“It’s nothing like you have tasted before”

Christopher Burr MW

This sparkling wine has star-bright golden colour with greenish highlights, very tiny bubbles offering a generous and delicate creamy mousse.

On the nose the wine is clean with moderate intensity, developing character with aromas of sweet jammy apricot and peach, hints of orange skin, autolytic notes of butterscotch and yeast, herbal hints of jasmine and saffron with a mineral presence, showing up its Assyrtiko typicity.

On the palate the wine is dry with crispy acidity, creamy texture of a generous body with well-balanced alcohol. Sweet exotic fruits, like pineapple, hints of ripe lotus, mango jam, ginger spiciness, white pepper, butter and caramel, showing its long second fermentation in the bottle. Hints of dried chamomile in the midpalate. Very long finish with a round, complex and spicy aftertaste.

I would enjoy this wine with salmon tataki karashi su miso (kind of Japanese mustard), lobster grilled in the wood oven with shiitake mushrooms and black truffle, grilled seabass with steamed wild Cretan greens, grilled chicken with lemon sauce, rosemary and potatoes, traditional French duck with orange, and of course black cod with yuzu miso sauce.

Served at 6 degrees in a glass for vintage champagne, with a bigger and rounded bowl.

The wine could age for at least 14-16 years if kept in perfect cellar conditions

“Most attractive bright pale yellow colour and fine mousse. Rich aroma, ripe fruit and spicy saffron. Deep rich flavours balanced with crisp acidity and full bodied mouth feel of high alcohol, but not overbearingly so.”

 

Christopher Burr MW

Chimera sparkling, is produced and bottled, exclusively for Oinovation, at C.A.I.R. S.A. winery Rhodes.
The C.A.I.R. S.A.winery (est. 1928) has the longest experience on producing sparkling wines with the “CHAMPANOISE” method in Greece.

The grape variaties are 10% Assyrtiko, 30% Malagouzia, 30% Athiri and 30% Chardonnay. The first 3 are typical Greek- and the last an international one. With the exception of Assyrtiko, which comes from SANTORINI island, all other varieties come from the mountains of the RHODES island.

The VINEYARDS that are DESTINED for SPARKLING wines, are cultivated in the EBONA region of the island, under the Mountain of ATAVYROS.

A unique MICROCLIMATE with a CALCIFEROUS SOIL composition, COOL summers (up to 19 oC) with 80% HUMIDITY, MILD winters with rainfalls in December and March (depending on year), produces high acidity grapes.

The yield is approximately 8500 kgs (8.5 tonnes) per hectare.

Grapes are carefully HANDPICKED, PRESSED, and FERMENTED for 1 year in the bottle. For the SECOND fermentation we use the TRANSFER method to create the blend and infuse the Krokus Kozanis saffron.

One of CHIMERA’s special traits is its INFUSION with SAFFRON. Krokus is considered to be one of the most expensive saffron from Northern Greece, Kozani,Macedonia

“A most unusual wine, exotic and rich. Too powerful for highly subtle food, but wonderful with spicy and particularly “hot” dishes. Intense wine with good persistence which works very well (or even better than any other wine) with big spicy dishes.”

Christopher Burr MW

“This is a curiosity, and intriguing wine, which many wine drinkers will not immediately understand. It needs explaining and discovering with “hot” spicy dishes.”

 

Christopher Burr MW