Icon R Orange 2017 from Acheon Winery

A wine from the creative Acheon Winery (see here) that goes through an impressive evolution in the glass. Opened cold, at first you smell – nothing at all. On the palate, too, hardly any flavour shows, and the alcohol – 13%, no less – is practically imperceptible. If anything, you'd think of apple spritzer. Only over time does it turn, on the palate, into cloudy apple must. Later on, increasingly mineral notes also show up on the nose – which then abruptly give way to fine strawberry aroma. This, though, doesn't last long. Quince and dried fruit take its place. Above all apricot. You might also think of plum brandy now, as the alcohol becomes more apparent. On top of that, the tongue now also picks up on fairly aggressive tannins. A wine that, for that reason alone and with its good acidity, has quite a lot to offer as a food companion – with goat dishes, for instance. But it's also genuinely exciting to follow the evolution of its smell and taste with interest, without distracting food. Because in between, that very fine, shy strawberry keeps reappearing on the palate too, again and again. It's remarkable what you can do with the often-shunned Roditis (Fox) variety given more skin contact. An "outstanding" orange wine, deserving 17 points. Above all: a magnificent price-quality ratio! Anyone put off the Roditis variety by unpleasant experiences with cheap retsina can very affordably reconsider their prejudices here.