Vintage 2021

extremely hot · scarred by fires · deeply divided

Nationwide 5.5 out of 10 · Confidence of rating: medium

Macedonia

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

Amyndeon · PDO – Red 6.5 · White 7.0 (Confidence: medium)

Goumenissa · PDO – Red 6.5 · White 4.5 (Confidence: medium)

Thessaly

Rapsani · PDO – Red 8.0 (Confidence: medium)

Central Greece

Attika · PGI – Red 8.0 · 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 · White 4.0 (Confidence: high)

Cyclades

Santorini · PDO – White 6.0 (Confidence: high)

Crete 6.0 · Pangeon 7.0 · Drama 7.0 (given there as an overall value) · Peloponnese outside Nemea and Mantinia 5.5

The Rapsani value applies to the PDO Rapsani on the eastern slope of Mount Olympus, not to the other appellations of Thessaly. The Attika value applies to the plain around Athens and the rest of Central Greece, not to Lokris; the coastal landscape in Phthiotis sits at the national value this year. For Epanomi, the nationwide value also applies in this vintage.

On 28 July, thermometers across large parts of the country climbed above 40 degrees and stayed there for around ten days. In some places, 47 was recorded. Greece had not experienced a heatwave of this severity since 1987, and what burned afterwards was the biggest wildfire season since 2007.

For wine, this year nevertheless has no uniform face. Four points separate the highest and lowest regional values of 2021; that makes this vintage one of the three most divided in our series. Attika and Mount Olympus produced one of their strongest red wine vintages, while in Nemea the white varieties practically failed. Anyone applying the nationwide value to Naoussa or Pangeon is one and a half points off, for Rapsani two and a half. And the divide does not run only between north and south: Attika sits two and a half points above the national value, neighbouring Lokris exactly on it.

Attika – Red 8.0 · White 7.0

The winner of the year, and for the same reason the south lost. A favourable winter was followed by an early budbreak, then a dry, intensely hot summer. Dryness keeps fungi away, and the harvest came in practically free of disease. September was decisive: warm days around 32 degrees, nights around 16. That range ripens the tannins without burning off the acidity.

What resulted was unusually consistent – deeply coloured, phenolically rich reds with firm structure, and not just in individual sites but across the region. In Attika, the heat-resistant Savatiano coped with the dryness better than most of the country's other whites and produced a warm, ripe style to which the cool September nights left a trace of freshness.

That did not apply everywhere in the region. Northern Evia burned over large areas; Attika's core wine-growing zones were largely spared.

Lokris

Around 130 kilometres northwest of Athens, on the North Euboean Gulf between Mount Parnassus and the strait, lies Opuntian Lokris with its main town of Atalanti. More than distance separates it from Attika: above the slopes, air currents from Parnassus and from the gulf alternate, and in a heat year it is precisely this alternation that decides how a vine gets through August.

Here, 2021 began differently from the south. A cold winter and an even colder, rainy spring delayed budbreak; the cycle ran behind from the start. Then came three heatwaves over a summer in which the needed rain never arrived – on vines that had never caught up on their deficit. The harvest began in the first days of August with the white varieties and stretched into the last third of September, when the reds came in. They came in healthy, in a quantity that was below previous years even for the reds, and markedly so for the early-picked whites.

The region's two Septembers diverged: in Attika the nights cooled to 16 degrees while the days stood at 32; in Lokris the month was simply normal.

For the area's viticulture, Lokris means primarily international – Merlot, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc stand here alongside Malagousia, Assyrtiko and Xinomavro. Hillside and plain sites run separately: at altitude, yields come in smaller year after year than down on the plain.

The fires, August 2021

Around 125,000 hectares burned, the highest annual figure since 2007. Across Northern Evia swept the largest single fire in modern Greek history, at some 50,000 hectares. On 3 August, near Varympompi, 18 kilometres north of Athens, the fire began that struck northern Attika. On the Peloponnese, Ilia and Gortynia burned with around 15,000 hectares, Laconia and the Mani with a good 10,000, Messinia with a good 5,000. Three people died, and in the affected zones olive groves and vineyards were lost.

