Three for Monday #4

* Aegean Pan, a blog on stories and photos of life in the Aegean Sea, has a wonderful set of photos of Argyros Estate's production of Vinsanto on Santorini. Deserves a good look.

* Andrew Hall's blog on random interesting things has a decent post on The Anama Concept. He claims the 2008 is the best of the bunch. What do you think?

* Did you know Virginia (Go Hoos!) is the United States' fifth largest wine-producing state? The drinks business has an article on how Virginia is trying to become the East Coast's wine capital. Finger Lakes, watch out!

Three for Monday #1

I've decided to launch a weekly post ("Three for Monday") that will highlight island wine-related articles that caught my eye during the past week. If you have any interesting pieces to include, please add them to the comments section. Happy reading, happier drinking.

* The article Cyprus wine has been raving about. Jancis Robinson, one of the world's preeminent wine connoisseurs, tasted the 2011 Kyperounda Petritis and loved it.

 * Design and branding are important. Elloinos, one of Greek wine's biggest fans and promoters, highlights Cypriot The Anama Concept's sophisticated collector's bottles. Also, Vouni Panayia Winery's labels got a wonderful makeover courtesy of designer Marios Karystios, and The Dieline, a company dedicated to the packaging design industry, tells us what they love about them.

* If you read the blog and my crazy tweets, you know I have a soft spot for Pinot Noir. Will Lyons, wine columnist for The Wall Street Journal, writes about his favorite New Zealand Pinot Noirs. Make sure to check out the slideshow at the bottom of the article! (Last time I checked, Bottles in Limassol stocks Felton Road.)

Quandaries...

Results for the 2013 Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA) were released earlier this week. Overall, The Rock's performance was not as solid as in previous years with only one Silver Medal being awarded to Sodap's 2002 Saint Barnabas Commandaria. Beyond that, as usual, Cyprus received its fair share of Commended and Bronze medals.

From this and last year's results, it's pretty clear (to me at least) that only a handful of Cypriot wineries have chosen to send their wines to DWWA. Honestly, I wonder why. Do costs outweigh potential benefits? Do awards have little impact on a wine's reputation/sales in the Cypriot market? Are these contests perceived as being "biased" or not good appraisers of the quality of the wines sampled? Dear readers, if you have any insight into this, we'd appreciate your thoughts.

Anyhow, here's the list of awarded wines:

Silver Medals

2002 Sodap Saint Barnabas Commandaria

Bronze Medals

2010 Aes Ambelis Omiros (Maratheftiko)

2010 Vasilikon Winery Ayios Onoufrios (Red Blend)

2009 Vasilikon Winery Methy (Cabernet Sauvignon)

2012 Prophet Elias Gerolemo Muscat

2012 Sodap Kamantarena Xynisteri

2012 Sodap Stroumbeli Maratheftiko Rose

2010 The Anama Concept Commandaria

Commended Medals

2010 Aes Ambelis Ektor (Shiraz)

2012 Aes Ambelis Xinisteri-Semillon

2011 Makkas Winery Chardonnay

2010 Makkas Winery Merlot

2012 Makkas Winery Rodostafylo Rose

2010 Makkas Winery Syrah

2012 Prophet Elias Gerolemo Riesling

2012 Prophet Elias Gerolemo Maratheftiko Rose

2012 Sodap Kamantarena Rhine-Riesling

2012 Sodap Mountain Vines Semillon

2012 Sodap Mountain Vines Cabernet Sauvignon-Maratheftiko

2012 Sodap Stroumbeli Chardonnay

2009 Sodap Stroumbeli Shiraz

2009 The Anama Concept Commandaria

2009 Vouni Panayia Barba Yiannis Maratheftiko