Saturday, June 6, 2015

Athens Wine Bar "Heteroclito" - Double OPA!

‎Preparing for my trip to Greece, I revisited a Wine Spectator article on Greek wines and was reminded that Marie-Madeleine Lorantsos -- mother Greek, father French --  opened a wine bar in 2012 to showcase Greek varietals/wines. So Heteroclito ("heterogeneous") landed atop my current Athens Bucket List, especially since it's a stone's throw from Constitution Square at Petraki 30.  

I was not disappointed...except that it was nearly impossible to find a spot to sit. Heteroclito is a very popular place these days, with well-chosen wines and a a few tapas choices also by Greek producers. The wine-by-the-glass menu -- sparkling, white, rose, red, and dessert wine choices -- changes monthly and other great Greek wines‎ are always available by the bottle. Does it get any better than that?

Four of us had a total of 10 glasses plus 3 tapas plates for 45EU. All were expertly presented. My favorite was Dourakis "Kudos" 2010, a carignan from Chania, Crete, at 4EU a glass. The red Domaine Arvanitidis Xinomavro Thessalonikis 2012 at 5EU a glass was a close second. At the end of the evening, I tried Callecounis ROOTS  (The Finest Sweet Liquor for the Soul) at 4.50EU a glass -- a "handcrafted with passion" herb spirit from Kalamata made of Cretan diktamo, vanilla pod, licorice root, and extract of nutmeg‎...and very special!

If you really want to learn more about Greek wines -- and there are some very fine ones these days! -- without traipsing all over Greece, the unique and stylish Heteroclito is the place to visit. More than once. Double OPA!

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone on the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE network.