Roditis? Yes, please.
This Greek grape likes a view from high places
Two of the summer’s most invigorating pours are waiting for you in the Greek section of your neighborhood wine shop. Both are crafted from a native grape that loves a view from high places.
Roditis — cultivated since antiquity, and one of Greece’s most widely planted grapes — is pronounced, roughly, “roe-DEEtees.” You wouldn’t be the first to spy “-itis” in the name and say it as if it were an inflammatory condition. For most of us, tackling multisyllabic Greek grape names — like Agiorgitiko, Thrapsathiri, and Xinomavro — takes practice. But forge ahead! Your efforts will pay off handsomely.
The visionary winegrowers in this month’s tasting look to the pink-skinned, lower-yielding, small-berried Roditis Alepou to craft outstanding varietal pours. (Alepou means “fox,” referring to the grape’s ruddy hue, or how the wily creatures like to snack on the sweet berries, depending on who is telling the story.) These producers reside in Aigialeia, a northern province of Peloponnese, the peninsula shaped like a hand outstretched into the Mediterranean Sea. On high-elevation plots, they tend traditional bush-trained vines, exposed to intense sunlight and cooled by breezes blowing off the Gulf of Corinth— optimal circumstances for crafting Roditis wines full of character.
Winemakers usually take the rosy-skinned Roditis and turn it into white wine. But when they aim for a bit of color, they’re not crafting rosé. Compounds in the variety’s skins produce a hue closer to amber than pink. Panagiotis Papagiannopoulos, winemaker of the much-lauded Tetramythos Winery, knows this well. So when he embarked on a collaboration with neighboring Edanos Winery, he knew exactly what to do. Papagiannopoulos takes Roditis Alepou, grown in a vineyard situated more than 2,000 feet above sea level, and allows grape skins to mingle with the juice for 14 days, giving the wine a copper hue. Hence its name — Cu14 — a mash-up of the periodic table element and the days of skin contact. (Delightfully, the wine has a Boston connection: Carol King, former general manager-wine director of Porter Square Wine & Spirits, as well as Ravello Italian Kitchen in Watertown, designed the label. She’s the owner-designer of apparel company Wine Bunnies, and drew inspiration from a recent visit to Greece with a cadre of Boston-based sommeliers.)
Theodora Rouvali, winemaker and viticulturalist at Rouvalis Winery, refers to Roditis Alepou as “Mountain Roditis,” emphasizing the distinctive nature of the variety grown at high elevations throughout Aigialeia. Rouvali and her team cultivate the grape on steep, stony slopes, with some parcels located at altitudes of more than 3,500 feet. In the winery, she and enologist
Antonio Ruiz Pañego take full advantage of gravity flow technology — a gentle means of shepherding wine from grape to bottle. The design was put in place at the family winery by Theodora’s forward-thinking father, Angelos Rouvalis, back in the ’90s.
Rouvalis Winery’s roditis white wine is called “Asprolithi,” named for white pebbles that reflect sunlight and warmth onto the ripening grapes. Can you feel the mountain breeze? It’s a feeling you can channel with every sip.
Edanos Winery “Cu14” Roditis 2022
This thirstquenching, copper-colored wine offers scents of peachy freshness, along with a whisper of flowers and wet river stones. Its lightweight palate expresses flavors of tart peach skin, lemon pith bitterness, and a little finegrained texture. 11 percent ABV. Distributed by Hogshead Wine Co. Around $14. Retailers include: Boston Bottle, North End; The Wine Press, Fenway; Wine & Cheese Cask, Somerville; One Stop Market & Liquors, Beverly.
Rouvalis “Asprolithi” Roditis 2022
Silvery platinum in hue, this elegant white wine offers aromas of green apple, crunchy peach, and citrus spritz, leading to a mediumbodied palate that’s lemony, minerally, and bright with acid, finishing with an appetizingly salty tang. 12 percent ABV. Distributed by Ideal Wine & Spirits. Around $16. Retailers include: Neighborhood Wines, South End; Bacco’s Wine & Cheese, Back Bay; Ball Square Fine Wines, Somerville; The Cheese Shop of Salem.