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Wine Dimensions November 2006

Dear Friends of Monolithos,

This month's newsletter aims at providing you with wine tips and information for the Festive Season.

In the cloudy, cold winter months, the arrival of the warm festive season offers the opportunity for a break with celebrations, excitement and fun. However, no celebrations are complete without good food and excellent wine. The right selection of wine greatly assists in getting you into the right mood!

Food and wine matching is all about choosing complementary flavours and tastes. The art of pairing wine with food is largely a matter of personal preference. As a rough guide, red wines go with red meat, and white wines are served with fish or white meat. Of course, what you're looking to match isn't the colour - after all, you can't taste colour. You really have to be looking at the flavour. An alternative method is to select the wine first and then choose dishes to match. Yet another popular practice calls for people to place more importance on matching the wine to the person. In other words, find out what sort of wine your guests like to drink and serve them that.

The big question is, should you choose one wine to carry you through the appetizers to the desserts, or should you choose several wines to accent different components of the meal and cater to a variety of guests' palates? It is true that some wines will go with a multitude of dishes with equal effect, however, very rarely will a single wine match every dish of a three-course meal, so it's becoming increasingly popular to serve a different wine with each course.

Here are a few rules of thumb when having more than one wine with dinner:

Serve young wines before old - older wines are more robust than young wines
Serve white wines before red - whites are usually more delicate
Serve light-bodied wines before full-bodied ones - light bodied wines are more subtle
Serve dry wines before sweet - a dry wine following a sweet one will taste sour by comparison

A few guidelines

We hope that you will find the following guidelines for choosing wines for parties helpful and informative:

When meals consist of many strong-flavoured dishes, the best approach is to offer both red and white options that are drinkable and food-friendly.
Typically, wines with a medium body and low tannin levels, but also offering sufficient complexity, are better suited to the vast array of flavours they are meant to complement. Ayios Stephanos Red and Ayios Stephanos White wines are ideal matches for a variety of dishes.
When red meat is on the menu, whether it is roast beef or a brisket, you can go for a bigger, more intense red. Popular choices always include Cabernet Sauvignon. If you are looking to turn up the complexity meter, then go with a great Monolithos Cabernet Sauvignon.
In general, white wines accentuate lighter dishes really well, whilst red wines better complement heartier meals. For those who may not be accustomed to heavier-bodied, heartier wines, give them a break - offer the softer Monolithos Rose.
Sparkling wine is an essential for the festive season. Sort your fizz out now and you'll be prepared for a great Christmas and New Year. Sparkling wines are a must for toasts, and an ideal way to loosen up your guests when welcoming them to the party. A glass of bubbly is both festive-feeling and light on the palate, making it an uplifting match for salty hams or roasts, sweet and rich side dishes. In addition, sparkling wine works well with a cheeseboard and a whole array of flavours and textures. Desserts/puddings will vary greatly in sweetness and flavour, and can also be paired with sparkling wine. We highly recommend the refreshing 'Santa Monica' slightly sparkling white wine.
Wine temperature is a matter of endless discussion. Every wine will have its own optimal serving temperature. But let's establish a few approximate rules of thumb. Note that the typical refrigerator temperature of 5 degrees (or lower) is too cold for most white wine. If you chill your wine in the fridge, take it out beforehand. The perfect temperature for any given wine will depend on how much fruit, tannin and alcohol it contains. We suggest you serve:
- Tart, bright white wines: 8-11 degrees
- Sparkling wine: 7-9 degrees
- Rich white wines, like an aged chardonnay: 11-15 degrees
- Light red wines (Chianti, Beaujolais, young pinot noir): 14-16 degrees
- Heavy red wines: 17-19 degrees

A few more tips

Always match your wine to the strongest flavour on the plate. Balance the weight of the dish with the wine. Simple dishes - simple wines; complex meals - complex wines.
Fatty, greasy and salty dishes need a dry wine with good acidity to clean the palate.
Highly spiced dishes call for big, flavourful wines.
Creamy and buttery sauces require good, fruity wines with some residual sugar.
Ensure that your dessert wine is sweeter than the dessert; otherwise, it will taste sharp.
If you like your meat rare, choose young red wines with a touch of tannin. For well-done meat, select mature or fruity reds with little discernable tannin.
If your guests don't want to have the mother of all hangovers, they need to re-hydrate, frequently. Offer plenty of mineral water.
Traditional dishes should be matched to traditional wines. For the Cypriot meze, use a good local Mavro or Xynisteri such as Monolithos Red and Monolithos White Dry wine.
Unless the purpose of your party is wine-tasting, it is best to have at least half a dozen bottles of the same wine. Let's say you have 12 guests, and you open an excellent bottle. Count on two, three or four glasses per person for cocktail parties, buffets and/or sit-down meals correspondingly. Consequently, four people are lucky to share this particular wine, and then suddenly, you are out of it and have to open another bottle of a completely different variety. An excellent opportunity for sharing, discussing and drinking the same wine is essentially lost.
Make service easy. Just open up the bottles and leave them on the table so people can serve themselves. So whether they're standing in the kitchen, sitting in the living room or by the dining table, everyone knows where to get their wine when they want more.
Finally, if you are expecting several people for your party, greet their arrival with a glass of any of the following drinks made with Monolithos Santa Monica slightly sparkling white wine:
- Mimosa: sparkling wine and a splash of orange juice.
- Kir-Royale: sparkling wine and touch of creme de cassis.
- Magnolia: sparkling wine and orange juice, kissed with grenadine.
- Royale du Framboise: sparkling wine and a generous dose of raspberry liqueur.

