Vintage 2018

split in two · whites saved · Naoussa ruined, Amyndeon spared

Nationwide 5.0 out of 10 · Confidence of rating: medium

Macedonia

Amyndeon · PDO – Red 8.5 (Confidence: medium)

Goumenissa · PDO – Red 6.0 · White 6.0 (Confidence: medium)

Naoussa · PDO – Red 5.0 · White 6.0 (Confidence: high)

Thrace

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

Epirus

Metsovo · PGI – Red 6.0 · White 6.0 (Confidence: medium)

Thessaly

Rapsani · PDO – Red 6.5 (Confidence: low)

Karditsa · PGI – Red 5.5 · White 5.5 (Confidence: low)

Meteora · PGI – Red 5.5 · White 6.0 (Confidence: medium)

Central Greece

Attika · PGI – Red 6.0 · White 7.0 (Confidence: medium)

Atalanti and Opountia Lokridas · PGI – Red 5.5 · White 5.5 (Confidence: medium)

Peloponnese

Mantinia · PDO – White 7.0 (Confidence: high)

Nemea · PDO – Red 6.0 (Confidence: high)

Cyclades

Santorini · PDO – Red 7.0 · White 8.0 (Confidence: high)

Crete 6.5 · Drama 6.5 · Pangeon 6.5 · Epanomi 6.0 · Peloponnese outside Nemea and Mantinia 6.0 (each as an overall value without separation by color)

The Attika value applies to the plain around Athens, not to Lokris in Phthiotis; that region carries its own.

2018 was not one vintage but two. Until early July, the season went favorably across the country, wetter than usual, without heat waves and without storms. After that, rain alone decided the outcome, and it did not fall where a map would lead you to expect it: on Santorini it had not rained at all for months, while in Naoussa July would not stop. The one circumstance produced one of the island's best Assyrtiko vintages; the other ruined the late red wine.

The greatest distance this year therefore lies not between north and south, but within Macedonia: between Naoussa and the neighboring highlands of Amyndeon lie three and a half points, and those are at the same time the two extreme values of the entire vintage. Mildew does not follow regional boundaries, it follows sites.

Anyone who wanted to choose well from 2018 in the glass had to get three things right: color, region and producer.

Amyndeon – Red 8.5

The highest value of this vintage comes from the same grape variety and the same province that went under elsewhere. Amyndeon sits between 600 and 750 meters of elevation, on a plateau between four lakes, and is the coolest Xinomavro zone in the country.

The year began favorably there, flowering came a week earlier than usual, fruit set brought 20 percent more yield. May and June were wet and created disease pressure, but then the weather tipped in the opposite direction: from the end of June to late September, 82 millimeters of rain fell, practically nothing for a wine region. Harvest took place at least ten days earlier than usual. The mildew that devoured Naoussa's harvest never arrived here.

For Xinomavro this was a very good year: healthy fruit, clear structure, no need for heavy selection. The nationwide value of 5.0 says nothing about these wines – it describes a country in which it rained.

Naoussa – Red 5.0 · White 6.0

After 2012, the most difficult Naoussa vintage of the decade, level with 2014. An unusually long, wet July phase triggered massive powdery and downy mildew, and the abrupt shift from wet to dry in August put the vines under additional stress. Ripening became uneven.

For a late-ripening, thin-skinned variety, that is the worst of all combinations. The Xinomavro harvest stretched from early September to early October, one of the longest ever, and it took place under constant disease and rot pressure. Those who came through cleanly did so with the strictest selection. The wines turned out lean and low in tannin, with high pH values and little concentration. Karakasis called 2018 a challenging, lighter vintage and the wines light, peppery, texture-driven. The Naoussa winemaker Nikos Foundis had at times expected in July not to harvest at all.

The whites of the north fared better because they were picked earlier. Where Malagousia and Assyrtiko were harvested healthy and on time, solid wines emerged.

Goumenissa – 6.0

On the Paiko slopes, the same very high humidity stood for a long time as in Naoussa, and then the weather did something it did not do 45 kilometers further southwest: from the end of August it stayed dry until the end of the harvest. The vines recovered, the fungal infections stopped. In mid-September the berries shrank slightly because, after the wet phase, water was now lacking; harvest took place a week earlier, at 15 to 20 percent lower volume and with strikingly high acidity in white and red alike.

One point above the national value, but no more, and the reason is stated in the producers' own report: the most striking feature of this harvest was the pronounced unevenness down to the individual vine. A selection-dependent year, not a good one.

Santorini – White 8.0 · Red 7.0

The best white of this year grew out of a water shortage that would otherwise be described as a catastrophe. From September 2017 to July 2018, around 155 millimeters of rain fell on the island, of which 4.6 in spring. The water reserves of several years had already been used up by that point.

Harvest was accordingly early and in one sweep: it began in some places as early as July 22, and by August 17 every variety from every parcel was in the cellar. What went into the press were tiny berries with a skin-to-juice ratio that Assyrtiko only achieves in years like this – intense, acid-driven, mineral, long-lived. There was no risk of rot, because there was nothing that could have rotted.

This was paid for in volume. The island brought in around 1,900 tonnes, 45 percent below its average. How narrow the economic base on Santorini has become can be read from this number better than from any tasting verdict.

Peloponnese – Nemea 6.0 · Mantinia White 7.0

On the Peloponnese, things went similarly to the north, only milder. The growing season started 10 to 15 days earlier than the previous year, then August and September brought a lot of rain and with it downy mildew, most severely in the valley basin of Nemea.

