Greek Style Chicken Skewers & Homemade Flatbread

Serves: 4 Prep:  20 mins Cook: 15 minutes Pair: Estate Chardonnay

The crisp acidity of a Chardonnay complements the tangy flavors of Greek chicken skewers, creating a delightful and refreshing pairing.

A delicious and vibrant dinner pairing for any meal of the week!

Ingredients

4 chicken thighs

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp olive oil

1 avocado

½ English cucumber

Lettuce

Pickled red onions

Yoghurt Dressing

1 cup Greek yoghurt

3 tbsp lemon juice

Cracked black pepper

Flatbreads

1.5 cup self raising flour

1 cup Greek yoghurt

Salt

Method

Chicken

1. Cut chicken into 2cm pieces and marinade in olive oil, lemon juice and seasoning
2. Skewer chicken onto 4 x skewers
3. Grill chicken for 8mins @ 200c, turning every couple minutes
4. Alternatively – leave the thighs whole, grill and chop into bite sized pieces once cooked

Dressing

1. Mix yoghurt, lemon juice and cracked black pepper together
2. Taste and add more pepper as required

Flatbreads

1. In a bowl mix together 1 cup flour to 1 cup yoghurt adding the remainder of the flour as you go
2. Once combined, turn onto a well floured surface and knead until dough is no longer sticky
3. Cut into 6-8 pieces and form individual balls
4. Using a floured rolling pin on a well floured surface roll out until they are about ½ cm thick
5. Grill or pan fry with a little oil for 30 seconds per side or until you see air bubbles and then flip

Essential Tools

• Chef knives
• Chopping board
• Large mixing bowl
• Rolling pin
• Skewers
• Small mixing bowl
• Measuring/weighing utensils

Tips/Tricks

• Everything can be prepared in advance for dinner – just place the uncooked flatbreads on a floured tray and cover with a towel or clingfilm so they don’t dry out.
• They can be left at room temp for up to 2 hours or in the fridge for longer. Remove from the fridge 30mins prior to cooking
• You can buy shop-bought pickled onions and/or flatbread to speed this up but homemade ones are honestly the best!
• Will also work with grilled beef skewers too

Wines that would also pair perfectly with this recipe include:

Our 2019 Garden Vineyard Chardonnay has always been a special wine to us. Borne out of the fantastic 2019 vintage, we don’t normally make a single vineyard wine; however, the fruit looked so beautiful that it was bottled and then aged before its release last year. Our patience and persistence have been awarded with a recent 95 points from The Real Review.

Stuart Knox said, “light straw hue. White peach, seaspray and cashew aromatics. Lovely and fresh on entry, white stone fruits fill the centre with a hint of creamy lemon curd adding brightness. Little savoury hints of cashew and nougat, underlying is a note of chalky texture that contrasts the otherwise creamy flow. Great length, still showing great freshness and vitality along with the smoothing of bottle maturity.”

If you know anything about De Iuliis, you’ll know we’re all about making exceptional wines that everyone can enjoy. To stay true to this motto, we have various ranges incorporating different styles and price points, so you can easily find a wine that suits your tastes and budget. And because every bottle of De Iuliis wine promises to be packed full of good grapes and plenty of love and care, you’ll be in good hands no matter where you land.

The Estate Range

Our Estate Range wines are bottles that are ready to enjoy right now, no planning required. These modern takes on Hunter Valley classics are easy-drinking drops and perfect for a midweek pour. All the Estate Range wines are made with our signature state-of-the-art techniques and first-rate grapes, making them great value wines and a solid, dependable choice to always have on hand.

The line-up includes semillon, verdelho, chardonnay, rosé, shiraz, and cabernet sauvignon. Unfamiliar with verdelho? Then we highly recommend getting acquainted. Our take is fruit-driven, dry and full of rich, tropical characters of pineapple and passionfruit, making it an excellent accompaniment to your favourite spicy Asian food. For red lovers, the Estate Shiraz is as powerful as it is subtle, with a soft texture and flavours of ripe plums and blackberries. It’s a well-balanced wine sitting between medium and full bodied, perfect for a backyard barbecue.

Special Release Series

Think of our Special Release wines as where we really let our creative juices flow. They’re an opportunity to experiment and try new things; one-off, handcrafted wines that are unlikely to be repeated, so if something grabs your eye, best make it yours before you miss out. These wines are predominantly available from our winery, but there is a small amount allocated to the online shop.

A great example of a Special Release wine is the 2021 Sangiovese. After a long fascination with this celebrated Italian varietal, we decided to attempt our own version of the classic with an Australian spin. Aromas of bright cherries, and the palate is long with a crisp line of acid on the finish. A true food wine, it’s screaming to be paired with pasta or braised meats.

The Single Vineyard Range

Our Single Vineyard wines are a great chance to dive deeper into the unique qualities of Hunter Valley terroir. We only produce these in stellar growing seasons, so you know you’re getting a true representation of a varietal in its prime. These bottles are produced in small quantities and make for an excellent choice if you’re wanting a wine worthy of a special occasion at an affordable price point. 

