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Spiced meat, tzatziki and lemon in a pita. The yoghurt does more than it looks.
Agiorgitiko for a red, Assyrtiko for a white. Greek dish, Greek answer, and neither wants much tannin.
Gyros is pork or chicken cooked on a vertical spit with oregano, paprika and garlic, sliced into a pita with tomato, onion, tzatziki and often chips. It is street food and it is easy to pair badly, because the meat suggests a red while the yoghurt and lemon quietly rule out most of them.
Yoghurt is soured dairy: it coats the palate and brings its own lactic acidity. Coating makes firm tannin taste dusty and drying, and the acidity means a soft wine tastes flabby beside it. So the target is high acidity with low to moderate tannin — the same shape that moussaka needs, for the same reason.
Lemon, which is squeezed over almost everything Greek, raises the acidity bar further. And the raw onion adds pungency that a delicate wine will not survive.
The meat is milder than it seems. Spit-roasted pork with oregano is savoury rather than heavy, and it does not need a big wine to stand up to it.
Agiorgitiko. From Nemea — soft tannin, ripe red fruit, gentle spice. The easiest red for this and the one most likely to please a table.
Assyrtiko. If you would rather have white, this is the answer: bone dry, saline, ferociously acidic, and it handles lemon, yoghurt and garlic without effort.
A dry rosé is the practical middle, and gyros is usually eaten in warm weather where a cold pink glass makes more sense than a warm red one.
Souvlaki — skewered marinated meat rather than spit-roasted — is essentially the same pairing, with more char from the grill. Char is bitter, which is one more argument against oak.
Chips in the pita, which is standard in Greece, add starch and salt. Starch dulls the palate, so pick the more aromatic of your options; salt softens the wine and makes it taste fruitier.
If there is a lot of chilli or a spicy sauce, drop the alcohol and chill harder — see Greek food for the broader picture.
What to avoid: heavy oak and firm tannin. Yoghurt strips tannin bare and the char adds bitterness; a big oaked red loses on both counts.
Agiorgitiko for a soft red, Assyrtiko for a white, or a dry rosé as the practical middle.
Yoghurt coats the palate and brings its own acidity. The coating makes firm tannin taste dusty and the acidity makes a soft wine taste flabby — so you want high acid and low tannin.
Essentially, with more char from the grill. Char is bitter, which is one more reason to avoid oak.
Heavy oak and firm tannin. The yoghurt strips tannin bare and the char adds bitterness, so a big oaked red loses twice.
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