Grease with Wine at The Chippy

Tony Elvin
3 days ago
5 min read

This tasting was automatic, it was systematic, it was hydromatic .. it was 'Greece' lightnin! Read on for details on all the wines, our Grease movie trivia and our Rydell High Gallery.

The Wines

Wine 1 – Tesco Finest Assyrtiko, Florina, NW Greece £11

Classic Greek grape grown in Western Macedonia North Western Greece. High altitude, this is the coldest region in Greece. Producer Filos. has created a vibrant and crisp wine with fresh aromas of lemon, zesty green apple and white peach, with refreshing minerality giving a mouth watering finish. Pairs well with Seafood, grilled vegetables and goat's cheese.

Wine 2 - M&S Found Moschofilero Roditis, Greece £9

High altitude vineyard plots from two distinct regions of the Peloponnesian peninsula, produce this superb white wine using the local aromatic Moschofilero and citrusy Roditis grapes. Blush pink when ripe, these two native Greek grapes create a deliciously aromatic white wine. Fagrant notes of rose, citrus, and melon, balanced by a crisp, lemon-peel freshness and a subtle hint of saltiness on the finish.

Wine 3 - Boutari DianthosRosé, PGI Imathia £10.50 Tesco

Dianthos = Greek for Flower of God. Zeus envied his sister Hera's own flower, the lily, and threw a bolt of lightning to create a superior flower, the pink carnation. Dianthus is the name of the pink carnation family. The Xinomavro grape is more commonly associated with bold red wines. This rosé from the PGI Imathia region is from the wider Central Macedonia.

On the nose floral notes, strawberry and lychee with a fresh red fruit palate.

Wine 4 - Strofilia Mountain Fish Agiorgitiko, Psari Waitrose £10.25

Mountain village of Psari (means fish). A medium-bodied, unoaked red showing juicy red cherry and plum, a little mountain herbs and friendly, rounded tannins.

Wine 5 - M&S Expressions Xinomavro, Macedonia, Greece - £12

Made by Kir-Yianni winery from native grape Xinomavro – like a cross between Pinot Noir and Nebbiolo. The Expressions range is a world showcase of single varietal wines of authentic character to the grape. This wine scored 89 points in Decanter magazine. Strawberry jam and oregano on the nose, spicy red fruit, with plenty of tannic grip on the finish.

The Trivia

• Did you know The Fonz, Henry Winkler was nearly cast as Danny Henry only pulled out for fear of being typecast.

• Marie Osmand & Carrie Fisher nearly played Sandy.

• Jeff Conway already played Danny on Broadway, as did Richard Gere and Patrick Swayze.

• Olivia Newton John, our princess, couldn’t do an American accent so they re wrote the part the part for her from the original stage show.

• T-Birds were nearly no way so cool, they were due to be called the Burger Palace Boys!?

• Top songs that nearly didn’t make: "Grease," "Sandy," and "You're the One That I Want,". "Hopelessly Devoted to You" was actually added afterwards.

• 'Look at me I’m Sandra Dee' is a bit spooky. The song originally mentions heartthrob Sal Mineo but he was murdered in 76. They changed it to Elvis and he died the day the scene was filmed!

• The Beach Boys were meant to sing Greased Lightning, then Kenicke, but Travolta stole it in rehearsal.

• Elvis supposed to play Teen Angel but passed away during filming so the role went to Frankie Avalon. Rumours had it that he wasn't going to do it anyway.

• Avalon so scared of heights nearly cut the scene from the movie, saved with matresses.

• Frankie Avalon says don’t chew gum in Beauty School Dropout the song but the cast ignored, apparently consuming over 100,000 pieces during filming

• The school dance took two weeks to film as the temperature topped 100 degrees in the windowless gym with no air con, causing Michael Tucci, who played T-Bird Sonny LaTierri to faint and be taken to the E.R.

• The Carnival however, was filmed in 24 hours as the fair was only in town for the day.

• Until Mamma Mia came along, this was highest grossing movie musical of all time with four top ten billboard songs, grossing $400 mill.

• But the critics hated it. The Today show called it Visual Junk food and the New Yorker called it a klutzburger.

• Rizzo's hickeys were real. Stockard Channing said in an interview that Jeff Conaway insisted on applying them himself.

• After the success of the movie, there were supposed to be 3 sequels, but, after Grease 2 (1982) bombed so spectacularly they were all cancelled. A huge shame as Grease 3 was due to feature the original cast and characters many years later, in another decade, like the 1970s or the 1990s, but this movie never got beyond the planning stages.

• The scene near the bridge after the car race was filmed in an area full of trash, and the water on the ground was stagnant and dangerous. Some cast members became ill from filming

• Most of the principal cast were well past their high school years. When filming began in June 1977, Stockard Channing was thirty-three (in 1958, the year the film is set, Channing was in fact only three years younger than the age she is playing here), Michael Tucci was thirty-one, Jamie Donnelly was thirty, Annette Charles was twenty-nine, Dame Olivia Newton-John was twenty-eight, Barry Pearl was twenty-seven, Jeff Conaway was twenty-six, Didi Conn was twenty-five, John Travolta was twenty-three, Dinah Manoff was twenty-one, Kelly Ward and Eddie Deezen were twenty, and Lorenzo Lamas was nineteen.

Finally, a few words on the wonderful Olivia Newton John, may she rest in peace

• In 2019 she auctioned her leather jacket and pants to benefit her cancer research charity.

• Spanx founder Sara Blakely bought the pants for $405,700 and there was an anonymous winning bidder of the leather jacket, which sold for $243,200. It was later returned to Olivia.

• Jeff Conaway was infatuated with Dame Olivia and was tongue-tied whenever she was around. He later married Olivia's sister, Rona Newton-John.

• During filming the zipper broke on those famous trousers and she had to be sewn into them!

• "Hopelessly Devoted to You" was written and recorded after the movie had wrapped. Dame Olivia Newton-John's contract for Grease stipulated that she should have a solo song. However, nobody had any ideas for a song for her character, Sandy, until Olivia's producer John Farrar came up with "Hopelessly Devoted To You" halfway through the shoot. Director Randal Kleiser wasn't wholly convinced by the song at first and had to come up with an entirely new scene to fit it in. It was eventually filmed and recorded after the movie had wrapped and it earned the film's only Oscar nomination.