, seductive black cherries and spice notes on a seductive finish. Roast duck with cherries, most sweet and sour oriental dishes and as an aperitif served at 9°C.
2002 Ravanti Mataro, Alcohol Volume 12.5% Price £2.50
Kallepia’s Mataro grape is the basis of the next two reds from Theo’s collection. Ravanti has a light ruby red with lifted sour cherries and forest floor undergrowth on the nose. The palate, fresh plums and raspberry fruit with undertones of spices, and a bit of leather. Good acidity, a bit restraint on tannins that affects the aftertaste. Served at 17°C, try this wine with barbecued meat particularly lamb.
2001 Achilleas, Selected Mataro, Alcohol Volume 13%. Price £3.15
Selected Mataro from a late August harvest from vineyards in Kallepia. Plumy red colour, with herb and spices hints and baked damson fruit on the nose. The palate develops into ripe succulent fruit, pepper overtones, leather and firmer tannins in the mouth. An herbaceous full-bodied blend wit reasonable length. Serve at 17°C will blend better with rich meat stews and roast turkey as well as barbecued meat.
2001 Cabernet Sauvignon, Alcohol Volume 12%, Price £4.40
Theo’s red wine collection continues now with a Cabernet Sauvignon varietal from Stroumbi and Polemi villages, harvested in mid August. This unoaked Cabernet has a ruby red colour; the Mediterranean climate and mineral rich soils encourages the ripe cassis and stony aromas of the wine. Leafy and intensely blackcurrant on the nose, round palate full textured and concentrated, it possesses a firm tannic grip, leathery with a good finish. Served at 17°C Cabernet’s ideal match is red meat particularly with rich mushroom or green pepper sauces.
2001 Leonardo Cabernet Sauvignon-Mataro, Alcohol Volume 14% Price £5.40
A blend of a Bordeaux and an Rhône type grapes, but harvested form Stroumbi and Kallepia respectively. Theo’s is using 50% American oak and 50% French oak, this wine is still young and musty, ink purple, with aromas of dried herbs and flavours of vanilla (the wine is kept in the barrels for 10 months), juicy redcurrants and cherries. The same characteristics on the palate, it has also has a pronounced tannic structure which encourages short to medium-term cellaring. Interesting combination, this is a vintage to review in the future. Served at 17°C other than red meats try also with cheese and char-grilled game.
2001 Leonardo Cabernet Sauvignon, Alcohol Volume 12% Price £5.50
A more typical claret form Stroumbi, robust, ripe cassis, blackcurrant fruit, mint, cedar, toast appear on the nose and gravely minerals, leather, pencil lead and ripe silky fruit on the palate. Medium-bodied another wine to be tested in the future, since it has the same ageing potential and food combination as with the other Leonardo.
Finally for all members of the wine club there will be three lucky winners at the end of May. The prize three bottles of Andessitis red from kindly offered by Kyperounda Winery.
Editor’s Note: Prices mentioned above are in Cyprus Pounds.
Now, a meal with 8,500 years old ingredients? July 5, 2006
Posted by grhomeboy in Archaeology, Culture History & Mythology, Food Greece.add a comment
A good meal is worth the wait. But what if you’re served up with a bowl of acorns, peas and flat bread. Oh, and lentils?
Archaeologists sat down to taste recipes based on ingredients eaten as long as 8,500 years ago in northern Greece - distant millennia before tomatoes, oranges and tobacco appeared to become undisputed Greek favorites.
The cook-up was held late on Friday at an annual archaeology conference, where researchers presented evidence of ancient and late prehistoric diets, gleaned from chemical analysis of skeletal remains and storage pots.
“The main items on the menu included berries, grains and pulses - especially lentils - and also acorns, grapes and a type of vegetable oil,” Soultana-Maria Valamoti, a lecturer at the University of Thessaloniki’s Department of Archaeology, said.
“This data comes from analysis of plant material, human remains and vessels from the Neolithic and Bronze Age eras.” Valamoti, a researcher in archaeobotany, the study of ancient plant life, said that by far the most commonly found food was the lentil, the hardy oval-shaped pulse still widely used - but hardly considered a specialty - in Mediterranean countries and across the Middle East.
Ancient Greek cooking has enjoyed renewed interest here in recent years, following the publication of studies and cookbooks on what is billed as the original Mediterranean diet.
Two restaurants serving dishes inspired from inscriptions as old as 2,500 years do a busy trade in Athens today.
