The Friends of Dionysos are 20 years old

Whether he was a god or not, Dionysos certainly has had many good friends over the ages, none more so than the greek gastronomic society and core of the Hellenic Academy of Gastronomy, Les Amis de Dionysos (and if you don't speak French: The friends of Dionysos). This year they were celebrating their 20th anniversary and decided, together with their annual 'Pita' celebration (a greek new year ritual) to have a memorable but not extravagant event worthy of such an august occasion. 

What was decided upon was a lunch on the last Sunday in February at a magnificent wine estate a short distance north from the Athens metropolitan area, the Kokotos estate (www.ktimakokotou.gr) near the village of Stamata. Apart from producing decent wines, extra virgin olive oil and honey, the estate hosts special events, wedding receptions etc. in their lovely surroundings, arguably even more stunning in late spring or summer, with nature wearing its finery. Still, even a cold wintry day could not completely eclipse the beauty of the Attic countryside and the elegant estate facilities thereon. The indoor space was also simple, elegant and set up beautifully to receive the many friends of Dionysos in style and comfort, as you can see from the photographs.

The food for the event was provided by outside caterers, with the unenviable task of matching the beauty of the surroundingson a plate, but one they managed to fulfil beautifully. Upon arrival guests

were greeted with tiny quiche Lorraine, little crispy filo pastry mushroom-filled parcels and small espresso cups of pumpkin soup with coriander. The menu proper kicked off with a gorgeous fillet of lavraki (branzino/loup de mer/european sea bass) with a lemon butter sauce and herbs, served with vegetables and tomatoes; you'll find a photograph of this somewhere. The main course was wild boar in aged red wine, oven-cooked for 12 hours and bursting with flavour, followed by a comte cheese aged for 24 months, served with a small salad and a vinaigrette using walnut oil. The dessert was chocolatey - much to my pleasure - with strawberries marinaded in brown sugar and cognac, a fitting conclusion to this splendid meal.

But of course the food would be nothing without the wines, a symphony without harmony, and what a selection we had on the day! Each wine was introduced by one of the senior Friends, together with a bit of background information on its producer and how it was tasting on the day.

I was honoured to present the first wine, a sparkler from the Jura, that isolated little part of France which is producing some great wines, as yet still reasonably priced, with style and panache. This was a Cremant du Jura BBF from Domaine Andre et Mireille Tissot, released to the drinking public only after a certain amount of time has elapsed to show at its best. It's a classy, elegant sparkler, with fine mousse and a a clean round taste, a real star of the region and a wine I would have regularly, if only I could.

The second wine was a Chardonnay from Domaine Labet, again from the Jura, Les Champs Rouges 2013. From a difficult in quantity year for the area this was a stylish mouth-filling chardonnay like a 

good burgundy white, golden-hued and round, but still with the right acidity to cut through the lemon butter sauce of the fish and enough taste to balance the combination perfectly - a success, what?
The red wine chosen to go with the wild boar, again from the Jura, was a Cotes du Jura 2005 from Domaine Jean Bourdy, made from Pinot Noir, Poulsard and Trousseau; ripe and sensuous, but not over fleshy, this was a glorious Jura red, subtle yet tasty, complex and long, old-fashioned yet perfectly modern. If this sounds like a contradiction, it's because this wonderful area is just that: a place that time forgot in some ways, yet not backward, a small idealised part of France and french winemaking before the greed turned -admittedly often great - bottles of wine into must-have objects for the world's newly enriched gangster, bankers, oligarchs or whatever. And what a joy to have a fresh, yummy 11 year old red still young in colour without having to remortgage the house...

The next wine, the only Greek wine of the day and served from a double magnum (2014 vintage), was a complete surprise to me as it came from an enterprising estate in the Pella region of northern Greece and is made from the excellent white grape variety Assyrtiko, more commonly associated with Santorini. In Pella it produces wines fuller in flavour, rounder and less minerally but still classy and distinguished. This cuvee is called Lamda, is experimental and has been aged in old oak barrels for 10-12 months to produce an intensely dry, complex, vigorous wine which was a great match for our cheese course. The  family domaine of Ligas is doing good things there in northern Greece, in the protected geographical designation of Macedonia and will soon become known to a wider audience, such is their quality and class. One unusual thing to note is that the Assyrtiko vines for this wine are not in either basket form as in Santorini or in rows like average

vineyards but, like the vinho verde vines in the north of Portugal, on trellises like climbing plants (creepers). Another oddity is that Lamda is made with skin maceration in the way of red wines; I'm told that subsequent vintages have a quite pronounced orange character. Lamda is a rarity and difficult to obtain, as only about 4,500 bottles are made every year.

The final drink of the occasion was a lovely Vieux Marc du Jura from the Domaine Philippe Butin, another tiny Jura producer who farms under 6 hectares and who continues a long family tradition of winemaking 'from father to son since 1836'. The vieux marc is essentially like aged grappa, an eau de vie (water of life, a  distillate) from the grape skins left over from wine production. Rougher that eaux de vie made from wine (e.g. cognac), it is softened by ageing in oak casks; the Jura version is clean, intense, with good fruit flavours and a kick to finish. The espresso I was served was a good companion it.

The event was rounded off with the traditional cutting of the Vassilopita, a large sponge cake type thing, with a coin hidden inside it to give luck to whoever finds it for the new year. Once again lady luck did not smile upon me, and the lucky person or persons (I think that there were two coins hidden in this enormous homemade version were at the other end of the room...

We were all given a piece of this lovely creation, nevertheless, and I took mine home to enjoy, together with a little nougat cake from the island of Sifnos, a splendid halvadopita that has no equal in my experience. From a small traditional sweet maker called Theodorou, this is a little hand-made masterpiece, where texture and taste blend harmonically and explode in your mouth, then melt gently away.

I would have loved to have just sat there drinking coffee and marc into the evening, and chatting away to all and sundry, but it was not to be. The speeches and presentations were finished, as was the marc, and people started drifting away as if they had something better to do, the fools. My companions, seized by this collective madness, pulled me away to make our way back to Athens. The last 20 years have gone quickly, but we certainly celebrated their passing in style, in a rare event for recession-hit Greece.

As we were walking back to the car I couldn't help thinking that Dionysos, looking down at us from Mount Olympus would have been well pleased with his friends - we did him proud.