Vintage 2010
divided · wet south · saved by the harvest date
Nationwide 6.0 out of 10 · Confidence of rating: medium
Macedonia
Naoussa · PDO – Red 7.0 · White 6.5 (Confidence: low)
Epirus
Zitsa · PDO – Red 6.0 · White 6.0 (Confidence: low)
Central Greece
Attika · PGI – Red 6.0 · White 6.0 (Confidence: medium)
Peloponnese
Nemea · PDO – Red 5.0 (Confidence: medium)
Mantinia · PDO – White 6.0 (Confidence: medium)
Cyclades
Santorini · PDO – Red 6.5 · White 7.0 (Confidence: medium)
Crete 6.5 · Pangeon 6.0 · Peloponnese outside Nemea and Mantinia 6.0 (each as an overall value without separation by colour)
Globally, 2010 ranks among the warmest years, but in Greece it went in different directions. The north got a cooler, wetter and late year, the south the wettest in a decade, and the islands a heat spike in the middle of July. In the end, two points separate Naoussa from the Peloponnese.
Only one thing was the same everywhere: The harvest date was what mattered. Whoever had their grapes in the cellar before the autumn rains had their vintage.
Naoussa – Red 7.0
Kir-Yianni calls it a peculiar, changeable year: beneficial spring rains, hot summer days, and more rain towards the end of the harvest. The cooler, wetter course was favourable for acidity and freshness, but it also lengthened the time a late-ripening, thin-skinned Xinomavro had to wait for its luck with the weather.
Where picking was early and clean, fine, fragrant wines emerged, with soft tannins, rather low alcohol and good ageing potential. The north itself, however, classifies the years 2008 to 2010 as three average ones in a row.
Nemea – Red 5.0
The weakest value on the page, and it comes with a number: 872 millimetres of rainfall fell in Nemea, the highest value of the decade, against an average of around 750. After three dry years, the rain returned and pushed budbreak, flowering and fruit set back; the wet August then built up botrytis pressure.
For Agiorgitiko, that is the most unfavourable combination there is. The skin is thin, and against rot only work helps: green harvesting, hand picking, strict selection. There were good wines, but they had to be earned.
Santorini – White 7.0
The highest white value of the vintage. Winter rains were followed by a summer without rain and then a documented heat spike in July, which triggered a very early harvest of very ripe grapes. Southerly winds brought some fungal pressure; the Meltemi, as usual, did its part against it.
What came of it is bright, mineral and salty – wines that show no trace of the summer's heat, because Assyrtiko holds its acidity even when it gets hot. The Nychteri of this vintage counts among the strongest of its estate.
Our wines
We have tasted four Greek wines from 2010. The median is 90.5 points.
At the top stands the Deka X from Oenogenesis with 93, a blend of Xinomavro and Merlot, behind it the Biblia Chora red from Pangeon with 91 and a Cabernet Sauvignon from Panagiotopoulos from Trifilia with 90.
The fourth is the most interesting, because it comes from the area that leads this vintage: the Ramnista from Ktima Kir-Yianni in Naoussa with 88 points. The same bottle from 2006, the year in which the estate forwent its top Naoussa bottling, stands at 86 with us.
All tasting notes from 2010
· Ktima Biblia Chora Biblia Chora red · 91
· Ktima Kir-Yianni Ramnista · 88
· Oenogenesis Deka X · 93
· Panagiotopoulos Wines Cabernet Sauvignon Organic · 90
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