But Friday’s feast comes from before the age of wine and beer. No distinctively Greek yoghurt and honey either.
About 150 people attended Friday’s buffet dinner, tucking into colorless bulgur wheat salads and pasted pulses.
Dishes were displayed on two benches, beside clay bowls filled with acorns and grains for the more bold to nibble on. Event organizers said recipes were based on the ancient ingredients, but acknowledged that some of the dishes had been “enhanced” with more contemporary ingredients. They did not give any details - though traces of tomato were spotted. “The food tasted pretty good,” said Tella, a Greek archaeology student, who did not want to give her last name and looked slightly surprised at the result.
“They managed to use prehistoric ingredients and prepare them using Greek traditional recipes.”
War made a mockery of democracy in Greece July 5, 2006
Posted by grhomeboy in Culture History & Mythology.add a comment
Wondering if democracies of the past ever fared any better during wartime than ours is doing today, I started thumbing through my old college copy of Thucydides’ history of the Peloponnesian War that occurred in the latter part of the fifth century B.C. While the war between Athens and Sparta lasted 27 years, Thucydides’ account is only of a 20-year period.
The takeover of Athens’ democratic assembly by a repressive elite called The Four Hundred that followed the disastrous failure of Athens’ invasion of Sicily comes as the climax of Thucydides’ book. While this suspension of democracy did not last even a single year, it signaled that representative government in war-wracked Athens was on thin ice, which proved to be the case seven years later when Athens’ conquest by Sparta resulted in installation of a ruthless dictatorship known as The Thirty, in 404 B.C.
Thucydides shows that the world’s first democracy, the Greek city-state of Athens, simply unraveled, both as a world power and internally, during an extended period of warfare against a succession of Mediterranean neighbors, all the while becoming a society in which citizens feared to raise a dissenting call for peace. During the 160-year heyday of ancient Greece from 498 to 338 B.C. the city of Athens was at war for two out of every three years. War was considered the natural order of things.
According to historian Thucydides, what seemed like sanity and patriotism back then was to give blind, unthinking support to battles in which navies with 100 or more ships apiece would simply ram each other, then their crewmen board each other’s vessels to engage in hand-to-hand battles with knives, spears, and battle axes in the same way as land armies.
The purpose of all this warmaking was simple: to seize neighboring cities, plunder their citizens’ stores of food, resources, treasuries, and personal possessions, and put surviving citizens to work for the conquering country.
In vain, one of the Athenian generals, named Nicias, pleaded with his countrymen to hold back from what he thought was the idiotic course they seemed determined to pursue in waging war on two fronts, Syracuse and the rest of Sicily, at the same time. He warned that the Athenians would find themselves outnumbered and trapped in a land far away from home and that Sicily posed absolutely no military danger to Athens. He pleaded for the planned war against Sicily to be put to a vote of the citizens, “to allow the Athenians to debate the matter once again.”
But then as now, the momentum for war was impossible to stop, and ultimately Nicias himself lost his life, killed after being taken prisoner in what turned out to be a hideous and total defeat for the Athenians. One of the Athenian generals, Alcibiades, defects to the Sicilian side and reveals to them that the Athenians had a master plan to conquer literally the whole of the Mediterranean world. An enormous alliance against the attacking Athenians is formed, and the Athenians, overextended just as Nicias predicted, are totally humiliated.
It’s hard to read the words of Thucydides, himself a former Athenian general who had been exiled from the city as punishment for a battle lost, without suspecting that his motive in writing his history was to hold the defeat of his countrymen up to their face and say “I told you so!” He makes sure you see the irony that the defeated Athenians had once embarked on their mission in “splendour and pride” and that “they had set out to enslave others, but now they were going away frightened of being enslaved themselves.”
This is how Thucydides described the war’s chilling effect on the democratic freedoms of Athenians who suffered ridicule and intimidation if they tried to use the language of common sense against their fellow-Athenians’ delusion of invincibility as they marched to a war that was to bring them doom:
“To think of the future and wait was merely another way of saying one was a coward; any idea of moderation was just an attempt to disguise one’s unmanly character; ability to understand a question from all sides meant that one was totally unfitted for action. Fanatical enthusiasm was the mark of a real man, … Anyone who held violent opinions could always be trusted, and anyone who objected to them became a suspect. … As a result … there was a general deterioration of character throughout the Greek world. The plain way of looking at things, which is so much the mark of a noble nature, was regarded as a ridiculous quality and soon ceased to exist. Society became divided into camps in which no man trusted his fellow.”
