Vintage 2005

cool · late · red in the north

Nationwide 7.0 out of 10 · Confidence of rating: medium

Macedonia

Naoussa · PDO – Red 7.5 · White 7.0 (Confidence: medium)

Central Greece

Attika · PGI – Red 7.5 · White 7.0 (Confidence: medium)

Peloponnese

Nemea · PDO – Red 7.0 · White 6.5 (Confidence: low)

Mantinia · PDO – Red 6.0 · White 6.5 (Confidence: low)

Cyclades

Santorini · PDO – Red 6.0 · White 7.0 (Confidence: low)

Crete 7.0 · Peloponnese outside Nemea and Mantinia 7.0 (as an overall value without separation by color)

A cool year with a warm ending. It stayed dry and cool into June, after which temperatures remained below average with decent rainfall. Only September turned to heat and dryness, and because the grapes had ripened slowly until then, the harvest came in late and healthy.

The results are best seen in the north. A long, cool season with a warm finish is the most favorable of all constellations for Xinomavro: the acidity holds, yet the tannins still ripen fully. Reports from Naoussa praise exactly that – complete phenolic ripeness at a late harvest, along with unusually pronounced aromatics.

On the mainland, 2005 is thus a red wine year: in Naoussa, in Attika, and in Nemea, red leads. On the island and at altitude, this reverses. On Santorini, white stands a full point above red, in Mantinia half a point. The same cool season that gave the reds of the north their tannin ripeness preserved the acidity of the white varieties – Assyrtiko and Moschofilero live on exactly that.

There is a single figure from Santorini, and in retrospect it carries weight: 2005 marks the beginning of the documented yield series at 2.9 tonnes per hectare. From there it falls almost uninterrupted, down to 1.5 tonnes by 2019.

At 7.0, 2005 is the strongest vintage between 2003 and 2010. No other year of this decade ranks higher with us, and in the trade literature it still serves today as the benchmark against which later years are measured – 2008, for instance, is considered comparable there, a view we ourselves take somewhat more soberly.

Our Wines

None. We have never opened a Greek bottle from this vintage.

The closest comparison is Xinomavro from the neighboring years. From Ktima Kir-Yianni we tasted the Ramnista 2006 at 86 and the Ramnista 2010 at 88 points – the same wine, one year and six years after 2005.

Vintage 2004 · 2005 · Vintage 2006 | All vintages