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Afianes Sparkling Brut White 2017
£75.00
Description
Bright gold with long-lasting legs and an upward string of sparkles (cordon) that lasts up to 90 min. Multiple aromatic and tasting layers enhanced by its underwater fermentation and ageing process. Multi-layered and creamy taste with a long-lasting complex finish.
At a glance
Grape
Begleri
Region
Aegean Islands
Vintage
2017
ABV
13.5%
Biodynamic
Natural
Organic
Grape
Begleri
One of only two indigenous varieties Afianes has championed on Ikaria, Begleri is a low-yielding, strongly aromatic grape almost unheard of beyond the island. Older vine clones can develop a distinctive honeyed, amber-toned character as the wine ages — a trait unique to Ikarian Begleri.
Producer
Afianes Wines was founded on Ikaria in 1997 by Nikos and Maria Afianes, and is now run alongside their children, Konstantinos and Eftychia. For more than two decades the estate has focused on reviving Ikaria's two indigenous varieties, Fokiano and Begleri, once little known beyond the island. Grapes are still foot-trodden in a traditional granite press and fermented in buried clay jars, a method that shapes the wines' earthy, layered character; some cuvées see time in French oak. Everything is fermented with indigenous wild yeast and bottled unfiltered and unfined with minimal sulphites — a natural, biodynamic and organic approach that runs through the whole range.