Cypriots took wine to the world > I July 5, 2006
Posted by grhomeboy in Archaeology Cyprus.add a comment
The ancient Greeks took wine to the masses, the Romans to the world. But it was the innovation of Cypriots that showed them how, say archaeologists.
Italian experts claim to have unearthed evidence suggesting not only did Cyprus introduce clay drinking goblets and wine jars for transportation further afield, but it had at least a 1,500 year head start on any of its Mediterranean cousins on the art of making wine.
“It’s an amazing discovery,” says research head Maria Rosaria Belgiorno.
“The most ancient wine seems to have been found in a 5,000-5,500 BC vase in Ajjii Firuz Tepe in Iran but in the Mediterranean, the earliest examples of wine-making have been in Cyprus.”
With a tradition steeped in history, the quality of the “honey flavoured” Cypriot wines was praised by the ancient Greek poet Homer, and, subject however to some scholarly debate, by King Solomon.
Historians say Commandaria, a sweet dessert wine introduced to Europe by the Crusaders, has been made on the island since at least 1,000 BC. In fact, Richard the Lionhearted, on his return from the crusades, he held his wedding at the Kolossi castle (near Limassol, Cyprus) and according to the tradition, he offered Commandaria wine to his guests. It is thought to be the world’s oldest wine still in production.
LAB BREAKTHROUGH > Belgiorno, of the Italian Institute of Technologies Applied to Cultural Heritage, said testing on pottery fragments showed winemaking was thriving up to 5,500 years ago. The earliest examples of winemaking discovered in the Greek island of Crete are about 3,600 years old.
“We discovered remains of tartaric acid, a key component of wine,” she said.
The pottery fragments, found at the wine-producing region of Erimi some 100 km southwest of the Cypriot capital Nicosia, are the oldest evidence available of “nipple base” storage jars used throughout the ancient world for transporting wine. They have a narrow mouth, wide body and taper off at the bottom, designed on earlier goat skin sacks used to carry wine.
Such jars bear an uncanny resemblance to storage containers found on later Egyptian hieroglyphs.
“The same vases were adopted by the Egyptians, and portrayed together with their system to make wine,” said Belgiorno.
With their expertise in pottery, Cypriots also created drinking containers, modelled on cattle horns which was believed to be the first “glass”.
“The tradition of re-making the cattle horn in clay started in Cyprus,” she said.
Lauded as a gift of the Gods, a must-have by Egyptians on their spiritual journey to the afterworld and just plain good for you by modern-day science, wine had humble beginnings.
An ancient Persian legend speaks of a princess, who having lost favour with the king, attempted to poison herself by eating spoiled table grapes. She became intoxicated instead.
“It was certainly after grapes were accidentally left to ferment,” says Belgiorno. “How it became a product is a completely different story.”
Archaeologists have also discovered a representation of wine production on Cypriot pottery which is 4,000 years old.
“This is unique worldwide,” said Pavlos Flourentzos, Director of the Cyprus Antiquities Department.
Flourentzos said the type of wine was impossible to determine, but it was probably a full-bodied red rather than a white, and unpalatable by today’s standards.
“The wine they drank then was different. It was thick and extremely potent, so had to be diluted in water,” Flourentzos said.
Some in ancient Greek mythology believed wine could bring people to an elevated state of consciousness. But ancient Cypriots left another testament to at least one effect of over-imbibing.
Ancient Roman mosaics in the House of Dionysus, the mythological Greek God of wine and mischief, gives a display of Cyprus’s “First Wine Drinkers” from the second century AD in the western region of Paphos. One of the men is slumped on the floor, thought to be drunk.
Cyprus Produced First Mediterranean Wine July 5, 2006
Posted by grhomeboy in Archaeology Cyprus.add a comment
The Mediterranean’s first wine was made in Cyprus some 5,500 years ago, according to Italian archaeologists who unearthed evidence that predates winemaking by ancient Greeks by at least 1,500 years.
Digging in Pyrgos, in southern Cyprus, Maria Rosaria Belgiorno, of the Italian Institute of Technologies Applied to Cultural Heritage, found two jugs used for wine that date back to the fourth millennium B.C.