What became of it depended on elevation, and so strongly that a single value hardly describes the area anymore. Agiorgitiko is thin-skinned, and thin-skinned in a wet September means rot, dilution, loss of color and acidity. That is exactly what hit the valley wines. On the heights around Koutsi little of this was felt, and the producers' accounts from Nemea diverge accordingly – from initial discouragement with a satisfactory result in the end, to excellent grapes in one's own vineyard.

Mantinia was among the winners of the early harvest date, as were almost all whites this year. The Moschofilero was largely in before the autumn rain came, and benefited from a cool, fresh season with a wide day-night temperature range.

Attika – Red 6.0 · White 7.0

The plain around Athens had the calmest season: a cool June and July, followed by a mild, dry summer with practically no rain. Véraison was delayed by around two weeks, harvest began in mid-August, without rain and without fungal diseases. For Attika's drought-resistant old Savatiano vines, this was a clean year, and the whites are the clear bright spot of the region. The reds turned out flawless, but cool and light – peppery rather than powerful.

On July 23 and 24, the deadliest wildfire in Europe in over a century burned near Mati in eastern Attika; at least 102 people died. It was a coastal and residential fire near Athens and affected no significant wine region.

Lokris – Red 5.5 · White 5.5

The landscape on the North Euboean Gulf came through this year as one of the few without a break. A mild, dry winter and a spring warm for the season brought budbreak forward. In June and July, plentiful rain then fell – the same rain that took Naoussa apart – but here it fell on comparatively low temperatures, and with the shifting air currents from Parnassus and the Gulf, the grapes ripened physiologically normally. August and September brought scattered showers at similarly cool values. Harvest took place in the last days of July with the whites, then with the reds; yields were at the previous year's level, 400 to 600 kilograms per stremma at higher elevations, 700 to 1,000 in the plain.

The national value of 5.0 is the second lowest of our entire series – only 2002 lies below it at 4.0 – and it stems almost entirely from the north. For Lokris it is not applicable; the half point above it stands for a ripening that here ran through without incident.

Maroneia – Red 6.0 · White 6.5

Far in the east, in the Thracian coastal plain, 2018 above all demanded planning: the volume came in smaller, what was harvested remained high in quality, the reds came in with high alcohol potential and good concentration. The coastal area below the Rhodopes has nothing in common with the climate of Naoussa, on which the low national value hangs – and what succeeded here was to a good extent work in the vineyard, not the favor of the year. That is why the value stands only moderately above it.

Rapsani – Red 6.5

On the eastern slope of Mount Olympus, harvest took place ten days earlier than usual overall, and the grapes came in healthy, with good color and high alcohol potential. Health was the decisive factor this year, and that is why the appellation stands one and a half points above the national value – and two below Amyndeon.

Crete – 6.5

Wet and hot at the same time, plus hail, prolonged rain and June heat. Yields fell regionally by 40 to 50 percent, harvest was late, only after August 15. Despite the wetness, botrytis remained limited: the late-ripening reds – Liatiko, Kotsifali, Mandilaria – and the Vidiano of the higher elevations were able to dry off in between. Decent where the work was done carefully, and clearly below 2017 and 2019.

Our wines

We tasted 43 Greek wines from 2018, from 33 producers. The median is 90 points. Santorini 2018 is entirely absent from our records.

From Amyndeon, the highest-rated area of this vintage, four bottles are in the database, all from Alpha Estate: the Assyrtiko Aghia Kiriaki with 93 and 90 points from two tastings, the Chardonnay with 93 and the Pinot Noir Strofi with 91. Of all things, the Xinomavro that the 8.5 is about, we have never had in the glass from this vintage.

At the top stand two wines from Lacules Estate in Messenia, the Syrah and the Merlot, followed by the Malagousia from overripe grapes from Ktima Gerovassiliou. Just below, at 94, follow three further wines: the Diaporos from Ktima Kir-Yianni, the Amalia from Ktima Tselepou in Mantinia and the Carignan Vieilles Vignes from Oinotropai Winery.

More interesting than the top in this vintage is the middle, specifically in Naoussa. We tasted the Ramnista from Ktima Kir-Yianni from three consecutive vintages in the same year: 2017 with 90, 2018 with 90 and 2019 with 88 points. According to the vintage values, this series should look different, because between the 2018 and the 2019 lie four full points in Naoussa. An estate that selects strictly can apparently largely absorb a year like 2018 – which at the same time explains why the spread of this vintage is so wide. The value of 5.0 does not describe the top, but the breadth.

From Nemea, two bottles are in the database, the Nemea from Palivou Estate with 91 and the Reserve Agiorgitiko from Ktima Driopi with 90 – both wines that speak more for the higher elevations than for the valley basin.

From Mount Olympus comes the Terra Petra from Terra Olympus with 92 points, our only bottle of Rapsani from this year. And from the Paiko slopes, the Goumenissa from Aidarini stands in the database with 90, from the area that was able to shake off the July mildew.

From Lokris, two bottles are with us, and they are the two colors of the area: the Assyrtiko Geraklis Boreas from Evampelos Ghi with 92 and the Syrah from the Drisbay vineyard from Domaine Hatzimichalis with 91 points. Both lie above the median of this vintage, and both come from one of the areas to which we give the lowest value on this page after Naoussa. Two bottles are not counter-evidence; they are two bottles. From Maroneia, we opened nothing from 2018.

Top 3 of our own tastings

Rank 1 – 98+ points Lacules Estate Syrah

Rank 2 – 96 points Lacules Estate Merlot

Rank 3 – 95 points Ktima Gerovassiliou Malagousia from Overripe Grapes