This is the story of coming home. For generations, the Boutari family was one of the most important winemaking families in Greece. Their main claim to fame was bringing Santorini’s Assyrtiko to the world, but the origins of what is today called Boutari Wine Group are in the north, in Naoussa, Greek Macedonia. In the 1990s, Yiannis Boutaris left the group to return home to the 40 hectare Xinomavro vineyard he helped plant. He had notions for this grape that the mass-market Boutari brand couldn’t accommodate. At the end of the 20th century, this grape was a local curiosity, but Xinomavro from Naoussa had once been southern Europe’s finest wine, the best available throughout the Ottoman Era. Yiannis, and now his son Stellios, are reclaiming that heritage. This “Cuvee Villages” is their entry-tier wine, and a brilliant example of the grape’s potential. Stupendously complex aromas of fresh blackberry, lowbush blueberry, fig jam, olive tapenade, charcoal, cinnamon, cumin and orange oil lead to a Nebbiolo-like palate of raspberry, cherry, and tarry earth, juicy through the mid-palate with a finishing grip of tannin. Suitable for herb crusted lamb or pork, Loukaniko sausage over polenta, or Thessaloniki-style soutzoukakia.