“Inside, we even found the seeds of the grapes. Their size shows clearly that they are from cultivated grapes,” Belgiorno said.
Further evidence came from analysis on jars from the same period kept at the Archaeological Museum in the Cypriot capital of Nicosia.
Coming from archaeological work in the settlement of Erimi, some 62 miles southwest of Nicosia, the vases were found by Cypriot archaeologist Porphyrios Dikaios in the early 1930s, and then spent the next several decades in storage.
“They were still earth-covered, as they were just dug up and placed in the boxes,” Belgiorno said.
Researchers examined chemical signatures in 18 of the Erimi jars. A dozen showed traces of tartaric acid, a key component of wine, proving, according to Belgiorno, that the 5,500-year-old vases were used for wine. With a narrow mouth, a wide body and a pointed “nipple base,” the jars, which could hold 22 to 25 litres (six to seven gallons) of wine, are the oldest of their kind.
“Interestingly, their shape is very similar to the Roman amphora transport vase. These Cypriot jars were very handy to carry wine. To invent such vases, great experience is needed, which means that on the island wine making and wine storage was already established some centuries before these vases were produced,” Belgiorno said.
According to the archaeologist, the jars probably contained a full-bodied red. Very sweet and thick, it was likely diluted with water.
The earliest evidence of wine was found in a 5000 to 5500 B.C. vase from Hajji Firuz Tepe in the Zagros Mountains of Iran.
However, Cyprus still produces the world’s oldest wine, Commandaria. According to historians, this sweet dessert wine has been made on the island since at least 1000 B.C.
Pavlos Flourentzos, Director of the Cyprus Antiquities Department, said that Belgiorno’s findings are very interesting and promising because they indicate that Cyprus was the site of an advanced civilization before the Greeks.
“I’m sure new important discoveries will be made in the near future at the sites where her team is working,” he told a news conference in Nicosia.
Indeed, digging at the Pyrgos-Mavroraki site near Nicosia, Belgiorno discovered in March the world’s oldest known perfumery, with fragrances produced and exported some 4,000 years ago.
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Flints give Cyprus oldest seafaring link in Med July 5, 2006
Posted by grhomeboy in Archaeology Cyprus.add a comment
Archaeologists have discovered what they believe is the earliest evidence yet of long distance seafaring in the eastern Mediterranean, undermining beliefs that ancient mariners never ventured into open seas.
Fragments of stone implements believed to be up to 12,000 years old have been found at two sites of Cyprus, suggesting roving mariners used the areas as temporary camp sites after forays from what is today Syria and Turkey.
The flints are unlike anything found in the geological make-up of Cyprus, and more than 1,000 years older than the timing of the first permanent settlers to the island.
The discovery adds to a body of evidence contradicting the widespread belief that ancient mariners would never venture out of sight of land or had limited navigational capabilities.
“If this is verified this would be the earliest evidence of seafaring in the East Mediterranean,” said Pavlos Flourentzos, Director of Cyprus’s Department of Antiquities.
Cyprus, lying at least 30 miles away from any other land mass, was not settled by man 12,000 years ago, but there is evidence it was populated by pygmy elephants and hippopotamuses. Its earliest inhabitants, dated from the 9th millennium BC, are believed to be from the land mass which now rings it north and east.
Flint fragments were found at sites on the southeast and the west of the island by Albert J. Ammerman, an archaeologist at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York.
The site on the southeast is a hilly outcrop overlooking Nissi Beach, one of the most popular beaches on the island.
“Its a rock where they now do bungee jumping,” Flourentzos said. “Ammerman was with his children on this particular beach when he found the fragments.”
The disclosures were contained in an archaeological paper Ammerman released at a conference in Philadelphia in the United States in mid-November.
“They have yielded good evidence for the earliest voyaging in the Mediterranean and for the increased mobility of people at the end of the ice age and the beginning of agriculture,” Ammerman was quoted as saying in a recent edition of the New York Times.
Archaeologists on the uninhabited July 5, 2006
Posted by grhomeboy in Archaeology.add a comment
Archaeologists on the uninhabited islet of Despotiko near the Cycladic island of Antiparos have uncovered the remnants of ancient dwellings dating back to the Archaic era, which they described as ‘exceptional.’
The Culture Ministry said that fragments of kouroi statues and pillars, dating from 750 to 500 BC, have been found at the site, which has been operating since May.
See related picture at our Flickr Photo Album.
grhomeboy
