A run of 800 bottles. One label, one year, and then it is gone for good. I had already poured the Plein Soleil Day 22 from 2023 for a photo before we started recording. The grape is Debina, from Zitsa in Epirus, and for a long time Yiannis Mylothridis did not think much of it himself.
For this Sparks episode I talked to the founder of Oenopolis, the importer that, by its own account, has grown since 2012 into the largest range of Greek wine in the Netherlands, and is now the biggest in Cypriot wine too. We cover 300 native grapes, why retsina shaped the reputation of Greek wine for so long, and what a €27 bottle does in a Michelin-starred restaurant.
Who is Yiannis Mylothridis
Yiannis moved to the Netherlands with his parents in 2001 and has worked in the family restaurant ever since, where he became the sommelier. The family also ran a wholesale business from 2001, but he wasn’t involved in it. That changed in 2012, when his childhood friends, the Garypidis brothers of the Kitrvs winery, brought over their first Malagousia. Yiannis found it interesting enough to start his WSET training and to visit a lot of wineries, where, by his own account, he learned more than on the course.
Over the following years he replaced almost the entire wholesale range. The two-litre bulk wine went, quality houses came in. Oenopolis now imports close to 300 wines and, according to Yiannis, turns up more and more often on Michelin-starred wine lists.
Why retsina isn’t all of Greek wine
“I don’t like Greek white wine, because I don’t like retsina.” Yiannis heard that line regularly from guests in the family restaurant. He gives two reasons. Greece struggled with phylloxera for much longer than other countries. And on the islands, restaurants poured cheap two-litre wine on a massive scale. If your first Greek wine is bad, he says, you give up straight away.
Greece has more than 300 native grape varieties, though far from all of them are planted. The long coastline, the islands and the mountains give a wide spread of terroirs. In Yiannis’ view the whites tend to share bright acidity and plenty of minerality, with flavours Dutch drinkers are less used to.
What counts as a small producer
Most Oenopolis producers make fewer than 100,000 bottles a year; a few sit around 120,000. Jima, who made the bottle on the table, is under 20,000 by Yiannis’ estimate. Sometimes he needs a larger producer, but the aim is as many small houses as possible.
His filter for the range is straightforward. “I only focus on wine I would buy myself. If I wouldn’t buy it, it goes.” Assyrtiko and Xinomavro are in there too; you can’t get round them, he says. Still, his advice to restaurants starting out with Greek wine is to look for small producers, because names like Alpha Estate and Gerovassiliou are already familiar to many people. The magic of Greek wine, as he puts it, lies with the small grower.
Debina, a grape he underrated
The bottle on the table is a Debina from Zitsa, in Epirus. Yiannis long saw Debina as a fairly neutral grape, low in alcohol and light in body. Then he tasted Jima’s Misty Debina, which was strikingly mineral. He had spotted the wines on a Greek web shop, visited the estate, and decided at ProWein to work with them. That was three years ago.
Jima releases one label per wine per year, each with a different painting. “Day 22” means this is the producer’s 22nd label across all his wines. Supergirl is the base Debina; Trans-Apollo and Plein Soleil are the premium experiments. Within a single year Yiannis tasted three Debinas from this house that he describes as superb and completely different from one another.
Tasting: Jima Plein Soleil Day 22 (2023)
Colour and nose. Almost amber. A colour that deep makes me think of long skin contact straight away. On the nose I find it warm: dried orange peel, lemon, lime, then something floral and grassy. Not a smell I could place.
Vinification. According to Yiannis it is partly aged on the skins, partly in amphora and partly in oak, with eight months on the lees. He also points to Debina’s botanical side, a touch of ginger and spice.
Palate. Yiannis calls the body beautiful, the flavours complex and the acidity lovely. He draws attention to the finish, which lingers and which he says is typical of the house. He still finds plenty of fruit, with a hint of coconut and vanilla, and sees it on the table with vegetable dishes.
A wine a Michelin restaurant found too cheap
Seeing the bottle and hearing the story, I guessed at least €100. It costs €27. Yiannis tells of a Michelin-starred restaurant that rated the wine above pricier bottles on its list, yet found it too cheap. There is a limit to how far they can mark a wine up, and their guests come expecting to spend over €100 a bottle. In his view Greek wine generally offers excellent value.
The producer also handles pricing differently from what Yiannis is used to. Last year the red and the rosé went down in price because the harvest was larger. Yiannis isn’t sure he would have done the same. Jima’s entry-level Supergirl sold out quickly in the Netherlands. Its successor, Supergirl Late Harvest, would normally cost more, but the producer is supplying it at the same price. For him, Yiannis says, it is about building a good relationship.
Caveats
I asked Yiannis what you are actually buying when the label changes every year. For the red, he says, the producer adjusts something each time, which makes the wine more exclusive. For a consumer or sommelier it also means you don’t quite know what next year will bring, and at 800 bottles this one is gone once it’s gone.
Yiannis is candid about the limits of his own work. He has visited nowhere near all his producers; many he meets at fairs such as ProWein or through samples. In Greek restaurants in the Netherlands, he says, you still rarely get a good glass recommended to you. And this is one bottle, tasted with the importer who sells it.
FAQ
How many wines does Oenopolis import? Close to 300. On top of that, more than 40 Cypriot wines are listed on the separate site cypriotischewijn.nl.
What counts as a small producer for Oenopolis? Most of its producers make fewer than 100,000 bottles a year. Jima is under 20,000 by Yiannis’ estimate, and the Plein Soleil Day 22 is a run of 800.
Which grapes come up in the conversation? Debina, Malagousia, Assyrtiko and Xinomavro from Greece. From Cyprus, Yiannis mentions Xynisteri, Promara, Spourtiko and Lefkada, the Cypriot name for the Greek Vertzami.
How much is the Jima Plein Soleil Day 22? €27 at Oenopolis. It is a one-off wine of 800 bottles from 2023; the label will not return.
The bottle itself
Jima Plein Soleil Day 22 (2023). Debina from Zitsa, partly on skins, partly in amphora, partly in oak, eight months on lees. Almost amber. I picked up dried orange peel, citrus and something floral; Yiannis points to the acidity, the body and the long finish. 800 bottles, single-release label. €27 at Oenopolis.
More about Oenopolis
Visit oenopolis.vin for the full Greek range, and the sister site cypriotischewijn.nl for more than 40 Cypriot wines.
Oenopolis supplied the bottle for this episode and put me in touch with the Greek winemakers from two earlier episodes. When I say “sponsoring” in the conversation, that is what I mean: bottles and introductions, no money. I received no payment and the opinions are my own.
Full transcript
This episode was recorded in Dutch. The full Dutch transcript is available on the Dutch version of this article for accessibility and search indexing.
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