Xinomavro Rosé

Xinomavro makes one of the most structured rosés in the world, and one of the very few that can be released as a sparkling wine of genuine seriousness. The name means sour black, which tells you most of what you need to know about the grape's acidity and colour, and both carry straight into the pink version.

Amyndeon, high on a plateau in Greek Macedonia at around 600 metres, is the appellation most associated with it. The altitude and the continental climate produce fruit with searing acidity and firm tannin even when fully ripe, and the resulting rosé has a backbone that puts most of the category in the shade. Expect redcurrant, sour cherry, tomato leaf and a distinctly savoury, olive-and-dried-herb quality beneath the fruit.

Amyndeon is unusual in Greek wine law in permitting still, semi-sparkling and fully sparkling rosé under the same appellation. The traditional-method sparkling versions are the most interesting: the acidity that makes Xinomavro difficult as a young red is exactly what a base wine for sparkling wine wants, and the lees ageing adds a bready depth that softens the grape's austerity.

Comparisons to Nebbiolo are frequently made and are more useful than most such analogies — high acid, high tannin, pale colour, a tendency towards dried tomato and rose, and a habit of tasting unforgiving when young and remarkable when mature.

The still rosés are dry, food-driven wines that reward a year or two in bottle. Very little of any of it leaves Greece, which is a pity.