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| Navigate "OENOPHILE": |
| Issue #97 (September/ October 2009) > OENOPHILE |
Master of the vine |
| By Fotios Stamos |
| Konstantinos Lazarakis has the honor of being Greece’s only Master of Wine, a qualification and title conferred by the Institute of Masters of Wine as part of their aim to promote excellence in the wine trade. Fotios Stamos, Odyssey’s resident sommelier, spoke with Lazarakis about Greek wines and trends in the wine industry. |
| Acidity. Aftertaste. Backbone. Bouquet. We find it quite fascinating when we listen to individuals describe what they are experiencing when tasting wine. The terminology and vocabulary are quite entertaining as tasters try to explain the characteristics of each wine. On that note, there are a limited amount of individuals worldwide that can actually take it a step further with skills that include distinguishing the actual grape variety, soil composition, geographical region, and winemaking methods–all by merely sipping the wine. Those individuals are Masters of Wine who have gone through years of extensive training and have acquired an enormous amount of knowledge through rigorous examinations. There are roughly 300 individuals in the world who have achieved the title of Master of Wine. In Greece, there is one: Konstantinos Lazarakis. As proud that we are for this amazing accomplishment for Lazarakis, it is also fascinating to know that one of the world’s oldest wine cultures has a representative from the notable society, Masters of Wine. Aside from being a Master of Wine, Lazarakis is also a wine educator, wine journalist, author, and wine consultant based in Piraeus, Greece. He is the first and thus far the only Greek to achieve this prestigious qualification. He also been awarded the Villa Maria Award for his paper on viticulture, the Madame Bollinger Medal for excellence in the wine tasting exam, and the Quinta do Noval Award for being the MW communicator for the year 2006. As a mechanical engineer and jazz musician, Lazarakis’s passion for wine didn’t really set off until 1994 when he began working as a sommelier for Bajazzo in Athens, the first restaurant in Greece to be awarded a Michelin star. From there he decided to move to London, where he worked for the Oddbins retail chain for Sir Terrance Conran Restaurants. Currently, Lazarakis owns Wine and Spirits Professional Consultants, an educational organization in Athens that runs the trade qualifications of the London–based wine and spirits education trust. He also works as the wine buyer and imports manager for Aiolos Ltd in Athens, which he widely consults for wineries, regional associations, wine distributors as well as the Hellenic Export organization. Lazarakis is also the author of The Wines of Greece. It is evident that Lazarakis has had an exciting journey through the world of wine since his passion began. I was able to get him to answer the following questions and get his perspective on today’s changing wine culture in Greece. Lazarakis says his passion for wine first emerged in his early twenties. “My father was a chef; he was not particularly knowledgeable about wine, but I grew up with a certain culture about anything related to taste. Then, at some point, I started feeling totally captivated by wine. I could even browse the supermarket’s wine section for hours! I just wanted to learn more things about wine and, in due course, I realized I had a talent for this.” Greece, where wine-making has ancient roots, shares many of the same conditions, known collectively as terroir, for growing vines as other wine-producing regions. Lazarakis notes, however, that it differs in one important way. “It really depends on how you define terroir,” he says. “If you think that terroir is the weather, the soil, the climate, the topography, etc. then I guess that Greece is not that different or unique from other wine-producing areas in southern France, southern Italy, or Spain, for example. Having said that, many Greek appellations couldn’t be further from the ‘ideal holiday weather’ prototype that most people have in mind. On the other hand, if you include people in your definition, then Greek wine becomes as unique as the Greek temperament–full of life, multifaceted, difficult to put in words but extremely charming right from the start.” While Greek wines have only begun to make a splash on the global market in recent years, the industry does have an advantage, according to Lazarakis. “Greeks never drink a glass of wine without some nibbles on the side and the never sit down to have a meal (yes, they sit down to have a meal!) without a glass of wine. So, Greeks judge wine quality in terms of food friendliness, refreshment and sheer drinkability. In a world where many people move away from blockbuster wines that are a meal themselves, saturating you on the second sip, this is a huge advantage. Another key point is alcohol levels. In the twenty-first century, so far, you have to struggle to get a wine below 14% alcohol. Even in places like Bordeaux you start nowadays from 13.5% onwards, while most wines from the region were on 12% or even 11% some decades ago. Please do not blame global warming for that since Bordeaux should had Andalusia’s climate to account for that degree of change! Greeks, going back to the drinkability issue, focused on lower alcohol levels for centuries, using natural (not technical) solutions, like cooler sites or the correct grape varieties.” But the industry also faces many disadvantages which Greek wine producers have been working, in some cases successfully, to overcome. The biggest disadvantage, says Lazarakis, is “lack of image” as this was “totally destroyed by the dominance of cheap, low quality retsina in the 1960s and the 1970s.” Another disadvantage is “lack of communication and marketing skills because most companies are small, family-owned and having an artisan philosophy towards making and trading wine. High costs and lack of economies of scale, making specific parts of the global wine market inaccessible–supermarkets in northern Europe for example. Finally, Greek wine has a very strong following at home. Greeks drink a lot of wine and only two per cent of it is imported. So, most Greek wine producers try to export because they want to, not because they have to. I go to some Greek producers’ stands in Prowein, the biggest wine exhibition in Germany, and I say ‘look, I do not think you could sell in Germany with this packaging’. They usually reply ‘hey, I sell a million of these bottles back home! Why should I care?’” Nonetheless, Greek winemakers have managed to make some important inroads into the international market, slowly changing the image and reputation of Greek wines. “I believe that the well-traveled, knowledge-junkies wine professionals (journalists, buyers, sommeliers) are well aware that Greece produces some of the finest and most individual wines in the world,” says Lazarakis. “The more snobbish, old-school wine people are not there, but I am sure they will be at some point, since feeling out of date is never great. However, the crucial point is convincing the people that support this industry, that is. the wine drinkers. This will take a bit of time and a lot of effort on our behalf. I do not want to see Greek wine becoming a ‘wine professionals’ wine’, just like the wines of Gravner or Viret.” Improvements, especially in marketing, over the last decade have helped change the image and position of Greek wines. Of these, Lazarakis says one of the most important has been the entry into the Greek wine industry of people with studies and experience abroad, who he says have brought “a lot of fresh air” into Greek wine-making. “People moving away from the French grape varieties and moving closer to indigenous, sometimes extremely rare grapes. Just look what is happening to Malagousia. We also ended the ‘cult of the winemaker’ phase, understanding more about the potential that can be unlocked in the vineyard. Finally, more producers are now willing to pay attention to the market needs, rather than creating wines for their own satisfaction.” Surveying the entire field of Greek wines, Lazarakis sees several ‘rising stars’ in the Greek wine industry who are making their mark on the market, domestic and global. “The whole place is full of excitement. The big guys, like Boutaris and Tsantalis, never stop producing world-class, value-for-money wines. The Young Turks of the 1990s, like Gerovassiliou, Tselepos, Antonopoulos, Skouras, Mercouri, Gaia, Sigalas, Kyr-Yiannis, and many others are reaching a very serious stage of maturity and their wines show this. Beneath these names we also see an increasing number of small estates, from either seasoned professionals of newcomers, which produce fascinating wines like Pavlidis, Pyrgakis, Avantis, Hatzidakis, Dougos. Greek wine is definitely a segment to watch in the global wine scene.” |
