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 colour)

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

2018 was not one vintage but two. Until early July the season went favourably across the country, wetter than usual, without heatwaves 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 neighbouring highlands of Amyndeon lie three and a half points, and those are also the two extreme values of the entire vintage. Mildew does not follow regional borders, but individual sites.

Anyone who wanted to choose well from 2018 had to get three things right: colour, region and producer.

Amyndeon – Red 8.5

The highest value of this vintage stands in the same grape variety and the same province that went under elsewhere. Amyndeon lies between 600 and 750 metres in altitude, on a plateau between four lakes, and is the coolest Xinomavro zone in the country.

The year started favourably 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 into late September, 82 millimetres 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 it was a very good year: healthy fruit, clear structure, no need for drastic 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 hardest Naoussa vintage of the decade, on a par with 2014. An unusually long, wet July phase triggered massive powdery and downy mildew, and the abrupt switch 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 clean did so with the strictest selection. The wines turned out slim 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 in July expected not to harvest at all.

The whites of the north fared better because they came off the vine earlier. Where Malagousia and Assyrtiko were picked healthy and on time, solid wines resulted.

Goumenissa – 6.0

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

One point above the national value, but no more, and the reason is in the producers' own report: the most striking feature of this harvest was the pronounced unevenness, right 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 millimetres 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 accordingly came early and in one sweep: the start was in part as early as 22 July, and by 17 August every variety of 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 such years – intense, acid-driven, mineral, long-lived. There was no risk of rot, because there was nothing that could have rotted.

The price was paid in volume. The island brought in around 1,900 tonnes, 45 percent below its average. How narrow the economic foundation on Santorini has now become can be read from this figure 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 ten to fifteen days earlier than the previous year, then August and September brought a lot of rain and with it downy mildew, strongest in the valley basin of Nemea.

What came of it depended on altitude, 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 colour and acidity. That is exactly what hit the valley wines. On the heights around Koutsi little of it was felt, and the producers' voices from Nemea accordingly diverge widely – from initial discouragement with an ultimately satisfactory result to excellent grapes in their 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 large 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 it 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 23 and 24 July, 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 did not affect any significant wine region.

Lokris – Red 5.5 · White 5.5

The landscape on the North Euboean Gulf was one of the few to pass through this year without a break. A mild, dry winter and a spring that was warm for the season brought budbreak forward. In June and July, plenty of rain then fell – the same rain that dismantled Naoussa – 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, also at cool temperatures. 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 on the higher sites, 700 to 1,000 on 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 pertinent; the half point above it stands for a ripening that ran its course here without incident.

Maroneia – Red 6.0 · White 6.5

In the far east, in the Thracian coastal plain, 2018 above all demanded planning: volume was 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, to which the low national value is tied – and what succeeded here was in good part work in the vineyard rather than the favour 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 a total of ten days earlier than usual, and the grapes came in healthy, with good colour 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, persistent rain and June heat. Yields fell regionally by 40 to 50 percent, harvest came late, only after 15 August. Despite the wetness, botrytis remained limited: the late-ripening reds – Liatiko, Kotsifali, Mandilaria – and the Vidiano of the higher sites were able to dry off in between. Decent where careful work was done, and clearly below 2017 and 2019.

Our wines

We have tasted 44 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 stand 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 is one 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, come three more 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 ought to look different, since in Naoussa four full points lie between the 2018 and the 2019. 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 stand in the database, the Nemea from Palivou Estate with 91 and the Reserve Agiorgitiko from Ktima Driopi with 90 – both wines that speak for the higher sites rather than 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 managed to shake off the July mildew.

From Lokris, two bottles stand with us, and they are the two colours 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