Savatiano
What is it?
Savatiano is a white grape from Greece, and it is actually the most commonly planted grape variety in Greece. Savatiano is commonly used in the wine Retsina (which was the wine we found with Savatiano in it). Retsina wines are often fermented with pine resin which is removed at the end of the fermentation process, and the resiny flavors often show up in the finished wine, along with an oily texture. Savatiano is being grown increasingly more as winemakers are focusing on making white wines with richer bodies and more similar to Chardonnays.
Primary flavors are green apple, honeydew, lime zest, lemon curd, and resin. Wines made with Savatiano grapes are said to pair well with foods that have marinated meat, often from Caribbean, Polynesian, and Mexican cuisines. We had this wine with a pesto gnocchi to try to channel a Mediterranean ambience.
Molly's Rating and Tasting Notes
7.0. On the nose, I don't really get much (maybe the green apple and resin mentioned in the flavors?). Even in the mouth, it's kind of watery with a slight hint of melon of some sort. As it warms, it gets a little more bitter. The finish has some green apple and is pretty resin-y, I suppose. It leaves sort of an oily sensation in the mouth. I would probably drink this over other things, but it's not my favorite white wine. A decent white for drinking alone or with Mediterranean dishes.
Ryan's Rating and Tasting Notes
6.7. On the nose I get lemon, lime, honeysuckle, maybe magnolia, and a little bit of chlorine. Upon tasting, I get notes of lemon, lime, pepper, lilac, tea leaves, and little bit of melon. There is also a little bit of a beeswax component tosseed in the mix as well. It is not a very sweet wine, and although the primary notes are citrus fruits, it is not very acidic. It kind of just sits on the tongue and is pretty rounded and reserved. The wine does a fine job of coating the mouth and letting the aftertaste linger. Although, with its flavor profile and mouthfeel, I wish it did a poorer job. In addition, the wine leaves me with the slightest sensation that I just drank pool water, which I can't say I'm fond of. Overall, a decent wine that has some nice qualities, but some negative ones as well.
References
[1] Madeline Puckette and Justin Hammack. Wine Folly: The Master Guide. Avery - A Penguin Imprint, New York, NY, 2018.
[2] "Savatiano." Wine Folly. https://winefolly.com/grapes/savatiano/. Accessed: August 2023.
Wines we haven't finished
- Week 29 - Vino Nobile di Montepulciano