Producers of Greek wine made a combined effort to promote the diversity of the country’s indigenous wines at a tasting event in London this week.
The event, at which 31 producers were present, included examples of Greek white wines from local grape varieties such as Robola and Debina and reds such as Limnio and Kotsifali. Displays also included the better-known Muscat, Retsina and Mavrodaphne grape varieties.
“We want to tell the UK what good wines we have and we want people to try as many as possible to see what a range there is,” said Yorgos Papapanayotou, head of section for promotions at the Hellenic Foreign Trade Board.
Wine producer Kourtakis, which has the biggest share of the Greek wine market in the UK, was one of the companies promoting some of the lesser known Greek wine varieties.
Graham Blake, international marketing director at Kourtakis, said: “We have a reasonable presence in the UK with Mavrodaphne and Retsina but we want to get the UK market aware of other varieties.”
The company launched its Aegean Islands and Kouros brands at the event. “Many Greek grape varieties are unknown and hard to pronounce, so we decided to give the wines a brand name with simple text and Greek imagery, detailing the wine style on the back label,” said Blake.
“We really need some involvement and investment from the Greek government to create a generic Greek Wines campaign,” said Blake, who explained that the tasting event was funded by investment from the producers themselves.
The event, at which 31 producers were present, included examples of Greek white wines from local grape varieties such as Robola and Debina and reds such as Limnio and Kotsifali. Displays also included the better-known Muscat, Retsina and Mavrodaphne grape varieties.
“We want to tell the UK what good wines we have and we want people to try as many as possible to see what a range there is,” said Yorgos Papapanayotou, head of section for promotions at the Hellenic Foreign Trade Board.
Wine producer Kourtakis, which has the biggest share of the Greek wine market in the UK, was one of the companies promoting some of the lesser known Greek wine varieties.
Graham Blake, international marketing director at Kourtakis, said: “We have a reasonable presence in the UK with Mavrodaphne and Retsina but we want to get the UK market aware of other varieties.”
The company launched its Aegean Islands and Kouros brands at the event. “Many Greek grape varieties are unknown and hard to pronounce, so we decided to give the wines a brand name with simple text and Greek imagery, detailing the wine style on the back label,” said Blake.
“We really need some involvement and investment from the Greek government to create a generic Greek Wines campaign,” said Blake, who explained that the tasting event was funded by investment from the producers themselves.
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