A Few of Our Favourite Things

As we were going to press, the Rethymnon Festival of Wine, Local Products and Culture was drawing to a close. This event brought together some of the many facets of the Crete that the Bugle team adore. We can’t do justice in one small article to this lovely Festival, but we hope that some of the highlights that we flag will give you a flavour (if you pardon the cliché ) of what was on offer.

In years gone by, Rethymnon was known for its Wine Festival, which used to take place in July. This was often a lot of fun with traditional music and dancing in the park. But, let’s be honest, the barrel wine, which we quaffed from souvenir jugs wasn’t always of the highest quality and, by the third day sometimes used to taste a bit ‘boiled’. Anyway, the old style knees - up was becoming a bit tired and it became clear that the time had come for a change. This year, after a great deal of discussion and a lot of hard work we saw the launch of the reinvented Festival which by and large met with great approval.

Tasting Notes: Quality, Purity and Diversity

It’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it…..There were over 20 local wine producers represented at the Festival, each of whom were offering at least three different types of wine to taste. And then there were a couple of general ‘tasting tables’ offering a mixed selection. And, of course, true to Cretan hospitality and philosophy the glass was generally half full rather than half empty. If arithmetic is your strong point then you will understand that it was difficult to get through them all…. Broadly speaking, the wine producers could be categorized as coming from the Heraklion region and from the West of Crete. Given that the Heraklion region is the better known of the two as a wine producing region, we initially focused (if this is the right word) on the West. In general we were very impressed with the quality of bottled wine on offer, especially the white wines. Too many to mention here, but a few of the winemakers that stood out for us included Zouberakis, Dourakis (we thought their rosé was great, too), Pneumatikakis and the Cooperative of Maza-Selinou (they had a lovely dessert white). Of the wines from the Heraklion region that we sampled, we enjoyed the white wines from Lirarakis and Stylianou the most.

Aside from the wine there was also an impressive selection of local produce on display. As one would expect, there were olives, and oil and raki. However, there were also more unusual products such as carob liqueur, pickled artichokes and homemade preserves. The emphasis was on promoting good quality natural organic produce (many of the wines were organic, too) free from pesticides and additives, and many of the producers we talked to stressed the need to strike the balance between adopting progressive modern techniques and retaining traditional and cultural integrity. Another subject that also came up is just how one should best market local produce so that it becomes more widely available to the general public. At the moment some of the wines can only be bought from the individual wineries directly, which makes promoting them to a wider international audience difficult. Hopefully, in time this will change.

In addition to the lovely wine and food that was on offer, throughout the week, a number of cultural activities took place, including theatrical performances, art exhibitions and guest lectures. There were also displays of local arts and crafts and plenty of music and dancing.

Music and Dance. Traditional, Jazz, Tango….

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. Rethymnon has always been a fantastic place for music and dance. It is of course one of the major centres on the island for traditional Cretan music, and home to many renowned musicians. However, Rethymnon also embraces all sorts of different types of music and dance, and on any given week here there are any number of opportunities to see some great live performances. Right now, the music scene here is really exciting, and reflects the richness and diversity of local culture.

During the wine festival there was a musical performance every night, often accompanied by dancing. We listened to high quality traditional local musicians, and saw some great Cretan dancing displays. There was also jazz and classical music from local and international performers and we even enjoyed a tango night, with impressive performances from the Cultural Society of Rethymnon.

The Bugle verdict? Thumbs up from us. We think that the Festival was a great success and we look forward to an even better one next year!