Many of us UK folk love to head off to the Greek islands for our summer holidays and no wonder, when you have the delights of the traditional Greek cuisine, local wine and baking hot sunshine.
Well here is my secret unveiled to you - I LOVE Kefalonia and I am going to showcase that there is a good wine community too within it for your next visit!
First up though a couple of a few BIG things to announce for those reading this and therefore getting ahead of the announcements coming in the next few days:
📢📢 ANNOUNCEMENTS 📢📢
SHEFFIELD UPDATE:
The ALL NEW networking monthly event is now OUT ON SALE (for those reading this - an early Christmas gift!). Namely 'THE WINE AND CHEESE NETWORK'.
It is a new networking event in Sheffield, linking networking with my two favourite things - Wine & Cheese! Each month a business can sponsor the event and be able to address the audience around what they are looking to do, who they are aimed at, what services are provided and also challenges faced - to then share around the room too.
Every LAST Thursday of the month!
📅 When: Thursday 30th January
📍 Where: Yard Gallery, Leah's Yard, Sheffield City Centre
⌚ Time: 6pm (until around 8pm)
💰 £25pp
Sponsor for January: The Sheffield Table
🎤 Host: Andrew Lofthouse, The Northern Wine Guy
MANCHESTER UPDATE:
Secondly, I am really throwing the Christmas presents out this week, we also have for those of you preferring events in #Manchester - the ALL NEW 'MANCHESTER WINE CLUB'
A relaxed, fun and informative way to learn about different wine styles, grape varietals, wine locations and more! Manchester - come and join me!
📅 When: Thursday 23rd January
📍 Where: Kargo MKT, Central Bay, Unit 32 Quayside Media City Salford M50 3AG
⌚ Time: 7pm until 9pm
💰 £30pp
🎤 Host: Andrew Lofthouse, The Northern Wine Guy
🎄❄️ CHRISTMAS UPDATE 🎄❄️
🤔 Wondering which wines you should be looking to buy for the main event?
For those of you who are looking at suggestions for wines to buy for the festive season, across all types of budgets and price ranges - head over to @thenorthernwineguy on Instagram to follow me and see my videos updating you on each and every wine that I recommend for the big day!
Ok that's all the announcements (aka Christmas gifts for one week) and now back to Wines of Kefalonia!
🍷 KEFALONIA WINES - A Pocket Guide 🍷
Kefalonia has a great history, dating back to Neolithic times for winemaking so it should be no surprise that you can get good wines from the island.
Grape Varieties in Kefalonia:
🍇 Robola (see below)
🍇Mavrodaphne (black skinned, creates dry and sweet fortified wines, marzipan, dark fruits and spices)
🍇Muscat of Kefalonia
🍇 Vostilidi (orange and exotic fruits, rich honeyed notes)
🍇 Zakynthino (produces white and orange wines - strong tannins, good ageability)
🍇Tsaoussi (white varietal - melon, honey, peach, low to medium acidity)
🍇Moschatella (Muscat family)
❓❓How many of those have you heard of?
I will guess that most will have heard of none but some will know 1 or 2.
The Kefalonia Robola Wine Cooperative is the largest producer on the island and they make around 1/2 a million bottles a year, their outreach encompasses around 300 growers across the island for grape production. Founded in 1987, I often think it is the centre of Kefalonia - set right in the slopes of Mount Ainos.
Robola is the most famous grape varietal on Kefalonia and is a lemony, pineapple and bee's wax, with fresh acidity within this white wine. They are only made in the region between 300 and 800m above sea level. The Robola Zone is the PDO area and you can visit the winery to taste the goods on show too - well worth a visit!
There are 6 main wineries in Kefalonia (although you can see more on the map if you want to explore further!) making up the Kefalonia Winemakers Association - and they are namely - Gentilini Winery, Haritatos Estate, Orealios Gaea, Petrakopoulos Wines, Sarris Wines and Sklavos Wines.
Gentilini Winery was founded in 1984 second generation wine growers, you can head over to the vineyard for wine tours and their wines include a Robola, but also a dense Mavrodaphne.
Haritatos Estate has great examples of Robola, Mavrodaphne and Muscat. At Sklavos there is a real focus on natural, organic wines with a heritage that dates back to after the First World War for vine planting. Their focus has been on Mavrodaphne but also produce Vostilidi and Zakynthino.
