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 of Nemea and Mantinia 7.5 (each as an overall value without separation by color)

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 by a burst of heat. Where alcohol and raisin aromas usually threaten, 2013 offered acidity and fragrance.

That is why it is first and foremost a year of the white varieties – not, however, because they carry the highest scores, but because they fall short nowhere. No region stands below 7.0 in white, while the reds scatter from 8.5 all the way down to 6.0.

Meteora – 8.5

The highest score of this vintage, and the only region that carries it in both colors – in red, Amyndeon draws level. Thessaly is thereby 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 drought 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 sugar levels with good acidity, and from Meteora it is said that this was perhaps the best harvest of the last 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 at 8.0 each

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 20 to 30 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 was true for Savatiano and Roditis: precise, high-acid, fragrant wines with preserved freshness 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, a high average temperature without peaks.

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

Nemea 7.0

In the Peloponnese, the year was favorable and cool; in Nemea it was distinctly dry with around 541 millimeters, which is below average and kept rot away. 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 average, the second-coolest since 2000, and on not a single day did the thermometer reach 35 degrees. Over the hydrological year, 400 millimeters fell against an average of 439. The whites fell short nowhere.

Our wines

We tasted eleven Greek wines from 2013, from eight producers. The median stands at 93 points.

They show the vintage from the side it does least well: nine of the eleven are red. Of the broad white strength of this year, almost nothing lies 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 from 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

· Boutari Grand Reserve Naoussa · 85

· 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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