Whilst many of our wonderful visitors and friends have already celebrated Easter this year, the Greek Easter celebration takes place on Sunday 2nd May 2021. The festivities of Greek Easter focus on family, friends, and for those who are religious, the Church. Easter is a social event to bring people together. A celebration of companionship, faith, and food, Greek Easter offers something for everyone. Especially those who enjoy their traditional food and local and Greek wine!
Greek Easter Menu
Lamb is the most popular Easter meat for its religious associations and meaty flavors. Popular, traditional Easter dishes include:
Roasted lamb on a souvla
Greek lamb stew with orzo pasta (Lamb Giouvetsi)
Honey-glazed Greek roast lamb with potatoes
Traditional magiritsa (Greek Easter Soup)
Lamb intestines, liver, etc. rolled on a souvla (Kokoretsi)
And on the sweeter side of the scale, baked sweet loaves of bread such as Tsoureki, which feature traditional dyed red eggs, just for Easter time and a whole host of Greek bread and Greek pastries that are well worth sampling!
Greek Easter Wine
For the ultimate Greek Easter celebration, pair your Easter roast with Greek wine or, where possible, local wine from your nearest vineyard—supporting local growers and makers. As oenologists, we’re all about travel, tasting, discovering and enjoying wine and the wine making process and are excited to share our Greek Easter wine recommendations with you.
For Greek Easter, and because we love Nemea and its most important variety Agiorgitiko, we recommend kicking off lunch with a nice and fresh rosé made of Agiorgitiko, to continue it by popping a nice bottle of red and to finish it with a beautiful semi-sweet red wine of the same grape variety.
Agiorgitiko is the most widely planted grape in Greece and is most often found in Nemea within the Peloponnese region, where it gets the highest level in the wine classification. It is a versatile red variety that originates great dry and sweet reds, rosés and even whites and sparkling wines.
As we’ve mentioned in our previous blogs, Greek wine has become much more popular internationally over the past few years and Agiorgitiko is one of the most exported wine from Greece. If you’ve tried Greek wine before, you’ve likely tried Agiorgitiko.
Agiorgitiko has a great history and viticulture, which we explore further on our Greece By The Glass Wine Tours, focusing on Nemea's wineries and vineyards where you learn as much about the wine making process as you do about tasting profiles, pairings and palettes.
Whether you’ve celebrated Greek Easter before or are new to the celebration, you can learn more about Greek wine and viticulture all year round on our social media pages and during our Wine Tours with us! We’re happy to answer any wine questions you may have and hope to see you soon.
Nancy & Stefano,
Greece By The Glass – Wine Tours