All Greek to Me: How to Pair Greece’s Most Iconic Dishes with Wine

For a country with a total land area similar to the size of Alabama, Greece is remarkably geographically diverse, ranging from forested mountains to endless miles of rugged coastline. It’s a similar story of variety when it comes to food.

“Greek cuisine runs the gamut, and a lot of it depends on where in the country you are,” says Charles Bililies, founder and CEO of Souvla, the San Francisco-based mini-chain of fast-fine Greek restaurants. “Of course, Americans are most familiar with the islands, which tend to feature mostly seafood with simple olive oil and lemon vinaigrettes. If you go up north to the mountains, you’ll find more proteins—like pork, lamb and goat—and a lot of richer braised dishes.”

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Pairing wine with Greek food can feel daunting at times, though Bililies is steadfast that the answer lies within the more than 300 indigenous varietals planted in Greek soil today.

“You should be drinking Greek wine with Greek food!” he says. When feasting on olive- and lemon-soused fish, drink bright, fresh whites like Assyrtiko from Santorini. If digging into heartier proteins, sip on red wines like grippy Xinomavro from the north or elegant Agioritikos from the Peloponnese peninsula on the mainland’s southern edge.

To walk us through what wines (mostly, but not all Greek) pair best with classic Greek dishes, we recruited three sommeliers to guide the way. From soup, salad and eclectic mezze platters to charred meat and seafood and rich baked pasta, here are pros’ top picks.

Illustration by Eric DeFreitas

The Best Wine for Greek (aka Village) Salad: Orange Wine

Salads are notoriously tricky to pair with wines, but Marie Cheslik, sommelier and co-founder of wine education platform Slik Wines, has a faithful trick. “You’ll never really be able to pair with every single component, so think about highlighting one or two things instead of pairing with everything in the salad.”

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Village salad—which packs fat hunks of tomato, cucumber, feta and red—is quintessentially Greek because of the requisite salty cheese, fatty Greek olive oil and earthy, peppery oregano. These ingredients are an excellent match for an aromatic skin-contact wine, which will “highlight the earthy notes,” Cheslik says. Opt for an orange wine that’s spent a little less time on the skins, for a bit less funk and more elegance and juiciness—though still enough freshness to match the acidic tomatoes and vinegary dressing.

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Illustration by Eric DeFreitas

The Best Wine for Avgolemono: Moschofilero

For this comforting, lemony chicken-and-rice soup thickened with egg, Amber Pike, head sommelier at Andros Taverna in Chicago, wants a mild-mannered, medium-bodied white. She reaches for varietals like Moschofilero, which is made from the aromatic grape of the same name that grows mainly on Greece’s Peloponnese peninsula.

Aromatic, pink-skinned Moschofilero has beautiful stone fruit notes and a gently floral aroma. “It’s citrusy, not super light bodied, but not intense like Assyrtiko,” she says. “It’s an easygoing, often floral wine. Domaine Skouras is the best I’ve had. It has this distinct dill smell on the nose, which is often a garnish on avgolemono; I like to reinforce those flavors.”

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Illustration by Eric DeFreita

The Best Wine for Saganaki: A Refreshing, Citrusy White, Like Trebbiano

“Flaming cheese? Yes, please,” says Cheslik, of the beloved appetizer in which sturdy sheep’s milk cheese is flambéed tableside to resounding cries of “Opa!” To wash it down, she wants something with enough bright acidity to cut through that fatty, salty cheese, like Trebbiano d’Abruzzo. It’s a fruity white with bracing acidity and a hint of nuttiness on the finish to match the subtle funk of the fatty cheese. “Imagine this zippy, crisp white wine from the seaside region of Abruzzo akin to squeezing a fresh lemon on any dish,” she says.

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Illustration by Eric DeFreitas

The Best Wine for Lamb Gyros: A Light, Chilled Red, Like Agiorgitiko

Usually when Bililies is digging into this classic Greek street food dish of paper thin, spit-roasted lamb rolled into a pita with lettuce, tomato, onion and tzatziki sauce, he’s drinking a beer, which he insists is the best pairing. But if he’s craving wine, “I’d opt for a light, chilled red,” like Agiorgitiko, which also happens to be the most widely planted red grape in Greece. Traditionally grown in the Nemea region of the Peloponnese, it’s now found throughout the country including Attikí and Macedonía.

