The Muscat grape is one of the oldest and most widespread grape families in the world, splitting, as it did, from the main branch of vitis vinifera some 10,500 years ago. The, predominantly, white wine has a pronounced aromatic quality due to the higher-than-average presence of aroma compounds in the berry. The most planted of the over 200 cultivars in the family are Muscat Blanc á Petits Grains and Muscat of Alexandria and my survey of these cultivars began with a review of the former, as implemented in the wines of Asti DOCG, and continued with the Muscat wines of Samos, Greece. In this post I continue the survey with a review of the Muscat of Spina wines of Crete, Greece.
History of Crete and Cretan Wines
As shown in the map below, Crete is the southernmost of the Greek islands. The island's wine history
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| Source: tripsavvy.com |
stretches back to the Minoan Period and has, except for the Ottoman period, been a story of successful, high-quality wine.
Selected Aspects of Cretan Wine Growing Environment
The physical and legal environments underpinning selected aspects of the Cretan wine industry are presented in the chart below. The chart highlights the areas of relevance to Muscat of Spina (which I am covering in this post) and the Liatiko variety (which I will be covering in a subsequent post).
Muscat of Spina
According to the literature, Muscat of Spina was another of the forgotten greek varieties (see, Malagouzia, for example) until the brothers Strataridakis (Manolo and Kostis) came along and gave it "the opportunity it needed." Today the variety is well ensconced in Cretan vineyards, the source of single-variety wines that "have earned their place on the top of white aromatic Greek wines."
Moschato Spinas (local terminology) originates from the province of Spina in the prefecture of Chania. The variety is a clone of Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains, differing mainly in berry-skin thickness. It is the only allowed Muscat on Crete. The primary growing areas for the variety today is in Central Crete in the villages of Maza and Spina and the Heraklion region.
The primary characteristics of the variety are detailed in the chart below.
Wines from this variety are characterized as the most flavorful of the wines on the Island with intense fruity and floral aromas of orange peel, lime, lemon blossom and rose petals. Muscat of Spina wines are primarily used as the minor partner in PDO blends (PDO Malvasia Handakis - Candia, PDO Malvasia Sitia) but play a much bigger role in the PGI sphere.
PGI wines using the Muscat of Spina variety can be produced anywhere on the island and can be dry, semi-dry, semi-sweet, or sweet wines. In looking at some of the winery products, the wines can be 100% Muscat of Spina or can be blends. For example, Douloufakis produces a medium sweet wine which is 50% Muscat and 50% Vilana while Titakis produces a wine that is a blend of Muscat and Vidiano.
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