This is the Jim Barry Assyrtiko 2019. He's making it in the Clare Valley, Australia. And it is awesome.
This is a Greek variety, specifically from Santorini. If you've ever been lucky enough to holiday on a Greek island or find yourself eating fresh seafood with the Aegean waves lapping near your feet, then you will almost certainly have had a glass or two of this wine variety.
Its a wine that's all about the acid but there's a lot more to it. There's a wonderful minerality; sometimes that kerosene waft one expects from a good aged riesling and under the citrus tang stonefruit and maybe wild honey.
Most of all its a wine that says summer time; sunshine, sandy feet and the smell of the sea.
I've had the Jim Barry for a few weeks. I'd been looking for it for a while after reading about its story. Peter Barry was holidaying in Greece in 2006 - so taken was he with the assyrtiko wines that he began the process of importing the cuttings to Australia. The wines reminded him of Clare Valley rieslings and he thought they'd grow well. He's had the vines in since 2012 and been producing wine off them for the last few years.
I love a wine with a good story - and what could be better than liking the wine so much on holiday that you begin producing it.
Opening my bottle up last night, with the northeasterly blowing round the tiny house and the rain splattering against the window I was hoping for that taste of Greek sunshine and I was not disappointed.
From the first sip, full of a lovely, slightly oily kerosene, I was transported to a taverna by the sea. My glass was accompanied by some good NZ greenlipped mussels, and homemade egg yolk mayonnaise. This worked well, with the acid in the wine cutting through the rich, oily mayonnaise and its slight saltiness highlighting the flavour of the sea in those mussels.
With the tiny fire blazing in the corner I had a half hour of sublime pleasure sipping on a glass of pure summer.
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