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The versatile grape can produce several styles. In this case, go for the lighter-bodied red produced using carbonic maceration, with plummy fruit and enough acidity to cut through the fatty lamb meat and creamy sauce. The warm, peppery spice and long finish will complement the herbs and spices of the marinade and tangy yogurt sauce.

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Illustration by Eric DeFreitas

The Best Wine for a Greek Mezze Platter: Orange Wine or Assyrtiko

Greek mezze platters can run the gamut from stuffed grape leaves, olives and bread to funky, briny taramasalata, hummus and grilled meat skewers. The accompanying wine should play nicely with an eclectic mix of flavors without getting lost—hence why Pike likes steering customers toward skin-contact or orange wine that’s not too funky, much like Cheslik’s strategy with Greek salad.

“The orange wines I bring are very accessible, very clean, but still have character,” like Greek orange wines made from the Muscat of Alexandria grape, with notes of orange blossom and apricot. “It’s something special with a little texture, so it’s not going to fall away, but it’s also not going to compete with any food,” she says.

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She also recommends Assyrtiko. “Just drink Assyrtiko with everything,” she says. “It’s bright, fresh, not too complex, with screaming-high acid—almost like a palate cleanser,” she says. “Have a bite of taramasalata, a sip of Assyrtiko, then an olive. Mmm.”

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The Best Wine for Moussaka: A Lighter-Bodied Red, Like Agiorgitiko

Some say the Peloponnesian Agiorgitiko wine is like Pinot Noir, “which might offend a French person,” quips Pike. However, she loves this wine for its silky tannins, brightness and sometimes salty, tomato leaf-like quality. The last of those descriptors makes it a particularly delicious partner to moussaka, the rich, layered dish of eggplant and beef in tomato sauce, topped with béchamel. “I love tomato with tomato,” Pike says. “You have a richness, which really plays with béchamel and all the cheese. You have silky with silky, so there’s a textural similarity.”

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The Best Wine for Pastitsio: A Bright and Grippy Red, Like Xinomavro

Pastitsio is playfully referred to as the lasagna of Greece—a time-consuming affair involving layers of pasta, cinnamon-scented ground beef ragù, kasseri cheese and creamy béchamel. Such richness calls for a lighter-bodied red with acidity and firm tannins, like Xinomavro, whose distinguishing characteristics fittingly echo a certain Italian wine, Cheslik says.

“They call this grape the ‘Nebbiolo of Greece’—light bodied with plenty of grippy tannin to pair nicely with the rich bechamel and beef,” she says. Her pick is Kir-Yianni, which produces a fruit-forward, herbaceous Xinomavro with racy acidity. “If you like Italian wines but wanna try something different, this would be fun.”

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The Best Wine for Grilled Seafood: Assyrtiko

There’s a reason they say what grows (or swims) together, goes together. Case in point: the poetic match of bracing Assyrtiko from Santorini and Greek island seafood, edged in char and doused in olive oil and lemon.

“If I’m eating island food, I want Assyrtiko every time,” Pike says. The bracingly acidic white has minerality for days—“like licking a seashell.” It’s structured, with pithy, bitter citrus notes that play well with fish. Depending on the winemaker, “you can find fuller, richer Assyrtiko with high-toned acidity that lifts everything up around it,” she says. “It almost seasons food, so the fish tastes more like itself.”

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Bililies agrees. “Assyrtiko, full stop,” he says. Keep an eye out for some of Bililies’s favorite Assyrtikos from the island, which are made by Estate Argyros, Vassaltis Vineyards and Gai’a Wines.

For citrusy, brisk and buoyant, go for Argyros; its citrus rind and briny flavors are accented with a touch of terroir-driven smoke. Vassaltis leans medium-bodied with peachy, citrus aromas and flavors of lemon zest and juice to match its lemon-yellow color. On the other hand, Gai’a’s Wild Ferment Assyrtiko starts out herbaceous on the nose with hints of vanilla, with a sweeter palate that’s still balanced by savory and citrus notes. See? There’s an Assyrtiko for every fish in the (Mediterranean) sea.

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