Vintage 2024

the hottest year · red before 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 recorded since measurements began in 1991 – and it beat the record that 2023 had only just set. The preceding winter brought 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 heat wave in July, peaks around 45 degrees, and temperatures above average 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 was 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 wetness, its greatest risk simply disappears. Kir-Yianni picked the Xinomavro on September 2, earlier than in any year before, and calls it one of the big winners: rich in phenolics, concentrated, with very high grape health.

The price stood 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; they sit a point and a half lower.

Amyndeon – Red 7.0

An hour and a half's drive further north, 2024 played out differently than in Naoussa - the highlands react independently in hot years, as they did in 2018. The warmest and driest winter in at least 20 years caused the vines to bud early and unevenly, and unirrigated, younger plantings fell into water stress: yields were 10 to 30 percent lower than usual for the early varieties, and up to 20 percent lower for mid- and late-ripening ones.

The Xinomavro itself nevertheless 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 explicitly quality as well; that is why white sits clearly below red here.

Santorini – White 8.0

On the island, the damage piled up. One producer documents 206 millimeters of precipitation for the entire year; the last rain of any note fell in April or May, nothing after that. Add a July with 30 degrees or more almost daily, winds causing fruit loss and sunburn risk, 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, distinct primary aromatics. Two things made this possible – the early harvest and the mesoclimate around Oia, which sits 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. The harvest took place around 20 days earlier than usual.

Agiorgitiko is considered heat-resistant, but only up to a point: the 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 high-altitude sites up to 800 meters. The early varieties and the flat sites 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 value. On the southeastern slopes of Paiko, the Xinomavro fell outside the frame it still held two areas further north this year.

Our wines

We have tasted 14 Greek wines from 2024 so far, from 11 producers. The median stands at 91.5 points.

They run counter to the vintage: eight of the 14 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 trace of the year's heat.

The Xinomavro from Naoussa that carries this vintage upward is still resting 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