Vintage 2024
the hottest year · red ahead of white · harvested early
Nationwide 6.5 out of 10 · Confidence of rating: high
Macedonia
Naoussa · PDO – Red 8.0 · White 6.5 (Confidence: high)
Epanomi · PGI – Red 7.5 · White 7.0 (Confidence: medium)
Amyndeon · PDO – Red 7.0 · White 6.0 (Confidence: medium)
Goumenissa · PDO – Red 5.5 · White 6.0 (Confidence: medium)
Epirus
Metsovo · PGI – Red 6.5 · White 6.5 (Confidence: medium)
Central Greece
Attika · PGI – Red 7.5 · White 7.0 (Confidence: medium)
Atalanti and Opountia Lokridas · PGI – Red 6.5 · White 6.5 (Confidence: medium)
Peloponnese
Nemea · PDO – Red 7.0 (Confidence: high)
Mantinia · PDO – White 7.0 (Confidence: high)
Cyclades
Santorini · PDO – Red 7.5 · White 8.0 (Confidence: high)
Crete 7.5 · Drama 7.0 · Pangeon 7.0 · Peloponnese outside Nemea and Mantinia 6.5 (each as an overall value without separation by color)
Epanomi lies in the regional unit of Thessaloniki.
2024 was the hottest and driest year Greece has measured since records began in 1991 – and it broke the record that 2023 had only just set. The preceding winter saw almost no snow, the number of days with snow cover was 30 to 35 percent below the average, and so the vines lacked their water reserves for the season from the very start. The summer brought a 16-day heatwave in July, peaks around 45 degrees, and above-average temperatures on 85 of 92 summer days.
And yet it is not a bad vintage, but a one-sided one. What saved it was, of all things, the drought: no moisture means no mildew, no mildew means no rot. The harvest came early, compressed and very healthy.
Naoussa – Red 8.0
The highest red score of this vintage, and it belongs to the variety one would have expected here least. Xinomavro is the country's late red most prone to rot; in a year without moisture, its greatest risk simply disappears. Kir-Yianni picked its Xinomavro on September 2, earlier than in any previous year, and calls it one of the big winners: rich in phenolics, concentrated, with very high grape health.
The price was on the other side of the ledger. The estate's yield was 40 percent below normal. And the whites of the same area cannot keep up: for Malagousia, Assyrtiko and Sauvignon, the heat was the hardest test of the year, and they sit a point and a half lower.
Amyndeon – Red 7.0
An hour and a half's drive further north, 2024 unfolded differently than in Naoussa - the highlands respond in their own way in hot years, as they did in 2018. The warmest and driest winter in at least 20 years made the vines bud early and unevenly, and unirrigated, younger plantings came under water stress: yields fell 10 to 30 percent for the early varieties and up to 20 percent for mid- and late-ripening ones compared to usual.
The Xinomavro itself still came in healthy, with high phenolics and good aging potential - the drought removed the same risk as in Naoussa. For the whites, however, the shortened ripening period affected not only quantity but expressly quality as well; that is why white sits well below red here.
Santorini – White 8.0
On the island, the damage piled up. One estate documents 206 millimeters of rainfall for the entire year; the last significant rain fell in April or May, and nothing after that. Add a July with nearly daily temperatures of 30 degrees and more, winds causing fruit loss and risk of sunburn, above 36 degrees with leaf loss.
The island brought in 650 to 700 tonnes, against an average of around 3,000. Grape prices rose by 20 to 30 percent.
What was harvested was clean and surprisingly fresh: pH values between 3.1 and 3.2, preserved salinity, clear primary aromatics. Two things made that possible – the early harvest and the mesoclimate around Oia, which lies 3 to 4 degrees cooler than the rest of the island.
Nemea – Red 7.0
On the plain, the thermometer stood above 40 degrees on 12 consecutive days. Picking took place around 20 days earlier than usual.
Agiorgitiko is considered heat-resistant, but only to a degree: its skin is thin, and the drought stress compressed the breadth of the vintage. What emerged has color, density and plenty of tannin and needs cellar time – powerful rather than elegant. The difference in altitude is clearly visible: the valley floor fell behind the higher-lying parcels.
Mantinia – White 7.0
At 660 meters, the high plateau has what 2024 otherwise lacked: cool nights. Moschofilero kept its freshness through that alone and through a very early harvest. For an aromatic white variety, this year was the hardest test of all.
Crete – 7.5
The second-highest score on this page. The drought-adapted late reds – Liatiko, Kotsifali, Mandilaria – came in concentrated, and Vidiano benefited in the higher elevations up to 800 meters. It was the early varieties and the low-lying sites that suffered, where the water stress arrived first.
Goumenissa – Red 5.5
The lowest score of the vintage, and the only one clearly below the national figure. On the southeastern slopes of Paiko, the Xinomavro this year fell out of the pattern it still held two areas further north.
Our wines
We have tasted ten Greek wines from 2024 so far, from nine producers. The median stands at 92 points.
They run counter to the vintage: five of the ten are white, and white is the losing color of this year nationwide. At the top stands the Red Monk from Oinotropai in Messinia, closely followed by the Assyrtiko from Ktima Erithrou Rodou in Drama, the Viognier from Ktima Gerovassiliou in Epanomi and the Tear of the Pine from Kechris – a retsina that shows no sign of the year's heat.
The Xinomavro from Naoussa that carries this vintage upward is still in our cellar.
Top 3 of our own tastings
Rank 1 – 93+ points Oinotropai Winery Red Monk
Rank 2 – 93 points Kechris Winery Tear of the Pine · Ktima Erithrou Rodou Assyrtiko · Ktima Gerovassiliou Viognier
All tasting notes from 2024
· Diamantakis Winery Prinos rot · 86
· Domaine Skouras Peplo · 92
· Jima Winery Super Girl · 91
· Kechris Winery Tear of the Pine · 93
· Ktima Erithrou Rodou Assyrtiko · 93
· Ktima Erithrou Rodou Malagousia · 92
· Ktima Gerovassiliou Viognier · 93
· Lafazanis Winery Geometria Agiorgitiko · 88
· Monsieur Nicolas Moi Je M'en Fous! Aged Amphora · 90
· Oinotropai Winery Red Monk · 93
Vintage 2023 · 2024 · Vintage 2025 | All vintages