When buying wine in Beijing, most of people first think of French, Argentinean, Chilean, Italian, Spanish, Australian, New Zealand or even American vintages. But what about Greece and Sardinia, areas that have been producing amazing wines for thousands of years? What makes these wines so special is the fact that vineyards located on isolated islands were largely spared from the phylloxera plague that ravaged the European vineyards in the late 19th century, destroying most of the old native vines. Thus, Greece and Sardinia were able to preserve their millennia-old vines and grape varieties, such as Moscofilero, Assyrtiko, Monica and Albaranzeuli Bianco. While the so called “Old World wines” mainly come from vines that were brought back from the New World, Sardinia and the Greek islands kept the real Old World vines going. M-Eight (Tass Schmidt: 159-0128-8468) imports amazing Greek wines from winemaker Boutari, and EMW (Olivier Six: 151-1024-6730) offers a unique and interesting range of Sardinian wines.

Tomaz Hladnik, Manager of Enoteca