Of our recent favourite Single Vineyard wines, the 2016 Aged Release Semillon is a definite stand out. Made using minimal intervention and cold-temperature fermentation in stainless steel, it’s a complex and balanced wine displaying subtle hints of toast and honey coupled with fresh lemon and lime characters, and one that will continue to improve for years to come.

Limited Release Collection

These wines are the cream of the crop; the award winners and cellar stars. Each bottle is handcrafted and individually numbered, with less than 250 cases of each wine produced. They’re iconic Hunter Valley wines showcasing the best fruit from the most exceptional vintages.

Limited Release highlights include our 2005 Charlie Shiraz – named for Mike’s grandfather, a passionate red drinker – which was made from old vines using traditional methods, and the 2018 Limited Release Chardonnay, produced by blending some of our best barrels to achieve an elegant, complex wine.

So, what range jumps out to you? Head to our online shop to browse the current vintages.

De Iuliis Winery has been named one of the top wineries in the Hunter Valley for 2023 by The Real Review, and it’s easy to see why. This boutique winery, located in the heart of the Hunter Valley, is renowned for producing exceptional wines that showcase the unique terroir of the region.

At the heart of De Iuliis Winery’s success is its commitment to quality. The winery uses only the finest grapes, handpicked from its own estate vineyards and carefully selected partner vineyards throughout the Hunter Valley. The grapes are then meticulously handcrafted into premium wines that reflect the unique character and flavour of the region.

The winery’s flagship wine, the De Iuliis Shiraz, is a standout example of the winery’s commitment to quality. This award-winning wine has consistently received high scores from critics and wine enthusiasts alike, with the 2019 Limited Release Shiraz scoring an impressive 95 points from renowned wine critic James Halliday.

But De Iuliis Winery is more than just a one-trick pony. The winery also produces exceptional semillon, chardonnay, shiraz, and rosé, each showcasing the distinctive characteristics of the Hunter Valley. These wines are crafted with the same meticulous attention to detail as the award-winning shiraz, resulting in a range of wines that are consistently delicious and of the highest quality.

Visitors to De Iuliis Winery can enjoy a range of experiences, from casual tastings at the cellar door to guided tours and tastings with the winemaker. The cellar door itself is a modern and stylish space, with sweeping views of the vineyards that surround the winery. The friendly and knowledgeable staff are always on hand to guide visitors through the tasting experience and share their insights into the winemaking process.

De Iuliis Winery is a must-visit destination for wine lovers who appreciate the highest quality wines. With its commitment to quality, dedication to the unique terroir of the Hunter Valley, and exceptional range of wines, it’s no surprise that this winery has been named one of The Real Review’s Top Wineries for 2023.

Harvesting

Grapes for our white wines are both hand and machine harvested. Hand-picking is gentle on the fruit and preserves the integrity of the bunches. Machine harvesting crushes the fruit slightly, breaking the skin of the grapes and releasing more phenolic material into the juice.

Preparing

White varieties are either destemmed before pressing or grapes are tipped directly into the press for whole bunch pressing. At De Iuliis we whole-bunch press our Semillon as the stalks provide drainage and preserve fruit purity. Chardonnay, Verdelho and Pecorino are all destemmed to allow light maceration with the skins, adding texture to the palate.

Pressing

Grapes are pressed using either our basket press or our pneumatic bag press. The pneumatic bag press uses an inflatable balloon-like bag to squeeze the grapes and extract the juice. The basket press uses pressure to give a very gentle extraction and we use it for our best parcels of Chardonnay.

Settling

After pressing the juice is settled in a cold tank to remove any suspended grape solids from the clear juice. Different varieties are fermented with different amounts of solids in the ferment. Semillon ferments will always have crystal clear juice to retain purity as opposed to Chardonnay where cloudy juice with a higher solids content will enhance the wine style.

Adding Yeast

Yeast converts sugars found naturally in grapes into alcohol, CO2 and heat. At De Iuliis we utilise ‘wild’ fermentation as well as inoculated ferments with cultured yeasts. Wild ferments are naturally occurring ferments started by the yeasts from the grape skins that arrive from the vineyard. They offer unique properties specific to the winery and the terroir of the vineyard. Cultured yeast ferments allow more control over the ferment and allow us to produce consistent wines year after year.

Fermentation

It takes between 7 and 14 days to ferment white wine. The wines are kept cool during ferment to preserve the delicate floral aromas and stop the yeasts from racing too quickly through ferment.

Blending

At this stage, the wines have been maturing both in tank and barrel and building depth and complexity. The winemaking team goes through a batch classification and barrel selection process to create single variety blends – this is how our Limited Release Chardonnay and Single Vineyard Semillon is made.

Clarification

To ensure our wines are protected from microbial spoilage and look beautiful in your glass we filter them with a crossflow membrane filter before they head off for bottling.

Bottling

It’s time to send our wines off to the bottling line! You’ll soon get to enjoy them.