Vintage 2007
three heatwaves · the fires · North versus South
Nationwide 6.5 out of 10 · Confidence of rating: medium
Macedonia
Amyndeon · PDO – Red 9.0 (Confidence: medium)
Naoussa · PDO – Red 8.0 · White 6.5 (Confidence: medium)
Central Greece
Attika · PGI – Red 7.0 · White 5.5 (Confidence: medium)
Peloponnese
Nemea · PDO – Red 4.5 (Confidence: high)
Mantinia · PDO – White 4.5 (Confidence: high)
Cyclades
Santorini · PDO – Red 6.0 · White 6.0 (Confidence: medium)
Crete 6.5 · Pangeon 6.5 · Peloponnese outside Nemea and Mantinia 6.5 (each as an overall value without separation by color)
Four and a half points separate the highest from the lowest value on this page. That is, together with 2015, the widest range in our series – and unlike 2015, it does not lie between two colors, but between two parts of the country.
2007 was a national extreme year. Months of drought were followed by three heatwaves above 40 degrees in June, July, and August, with the highest maxima in six to seven decades. On June 26, Athens recorded 46.2 degrees; in Attika, up to 47.5 was reached.
And then came the fires. Between August 23 and 27, the deadliest wildfires in recent Greek history raged, above all in the western and southern Peloponnese – Ilia, Zacharo, Messenia, Achaia, Korinthia – and in southern Euboea. Around 2,700 square kilometers burned, 85 people died. A winery in Achaia burned down completely on July 27.
Amyndeon – Red 9.0
The highest value on this page, and it stands where one would least expect it in a record heat year. The highlands at seven hundred meters have what the rest of the country lacked in 2007: cool nights and a wide range between day and night. Exactly what keeps the aromatics fresh when the day threatens to burn them away.
Added to this was a ripening cycle that stretched out despite the heat – around 53 days between mid-veraison and harvest – and a perfect September. The result is very ripe, concentrated, deeply colored Xinomavro with full seed and tannin ripeness; the dryness at the same time kept any rot away.
Naoussa sits one point below, for the same reason in weakened form.
Nemea – Red 4.5
The lowest red value on this page, and the South was hit by several things at once. In Nemea, 408 millimeters fell, the driest year of the decade. The thin-skinned Agiorgitiko came under drought stress, partially raisined, and stalled in phenolic ripeness while the sugar kept climbing. Harvesting very early was mandatory.
Added to this, in the zones of Korinthia near the fires, was the risk of smoke taint in the wine – the fires fell right in the middle of the ripening phase.
Where the whites stood
Under pressure nationwide. Extreme heat and dehydration cost acidity and aromatics, and in the lowlands Savatiano and Roditis threatened to tip into alcohol and aromatic flatness. Freshness survived in only three places: with Assyrtiko, whose acid stability on Santorini withstood this summer too, at the altitudes of Mantinia and Zitsa, and everywhere that harvesting was done very early and at night.
Our wines
None. We have never opened a Greek bottle from 2007.
The closest we come is the Xinomavro of the neighboring years: from 2006, the Ramnista from Ktima Kir-Yianni with 86 points; from 2008, nothing from the North. The vintage that Amyndeon produced in 2007 is thus completely missing for us – of all things, the highest red value of this entire decade.
Vintage 2006 · 2007 · Vintage 2008 | All vintages