For the vineyards left standing, the question was smoke. Smoke and ash lay over the country across wide areas, and the risk hit above all the whites still hanging on the vine, whose harvest was yet to come. No large-scale grape damage was reported from the Peloponnese.

Rapsani – Red 8.0

On the eastern slope of Mount Olympus, the red blend of Xinomavro, Krassato and Stavroto stands two and a half points above this year's nationwide value. The reason lies in the nights: while the days were hot here too, night temperatures during ripening stayed well below them – the exception in a year in which elsewhere exactly this cooling failed to appear. Harvesting took place under normal conditions, the quantity was 5 percent above the previous year, and the health of the grapes was the cleanest of recent years. The Greek harvest chroniclers put it this way: Surely the gods of Olympus cooled Rapsani, which is why 2021 – in contrast to many regions of Greece – is an excellent vintage for its wines.

The appellation lies in three altitude tiers on the mountain, from the coastal plain to above 500 metres. This value does not apply to the other appellations of Thessaly – Tyrnavos on the plain, Meteora, Karditsa, Magnesia.

Macedonia – Naoussa 7.0 · Pangeon 7.0 · Drama 7.0 · Amyndeon 6.5 · Goumenissa 6.5

The winter was cold and rainy and filled the reserves, March cool enough to delay budbreak. On 12 June a hailstorm swept over parts of Naoussa, costing 5 to 25 percent there. Then came long hot and dry spells that kept the grapes healthy. Xinomavro was picked from 21 September to 10 October, late as usual for this variety, at yields 10 to 15 percent below the previous year.

Amyndeon experienced a different year, and it can be read from three figures from a single vineyard: 380.92 millimetres of rainfall from April to September, nearly two and a half times that of 2020, plus 14.03 degrees of alcohol and 32 hectolitres per hectare. In a wet year the late-ripening Xinomavro is doubly at risk: whoever waits for tannin ripeness is at the same time waiting for rot and dilution. Whoever picked in the right window got lean, high-acid wines of fine drive – elegance bought by timing, not gifted by the year.

The value of 6.5 therefore sits below Naoussa's, even though the highlands got nothing of the heatwave and fires. What hit the south did not hit Amyndeon; what hit Amyndeon was the rain.

On the southeastern slopes of Mount Paiko, where Goumenissa grows its red blend of Xinomavro and Negoska, both came together. Between 8 and 14 June, 120 millimetres fell there in a single week, with hail on the 12th, and because the mild, dry winter had not cleared away the previous year's spore load, downy and powdery mildew followed on its heels. In the first ten days of August the year tipped into its opposite: a sustained heatwave up to 42 degrees, extreme water stress, 20 percent less yield in the unirrigated vineyard. The white varieties lost acidity and rose in pH, even where irrigation was used – their 4.5 is, after Nemea, the second-lowest white value of this vintage. For the reds it went the other way round: phenolic ripeness was already there at the start of September, and picking only began once the sugar had caught up too.

The real beneficiaries of the north were the whites. The cool nights gave Malagousia, Assyrtiko and Sauvignon Blanc in Amyndeon, Epanomi and Drama a freshness and an aromatic openness that the reds lacked this year. Pangeon and Drama both stand at 7.0, both one and a half points below their previous year's value.

Peloponnese – Nemea Red 6.0 · White 4.0 · Mantinia White 7.0

Here the heat hit hardest, and it hit a spring that had already done damage. Frost damaged the budbreak, rain in May and June brought downy mildew. Then came 28 July. What mattered was not the temperature alone but the absence of the wind that otherwise cools the nights down. The vines got no respite, and ripening stalled.

What resulted for Agiorgitiko sounds tempting at first: small, thin-skinned berries with lots of colour and concentration. Behind that stands the year's problem – low acidity, high pH values and a ripeness that diverged not only from vineyard to vineyard but within a single bunch. Karakasis called 2021 in Nemea the year of the oenologist. What succeeded there succeeded in the cellar, not in the vineyard.

The four for the whites is not a typo but the lowest white wine value in our entire grid. The international white varieties of the lowlands stopped ripening under the heat; from Chardonnay and Viognier, Skouras reported almost nothing.

