This is liquid history—an amber-hued relic of Zakynthos coming from an estate, Ktima Mercouri in Ilia, that has stubbornly kept a nearly forgotten tradition alive. The nose is wild and untamed: a heady, oxidative rush of chestnut honey and strawberry blossom, charred kumquat and dried dates tangled with roasted spice, maple syrup, orange liqueur and dried mountain herbs. On the palate that intensity settles into something more contemplative: alcohol-driven and smokey, with bittersweet caramel, a faint salinity and a thread of desiccated herbs beneath the oxidative veil. The finish is long and briney, all toasted nuts and lanolin, closing on an old-world charm that, like the curling rings of cigar smoke or the last passage of a long dusty book, lingers. It's a wonderfully eccentric survivor of a wine, and it's a genuine relief that Dionysis Kefallinos has taken up this singular project, ensuring Paolo's strange, beautiful history doesn't disappear.
Drink it with rich, rich sauces, sweetbreads, super-charred meats or wait for pudding and cigarettes and the dying of the light.
