The Olympus Range
This range of six wines is designed to provide simple, fresh, everyday drinking. All of them come in screw capped bottles. As I write, we are changing vintages from the 2008 wines to the 2009s.
Dry White: this is usually made purely from Xynisteri although, early in the year, we may include a touch of Sultanina to give the wine a slightly prettier, grapey lift as Xynisteri can take some time before it shows much expression. The wine is absolutely straightforward: no oak, no great depth, just light, quite gentle, fresh but not unduly crisp. The 2009 vintage has a relatively low alcoholic strength between 11% and 11.5% by volume, thanks to vintage conditions.
Medium sweet White: similarly low in alcohol, this wine has a higher proportion of grapey Sultanina, especially early in the year. Again, it is relatively low in alcohol and made to be very simple and straightforward to please that surprisingly large band of wine drinkers who prefer their wine a bit easier and smoother. The residual sugar is balanced by a decent level of acidity to ensure that the wine never becomes cloying.
Dry Rosé: rapidly growing in popularity, this is one of the things at which that Cyprus can excel. Rosés are just white wines made from red grapes. As such, they should have all the wonderful red and blue fruit flavours that the local red grapes provide without the “inconvenience” of drying tannins. Everything except Mavro goes into this one: Cinsault (known locally as Oeillade), Grenache, Alicante, both Cabernets, even some Syrah and Mataro occasionally. The last of the 2008 wine is holding up very well in bottle, showing good pink colour and some bright flavours of wild and cultivated strawberry fruit. The new vintage will start leaving our cellars within the next two weeks and shows a gorgeous blue-pink colour and delightful raspberry and blueberry fruit.
Medium sweet Rosé: this wine has been our top seller in this range for quite some time although the dry is rapidly catching it up. This does have some of the local grape, Mavro in it along with Carignan, Alicante and Cabernet to give it a bit of balance and backbone. We look for a salmon pink colour, paler than the dry, with a more delicate fruit structure to support the sweetness. Again, the balance is designed not to allow the wine to be cloying in any way. All four of these wines are also refreshing mixed with sparkling water, ice cubes, even a sprig of mint (although this would be a bit of a pity in the case of the new dry rose!)
Dry red: we want this wine to show some bright, young fruit flavours (bramble is typical) without a heavy tannin structure. Cinsault, Carignan, Grenache, Cabernet, Alicante, even a bit of Syrah find their way into the blend. Fermentation is cool and, once we have the colour we need, the ferments are pressed off quite quickly to avoid too much tannin. The wine has just enough grip to make it a good partner to any meat dish and it can benefit from being served reasonably cool (although not ice cold).
Medium sweet Red: at the request of our distributors, this wine was introduced to the range some two years ago and has met with success. The base wine is very similar to the dry red with a slightly lighter tannin structure in order to marry more easily with the residual, unfermented grape sugar. It can be chilled although this isn’t necessary. The sugar brings out a warmer, plum jam aroma and flavour.
Cellar 62 2008 and 2009: this wine is traditionally a stalwart of the company’s wine range and is still its biggest selling red. It used to be aged in bottle for a couple of years before being put on the market but re-investment in the cellar and good modern winemaking practices mean that we can now release it ready to drink while it still has very good youthful fruit. We are looking for a very classic dry red that partners the fattier grilled sausages, lountza, pork and lamb really easily. This is made from Cabernet and Carignan, is good, bright young red with some depth, carries a bit more structure than dry red and shows a lot of the cassis/blackcurrant fruit from just exactly ripe young Cabernet.
Nefeli 2008 and 2009: a flagship white wine for the company made to accompany food, especially some of the richer Mediterranean fish including squid and octopus. Made from Xynisteri from selected vineyards with some Semillon and a tiny proportion of our own Chardonnay, it shows an underlying hint of oak to give no more than an almond/nutmeg overtone to the lemony, waxy notes that Xynisteri and Semillon together produce. Quite rounded but with enough acidity to sustain it through the year, this wine is especially popular with our restaurant customers.
Semeli 2007: a more serious red wine that suffers slightly from not having a well understood identity within our range, although, again, it is a longstanding traditional label for the company and one of our Chairman’s favourite wines. The wine was always a warmer, riper, more rounded wine than Cellar 62 and so we elected to make it from just the Southern French grape types: Syrah, Grenache, Mataro (Mourvèdre) to which, from 2008 onwards we are adding some Lefkada which complements these grape types really well. The 2007 vintage shows some bottle age with smooth, easy tannins and some attractive vanilla and spice notes along with damson jam fruit.
