Botanic: A Unique Sparkling Retsina!

Retsina is a famous wine style coming from Greece, where pine resin gets added to the wine so more herbaceous aromas can develop. One innovative winery took this old traditional method a step further. A coincidental twist of fate led to the production of a sparkling Retsina, the very first in Greece, and therefore in the entire world!

The funny thing to know is that the style Retsina itself was first produced rather coincidentally. Almost 7,000 years ago, wine made from the Savatiano grapes was kept in amphoras, which were sealed off with the resin coming from pine trees. However, when sealing the amphoras, bits of pine resin dripped into the wine, leaving a remarkable taste. From there on, a famous Greek tradition was born. A tradition of thousands of years old, that led to one of the most famous regional products in all of Greece. Yet there was a downside that developed over the years. The retsina became one of the most important export products of the country and quality standards were slipping. No government regulation has been put into place that tells just how much pine resin winemakers could add to the wine. Wine makers that had produced faulty wine, were using high amounts of resin to cover up certain mistakes or to make an uninteresting wine a bit more attractive. This has led to a bad reputation for the wine style, not only in the rest of Europe or further in the world, but also within Greece itself.

Luckily there are still wineries that add pine resin to their Savatiano in such an amount that it complements the whole and supports the other aromas. High quality Retsina is out there for you to discover!

Looking at Nikolou Winery, a family-owned estate from the region Attica (close to Athens), where the Retsina finds its origin as well. They did not produce any Retsina for a long time until one day in 2015, just on the last day of harvest, everything chanced…

A stranger showed up in the winery, carrying a bucket full of pine resin, that he had collected from a specific area in the forest. Yet it was not until the man opened his bucket, that the Nikolou family was convinced of the quality of the resin. Overwhelming, yet elegant aromas of pine resin along with Masticha aromas blew their mind! Masticha is a Greek distillate that is enhanced with pine resin coming from the Mastic tree.

There and then they decided to produce Retsina with the last of their Savatiano from that vintage. The owner Vassilis Nikolou wanted to make a sparkling wine for some time and had decided that vintage he would produce sparkling coming from the grape Muscat of Alexandria. While these went into production a few bottles of their newly made Retsina got a second fermentation within the bottle. This last action was meant as a joke, to say that a ‘Retsina Champagne’ was made. After aging on its lees for two months the bottle was opened and left them stunned by the results. From that day onwards, the first sparkling Retsina in the world was created!

Today the Botanic, referring to its herbaceous aromas, is part of their main product list and is surprising people from all over the world. The wine is made of 100% Savatiano grape, which is picked early in order to maintain the acidity levels, the Methode Traditionelle is still being used with the second fermentation in the bottle.

The wine ages for 6 months on its lees. A perfect complexity of garden herbs, pine trees, pickled lemon peel and yeast, along with a full body and fine bubbles. Not only perfect as an aperitif, but also heavenly matched with grilled Mediterranean fish, expressing herbal notes, some lighter marinated pork or anything that goes with Tzatziki!

The stranger with the resin bucket went back on its way, not keeping in touch and unaware of the important role he had played for this vineyard. The Nikolou family still uses the resin from the area of the forest as before and are now becoming well-known for their one and only traditional method sparkling Retsina called ‘Botanic’ and their wonderful still Retsina called ‘Botanic Base’.

More information about this unique sparkling wine and the winery producing it can be found on the page of ‘Vineyards’ on this website or just on www.nikolouwinery.gr

More information about the grape variety used for Retsina, Savatiano can be found on the page of ‘Grapes’.