Vintage 2013

cool · fresh · a white wine year

Nationwide 7.5 out of 10 · Confidence of rating: medium

Macedonia

Amyndeon · PDO – Red 8.5 (Confidence: medium)

Naoussa · PDO – Red 8.0 · White 7.0 (Confidence: medium)

Goumenissa · PDO – Red 8.0 · White 7.5 (Confidence: medium)

Thrace

Maroneia · PDO – Red 7.5 · White 7.5 (Confidence: low)

Epirus

Metsovo · PGI – Red 7.5 · White 7.5 (Confidence: low)

Thessaly

Meteora · PGI – Red 8.5 · White 8.5 (Confidence: medium)

Rapsani · PDO – Red 7.5 (Confidence: medium)

Karditsa · PGI – Red 7.5 · White 7.5 (Confidence: low)

Central Greece

Atalanti and Opountia Lokridas · PGI – Red 8.0 · White 8.0 (Confidence: medium)

Attika · PGI – Red 6.5 · White 8.0 (Confidence: medium)

Peloponnese

Mantinia · PDO – Red 6.0 · White 8.0 (Confidence: medium)

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

Cyclades

Santorini · PDO – Red 6.5 · White 8.0 (Confidence: low)

Crete 7.5 · Pangeon 8.0 · Epanomi 7.5 · Peloponnese outside Nemea and Mantinia 7.5 (each as an overall value without separation by colour)

Greece without heat - that is the short description of this vintage. Cool northerly winds kept the summer in check, the extreme days stayed away, and the grapes ripened evenly and fully instead of being pushed forward in a burst of heat. Where alcohol and raisin aromas usually loom, 2013 offered acidity and fragrance.

That is why it is above all a year for the white varieties – not, however, because they carry the highest scores, but because they do not fall off anywhere. No region scores below 7.0 in white, while the reds range from 8.5 all the way down to 6.0.

Meteora – 8.5

The highest score of this vintage, and the only region to carry it in both colours – in red, Amyndeon draws level. Thessaly is thus the exception to its own rule. A warm spring was followed by an almost rain-free summer that pulled ripening forward by a week. The persistent dryness and the constant wind had a consequence that is anything but a given there: not a single disease developed.

The harvest, too, took place under conditions the region hardly knows – without any rainfall, but also without a heatwave. In addition, yields were deliberately reduced, even though the vineyards could have delivered more. What came in had high must weights with good acidity, and word from the Meteora is that this was perhaps the best harvest of the past twenty years.

Dry enough that no disease pressure arose at all, and yet without the heat that usually costs acidity – these two things rarely coincide there.

The white side – Santorini, Mantinia, Attika each 8.0

On Santorini, a mild winter with little rainfall was followed by a moderate summer and one of the earliest harvests ever, at the end of July. The Assyrtiko from it is firm and mineral, and the sweet wines and Nychteri of the vintage also rank among the best of the decade.

In Mantinia the year began badly. A late April frost cost twenty to thirty percent of the crop

· the quality of what remained was unaffected. For the aromatic Moschofilero the cool course of the

year was ideal, and in Attika the same applied to Savatiano and Roditis: precise, high-acid, fragrant wines with freshness preserved at full ripeness.

Amyndeon 8.5 and Naoussa 8.0 – a milestone for Xinomavro

The north started with good water reserves, but in early June unexpectedly received rain and hail over Naoussa and Amyndeon. Then the weather turned and stayed: a dry, warm summer, a dry autumn, high average temperatures without peaks.

For the late-ripening variety this was the favourable sequence. Harvest came early, in mid-September, and what arrived in the cellar had intense colour, ripe tannins and an elegant drive that holds for years. Amyndeon, in the highlands, sits another half point above.

Nemea 7.0

On the Peloponnese the year was favourable and cool, in Nemea decidedly dry with around 541 millimetres, which is below average and kept rot at bay. Agiorgitiko came in structured and fresh and initially showed itself closed.

Crete – 7.5

In the south, too, 2013 was the cool year. The summer was a good half degree below the long-term mean, the second-coolest since 2000, and on not a single day did the thermometer reach 35 degrees. Over the hydrological year, 400 millimetres fell against a mean of 439. The whites did not fall off anywhere.

Our wines

We have tasted ten Greek wines from 2013, from seven producers. The median stands at 93.5 points.

They show the vintage from the side it does least well: eight of the ten are red. Of this year's broad strength in whites, almost nothing sits in our cellar - the only white bottle from one of the 8.0 regions is a Vinsanto.

Two bottles of the Plagios red from Ktima Biblia Chora in Pangeon were in the glass, both around 95 points. The lower end is marked by an Anemos from Palivou Estate at 82 and a Rapsani from Tsantali at 75 points.

Top 3 of our own tastings

Rank 1 – 96 points Montofoli Estate Ktima Montofoli

Rank 2 – 95+ points Ktima Biblia Chora Plagios red

Rank 3 – 94 points Hatzidakis Winery Vinsanto · Ktima Biblia Chora Areti red

All tasting notes from 2013

· Hatzidakis Winery Vinsanto · 94

· Ktima Biblia Chora Areti red · 94

· Ktima Biblia Chora Plagios red · 95

· Ktima Voyatzi Tsapournakos · 93

· Montofoli Estate Ktima Montofoli · 96

· Palivou Estate Anemos · 82

· Panagiotopoulos Wines Tomos I Cabernet Sauvignon · 90

· Panagiotopoulos Wines Tomos III Syrah · 93

· Tsantali Rapsani · 75

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