Parching dog days do call for Greek wines – especially white. Although I’ve been to Greece only once and it was more than 10 years ago I still remember the intense pleasure of gulping down icy retsina during balmy and starry August nights there. Retsina-gulping with friends usually took place in a packed seaside tavern and people around were eating, drinking and laughing - stopping only to dance a couple of traditional Greek dances or burst into song from time to time. And once a while the whole tavern joined in and beautiful, mesmerizing and rather terrible words by one of the greatest modern Greek poets Odysseus Elytis rang out in the night: something about the first swallow and the unfurling spring, and the throngs of the dead and blood of the living necessary for the rekindling of the new sun. Authentic Greek stuff. I wonder whether I would ever hear a song chorused together in some Toronto pub with lyrics by Michael Ondaatje – I think not, and it’s a pity in a way.

But returning to Greek wines, the cat is out of bag and you know my secret now. I am a bona fide wine lover who loves retsina (usually quite frowned-upon by distinguished wine specialists!). For me retsina, a tangy white wine from Attica with a slight taste of pine-resin (heritage of pine-resin coated wine ceramic vessels of Ancient Greece) is irresistible as a hot summer day aperitif or as an accompaniment to fried or grilled seafood like calamari. Kourtakis is the brand that is most widely known outside Greece and it is available at the LCBO for paltry $8.15. I give fair warning though – one either loves retsina or hates it.

But there is much more to Greek wine than retsina. All About Greek Wine is a comprehensive website organized by several distinguished Greek wine-makers themselves. Iit is at any rate a good start for getting to know Greek wines better. One gets acquainted with Greek version of the AOC system (8 for sweet wines and 20 for dry wines), Greek wine geography, and so on. I also liked their nicely-phrased motto “hard to pronounce, easy to drink”.

Still, the Greek turn to the poetic sometimes carries the authors too far. Exquisite dry white wine of Santorini (AOC made with Assyrtiko grapes) - with all my due respect to its admirable qualities – is NOT the ancestor of traditional vin santo Italiano (”sacred wine”) as the authors seem to imply – vin Santo(rini) indeed! I tasted decanted Sigalas Santorini wine 2003 at Santé festival a couple of months ago and it was quite an eye-opener – amazing subtlety of bouquet and one of a very few white wines that get definitely better with age.

Still as the Santorini is not available at the LCBO right now I would like to mention another Greek AOC that I have grown partial to and that can be found in LCBO stores. Mantinia (from the ancient Greek Mantineia town in Arcadia, the heart of Peloponnesus, where one of the most important battles between Spartans and Athenians was fought in 5th century BC) is a dry white wine made from rosy-skinned Moschofilero grapes. Its bouquet is not unlike Muscat although it is dry, it can be reminiscent of rose petals, citrus fruit and green fruit at the same time – a delicious zingy crisp wine, a lovely aperitif (but can accompany chicken and fish dishes as well if desired) that makes the dog days much more bearable.