WELCOME TO GREEK WINES

Axia, Syrah-Xinomavro, 2017 from Alpha Estate This wine from Alpha Estate (details on the winery can be found here) shows itself, very quickly after opening, with very lovely red fruit and a touch of tomato on the nose. Syrah and Xinomavro – 50% each – harmonise quite wonderfully there. On the palate, soft yet clinging tannin nestles in. The acidity, which carries the wine far, is lovely too. Opened for a few days, the wine then shows its full potential. The first oxidative n

Ktima Erithrou Rodou's very first vintage ever (more on the winery can be read here). And this wine really has something to it. The winemakers boldly commit fully to the floral end of the Malagousia spectrum – and are rewarded for it. The wine has crystal-clear elderflower fruit, alongside refreshing lychee notes on the palate too and wonderful acidity. The whole thing is rounded off by a lovely creaminess, traceable to the five months of fine lees ageing. That's a few league

PGI Drama in northern Greece is already home to some of the most internationally well-known Greek wineries (as a click on the corresponding tag on this blog will also show). In 2019, a newcomer joined them that, despite the already fairly high density of producers, made connoisseurs of Greek wine sit up and take notice – "Ktima Erithrou Rodou" from Giannis Triantafillidis and Katerina Karampatea. Neither of them is a stranger to the world of wine, and both have already served

A wine from the creative Acheon Winery (see here) that goes through an impressive evolution in the glass. Opened cold, at first you smell – nothing at all. On the palate, too, hardly any flavour shows, and the alcohol – 13%, no less – is practically imperceptible. If anything, you'd think of apple spritzer. Only over time does it turn, on the palate, into cloudy apple must. Later on, increasingly mineral notes also show up on the nose – which then abruptly give way to fine st

Acheon Winery (stressed on the last syllable) lies between the Meganitis river to the west and, much closer, the Selinous to the east, not far from the town of Aigio, within the eponymous Aigialeia region, whose wine Pausanias already praised. A very thorough introduction to the unique terroir of the corresponding PGI is provided by Yiannis Karakasis in this blog post. As he points out, a PDO label tailored to the Roditis variety would make a lot of strategic sense going forw

"Alpha Estate" is the Greek estate founding of the last twenty years that has drawn as much international attention as, probably, only "Ktima Biblia Chora," likewise located in northern Greece, about which we reported recently. Here too, two founders stand behind the estate, with the roles clearly divided. Makis Mavridis (right in the photo below) is a second-generation winegrower from the area and is responsible for the vineyards. Angelos Iatridis (left in the photo below) h