Sarris Wines have been recognised by Decanter World Wine Awards in the recent few years and they produce a wide spectrum of wines from aged whites, to roses to dry reds too - not to be missed, these are a great selection for any budding wine enthusiast! It was only established in 2016 and has the beauty of the Avithos beach not far away too!
Lastly, Petrakopoulos Wines has maybe the oldest history of them all, certainly with the backdrop of generations having lived at the property. Their wines are expansive and actually look at other rare blends too including Lefko (still dry white - blend of Vostilidi and Muscat), Muscat, Lakouditsa (sweet wine made from Zakynthino and Moschatelle) and Artana (still dry 100% Muscat) - they are a great example too of how to utilise the grapes to create different expressions taking on the terroir of the region.
There are also smaller places to explore as mentioned earlier too - i.e. for example Divino Wines, Stella Vineyard and Menousis Winery to name but three.
⚠️ TNWG HOT TIP ⚠️
In Kefalonia, one of the fabulous things about the island is that from North to South and West to East, it is all easily attainable by car and easy to get around. Admittedly some of the hidden away beaches (of which you must try, it's like a passage you must go through) are tough to find at times BUT the joys of exploring Kefalonia are the fun roads too.
Caveat: If you are doing wine tasting, always best though to have a designated driver OR better yet take it in turns across different days in different regions. The local buses do come pass but to ensure you get from A to B at a specific vineyard, a car is the best option.
🤔 Have you been to Kefalonia Wine Tasting?
🗞️ LATEST DRINKS INDUSTRY ARTICLES 🗞️
TOP ARTICLE OF THE WEEK:
Well it is safe to say it has not been the best of year's for Fine Wine, in fact, there are few assets that have done as badly. The above link takes you to the Liv-ex thoughts which paints a pretty dire picture for the investor base (including myself), however, there is light at the end of the tunnel. (See below for my thoughts).
OTHER ARTICLES THAT CAUGHT MY EYE THIS WEEK:
📈 MARKETS IN BRIEF 📉
On the week (as at 12th December 10:15 LDN) changes:
EQUITIES: ⬇️ FTSE 100 down 0.32%; ⬆️ DAX up 0.53%; S&P 500 flat; ⬆️ Nikkei 225 up 1.1%; ⬇️ Dow Jones down 1.98%;
COMMODITIES: ⬆️ Brent Oil up 2.4% ; ⬆️ Crude Oil up 3.4% ; ⬆️ Gold up 2.67%; ⬆️Silver up 3.78%; ⬆️ Copper up 2.7%
BONDS (in yield terms): ⬆️ UK 2yrs higher 0.038%; ⬆️ UK 10yrs higher 0.1245%; ⬆️ German 10yrs higher 0.0845%, ⬆️ US 2yrs higher 0.028%; ⬆️ US 10yrs higher 0.091%;
It has been an interesting week for markets. Commodities have been the banker!
With US CPI yesterday (2.7%) and PPI today, collectively giving an estimate of core PCE - this will almost certainly decide for the markets as to whether the FED will be cutting in December or not. With US CPI having increased to 2.7% from previously 2.6% my view remains the same, that the FED will cut again this year!
The ECB meeting later today is also likely to see a 25bp cut in interest rates for the Euro
zone and no doubt with a pretty strong revision to its' macroeconomic projections.
If you had been keeping an eye on affairs closer to home, then you will be slightly calmed to know that I think the BOE will HOLD rates next week at the final BOE meeting this year.
This being said, interest rates in general in the developed markets (excluding Japan) are coming down and with inflation still likely to surprise and be elevated, this will be a continually debated theme - leading for you and I, to lower savings rates and reductions in returns from storing money in the bank.
If you were able to get involved in crypto (full disclosure: not an asset I get involved in), then well done over the Trump 2.0 situation but now might be time to look at crystallising some of those gains in recent weeks and utilising it to diversify further. We have heard that fine wine (see the Liv-Ex article) is not hugely productive for now....however, it wouldn't do any harm in looking at starting to potentially scale in to some positioning early next year as another diversified approach as you look to catch the bottom of the market.
For now though, I suggest you head to the shops, keep a firm eye on my Instagram account for all Christmas Wine recommendations and if you wish to be on my mailing list for the newsletter - then please let me know directly or via my website.
➡️ Have a great rest of the week and don't forget to get booking for the Networking New Monthly in Sheffield and also the New Wine Club in Manchester too!! 👀🍷🧀
Cheers
Andrew aka The Northern Wine Guy 🍷🍷🍷
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