Mantinia lies around 650 metres up, and that made the difference. Altitude and a wide day-night range absorbed the heatwave enough that Moschofilero kept its acidity and freshness. Among the peninsula's whites, it is the winner of the year, and by a clear margin.

For appellations of the Peloponnese outside these two zones – PGI Peloponnese, Messinia, Ilia, Corinth – the peninsula-wide value of 5.5 applies.

Santorini – White 6.0

On the island the year began dry, with only about 65 millimetres of spring rain. Then came the heatwaves in June and July, pushing the harvest below 2,000 tonnes, around 30 percent below the average of previous years. That was not the consequence of one year, but of a string of hot, dry vintages in a row.

The real damage came afterwards. August brought unusual humidity and surprise rainfall, and ripening ran apart: unripe and overripe berries side by side, sometimes in the same bunch. Producers on the island spoke openly of a catastrophic year. Anyone who still wanted to make good wines had to decide plot by plot and hit the picking date to within a few days.

It is the most difficult Santorini vintage of the years 2020 to 2022. The 6.0 describes what the weather left as raw material, not the selection that turned it into individual very good bottles. We assign no red wine value for Santorini 2021.

Crete – 6.0

Crete picks before the mainland starts: in 2021 the harvest began on 7 August. A weather event therefore hits the island in a completely different calendar window from the north. The year was warm and dry and came on top of several warm, dry preceding years; the drought stress was cumulative, the quantities correspondingly small.

Altitude and night coolness were what saved it. Over half of the island's surface lies above 500 metres, with vineyards up to 800. From there came aromatic, balanced whites from Vidiano and Vilana. Liatiko and Kotsifali gained concentration from the dryness, and the late-ripening Mandilaria reached full ripeness. Rot was not an issue on the island.

Our wines

We tasted 113 Greek wines from 2021, from 52 producers. That makes it the best-documented vintage in our database. The median stands at 90 points.

The three highest ratings all come from the Peloponnese, that is, from the peninsula we rate lowest in this vintage: first and foremost The Emperor from Papargyriou Winery in Corinth, a blend of Merlot and Cabernet Franc, just behind it the Merlot and the Syrah from Lacules Estate in Messinia. None of the three comes from Nemea or Mantinia. After that, just below: the Miss De Bina from Epirus, a varietal Debina, and the Nostos Syrah from Manousakis in Chania.

At Lacules Estate this can be measured against its own vintages. The Merlot from 2018 stood at 96 at five years old, from 2019 at 94 at four years, from 2021 at four years again at 96. The vintage that sits two and a half points lower nationwide produced the better wine here.

From Santorini, three bottles were in the glass, all from the same producer: the Santorini Assyrtiko and the Terrasea from Mikra Thira at 94 each, the Nykteri at 92. They show what was possible on the island in 2021. Three bottles from one estate say less about the vintage than about the estate.

From Amyndeon we have one of the few longer series in our database. We have had the Hedgehog Rosé from Alpha Estate in the glass from four vintages: 2019 at 94 and 2022 at 91 points, the 2020 and the 2021 side by side in the same year at 90 versus 88 – with the weaker of the two being the younger.

From Mantinia came three Moschofilero between 88 and 90 points. From the PDO Nemea, a single bottle stands in our database for this vintage, the Idea red from Barafakas Winery at 86.

After the Peloponnese and Crete, Lokris is the third-strongest area of this vintage for us: eleven wines from four producers, more than from Attika, which stands two and a half points higher. Their median lies at 91 points, one point above that of the vintage.

One wine can be measured directly against its previous year. The Merlot Alargino from Domaine Hatzimichalis stands at 93 points from 2021 and likewise at 93 from 2020, even though the area value for 2020 is two and a half points higher. The two bottles did not come into the glass on the same day: the 2020 at three years old, the 2021 at four. From La Tour Melas, three rosés of the vintage stood side by side, all in September 2023, at 93, 91 and 90 points.

From Goumenissa a single bottle stands in our database, the Rosé from Aidarini at 88 points. We do not assign a separate vintage value for rosé; two points lie between the area's two values this year.

Top 3 of our own tastings

Rank 1 – 96+ points Papargyriou Winery The Emperor

Rank 2 – 96 points Lacules Estate Merlot · Lacules Estate Syrah