Looking Back, Looking Ahead
Happy New Year! Καλή χρονιά!
Unexpected travel and holidays plans have kept me from The Grape, but I’m back at it and ready for a year full of yummy wines, delicious food and fascinating travel.
First off – boy, 2015 was a great year for Greek wines!
–The first annual Taste of Greece kicked off the year in NYC. Over 50 winemakers from
First Annual Taste of Greece in NYC
Greece teamed up with NYC’s best Greek restaurants to promote Greece’s gastronomical heritage. Even a hip, young band came from Athens to entertain the sold-out crowd. Proceeds from the event went back to help the most needy in Greece. Fingers crossed there is a 2nd annual! A definite can’t miss event if NYC is accessible to you.
–Summer was very scary for us all as we followed the economic crisis, wondering if a Grexit was imminent. A bright spot during this time was the unprecedented support from journalists around the world. Dozens of highly credible writers espoused on the continual improvements in the quality of Greek wines, the commitment from the winemakers and the Greek people to make sure these treasures continue to be enjoyed around the world, and that this is the time to travel to Greece and support the industry, not to be scared.
–It surely helped. Despite the fears, tourism to Greece was up almost 10% from January to September last year. And, the value of Greek wine exported to the US rose over 20%.
–Finally, wine scores. While we should not be slaves to how a writer scores a wine, it does help an evolving category, like Greece. Mark Squires from Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate has been loving on the Greek category for some time. (Thanks, Mark!). Looking at this publication alone, there was a 12% increase in the number of Greek wines scoring 90+ points vs. 2014. Can’t wait to see what this year will bring!
According to this recent article, Top Wine Trends of 2016, we’re in for some fun times!
“For years, writers have predicted that this is the year of Greek wine, but 2016 will actually prove to be huge for Greek wines. Not only are there great values in Greek wine because of the strength of the American dollar, but also Chicago is probably the best Greek wine market in America. Ted Diamantis of Diamond Wine Imports continues to bring amazing Greek wines that can be compared to Chablis, barbera and other more well-known grapes,” says Jon McDaniel, GM and Sommelier at Acanto.
Bring it on! Here’s to a prosperous 2016!
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The Greek Grape 
Nicely written! Well done my dear xoxo 💕
Jessica Silverman MA, LPC, LMFT We are love happening… On Jan 27, 2016 12:30 PM, “The Greek Grape” wrote:
> Lisa Stavropoulos posted: “Happy New Year! Καλή χρονιά! Unexpected travel > and holidays plans have kept me from The Grape, but I’m back at it and > ready for a year full of yummy wines, delicious food and fascinating > travel. First off – boy, 2015 was a great year for Greek wines! -” >
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