| Type | White |
|---|---|
| Appellation | Greco di Bianco DOC |
| Grapes | Greco (brought from Greece by ancient colonists, 6th century BC) |
| Soil | White chalky land (Sperone hill); dense clay and argyle — geomorphologically identical to Greek origin region |
| Serving temp. | 10-12°C |
| Style | Still amber-yellow white wine of ancient tradition |
| Food pairing | Aged cheeses; dried fruit and nut preparations; meditation wine; almond pastries |
There are wines with long histories, and then there is the Jelasi Greek Wine — a wine whose history is not measured in decades or even centuries, but in millennia. The vine from which it is produced was planted in the sixth century before the Common Era by the first ancient Greek colonists to arrive at Zefirio Cape — today known as Capo Bruzzano on the Ionian coast of Calabria. The Greek colonists found in Bianco a soil and climate of such similarity to the areas of Greece where their native Greco vine had originally flourished that they planted it and it thrived, as it has thrived, continuously, for two thousand five hundred years.
The wine carries the Greco di Bianco DOC certification, awarded by decree of the President of the Italian Republic in the nineteen eighties — a legal designation that establishes with uncommon precision that this wine can only be produced within the specific territory of the village of Bianco, which bears worldwide patent and trademark protection. This is not a geographical indication in the conventional sense; it is a legal monopoly of a most unusual kind, protecting a winemaking tradition so ancient and so specific to one small territory that the Italian state has judged it to require formal protection.
The village of Bianco takes its name from the white chalky land — the Sperone hill — on which it sits, a soil dense with clay and argyle elements that is geomorphologically and climatically almost identical to the area of Greece from which the ancient colonists brought the Greco vine. This specific soil is the foundation of the wine's character: the amber-like yellow colour, the warm taste, the distinctive backtaste of citric fruits and sweet flowers, honey and almonds, bergamot and orange blossom trees.
The wine is offered in two different bottle shapes and colours — a nod to the classical aesthetic that befits a wine whose origins are genuinely ancient. It is a wine of warmth and complexity, of historical depth and sensory pleasure, of the kind that cannot be imitated because its specificity is too complete.
Available through UniqueWines in strictly limited quantities. Twenty-five centuries of continuous production. The oldest wine in the portfolio.
