On the slopes of Mount Vermio in Greek Macedonia, Xinomavro — the "acid-black" grape — makes a red that lies about itself. The robe is pale garnet, almost innocent; beneath it wait tomato and olive, rose and tar, and a ferocity of acid and tannin built for decades in the cellar. In 1971 Naoussa became Greece's first appellation for a dry red wine, the flag-bearer of the country's modern renaissance.
The comparison that follows Xinomavro everywhere is to Nebbiolo, and for once it is earned: the same treacherous pallor, the same rose- and-tar perfume, the same demand for patience. Old bottles turn to dried tomato, leather and sweet decay, and Naoussa's growers now map their slopes into single vineyards with Piedmontese seriousness.