Wine News and Information

The European Court of Justice has dashed hopes of UK consumers buying cut-price wine from other European countries. The ECJ was expected to overturn current legislation and rule that goods bought in other EU states may only be taxed in their country of origin. The ruling would have enabled UK consumers to purchase wine from France via the internet at French prices and have it shipped over without paying duty. Currently, a bottle of wine sent to Britain from France is taxed at £1.29. With French tax on a bottle set at under 2p, the potential saving for consumers would have been huge. Instead, the law remains unchanged. 'The products in question must be transported personally by the private individual who purchased them,' said the ruling. The news was welcomed by the UK Treasury, drinks trade and ferry operators. The ruling secures the future of 'booze cruise' trips to the continent to buy wine, beer and cigarettes at lower prices. Some ferry operators, who stood to lose swathes of customers had the new ruling gone the other way, had even set up contingency plans.

With alcohol, as with much else in life, too much of a good thing is a bad thing. Studies have suggested the benefits of moderate drinking - including a potential decrease in hypertension and protection against Alzheimer's disease. Now scientists claim to have found the fountain of youth in a bottle. Researchers at Harvard Medical School and the National Institute of Health report that resveratrol, a substance found in red wine, mitigates the unhealthy effects of a high-calorie diet in mice and extends their life span. Experts say the finding may open up a new field of research on similar drugs that may be relevant to the prevention of diabetes and other diseases. However, to replicate the dosage of resveratrol given to the mice, an individual weighing 75 kilos would have to drink between 1,500 and 3,000 bottles of red wine each day. Though resveratrol has long been known as an ingredient of red wine and other foods, its presence there is miniscule compared with the doses used in experiments.

So enjoy that glass of wine. But enjoy it in moderation, and observe Plato's admonition about giving too much canvas to a boat, too much nutriment to a body and too much authority to a soul. Remember and follow the concept: 'All things in moderation'.

We have the Romans to thank for planting vines in Beaujolais, but we have the Agences de Publicite to thank for the Beaujolais nouveau phenomenon. On the third Thursday of each November, over 65 million bottles of this young and fruity wine hits the worldwide wine market with a blast of hype and a cry of 'Le Beaujolais nouveau est arrive'. Its secret is in the fermentation process called carbonic maceration. Whole bunches of grapes arrive at the cellar and are emptied directly into fermentation tanks, and the tanks are sealed. The bottom third of the grapes are crushed by the weight above them and begin to ferment in the traditional fashion, giving some colour to the white juice of the gamay grape. Carbon dioxide is a by-product of this fermentation. The whole process normally takes only four days, after which time the wine undergoes malolactic fermentation and is bottled within two months of the grape harvest. The short skin contact means the wine has not absorbed sufficient quantity of tannin, so the overall impression is one of fruit and acidity. It is best when slightly chilled. Carbonic maceration wines are lower in alcohol, total acid, body and colour than wines made by conventional techniques. They do not age well and should be consumed by the summer following their release.

Monolithos Monthly News

From December to February, the different wines gradually get clearer thanks to gravitational settling and periodic racking. Varietals like Cabernet are racked off or separated from their lees prior to ageing. They also get a small dose of sulphur dioxide to deter microbial activity. Racking can be done from barrel to barrel or from barrel to tank. Either way, the lees go down the drain and the tanks must be thoroughly washed before refilling. Each processing activity is closely followed by the winemaker tasting to ensure that wine not only looks good, but also tastes good.

With the coming of the winter holidays and traditional feasts with a rich menu and many cheerful guests, it is an ideal time to try out multiple wines. Monolithos products cater for a wide range of palates because we believe that the customer must have a choice. After all, the truth is that;

If at any time you are planning to pass near the village of Pachna and wish to visit the winery, give us a ring on 99557457 to ensure that someone will be there to welcome you. Martin Wood, who normally takes care of visitors, is away until the first week of January. However, Mike Sloan, who lives in Anoyira village 6 km south-west of Pachna, is ready to welcome you for wine tasting or supply you with your choice of Monolithos wines. You can get in touch with him on 99918590 or 25221673.

Regards from all of us here at Monolithos.