Vintage 2025

dry · healthy · the smallest harvest we know of

Nationwide 7.5 out of 10 · Confidence of rating: medium

Macedonia

Naoussa · PDO – Red 9.0 · White 8.0 (Confidence: medium)

Goumenissa · PDO – Red 8.0 · White 7.5 (Confidence: medium)

Amyndeon · PDO – Red 8.0 · White 7.0 (Confidence: medium)

Epirus

Metsovo · PGI – Red 8.0 · White 8.0 (Confidence: medium)

Zitsa · PDO – Red 7.5 · White 7.5 (Confidence: low)

Thessaly

Meteora · PGI – Red 7.5 · White 7.5 (Confidence: low)

Central Greece

Atalanti and Opountia Lokridas · PGI – Red 7.5 · White 7.5 (Confidence: medium)

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

Peloponnese

Mantinia · PDO – White 8.0 (Confidence: medium)

Nemea · PDO – Red 7.0 (Confidence: medium)

Cyclades

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

Crete 7.5 · Drama 8.0 · Pangeon 8.0 · Epanomi 8.0 · Peloponnese outside Nemea and Mantinia 7.5 (each as an overall score without separation by color)

Jancis Robinson summed up this vintage in five words: outstanding quality, a crisis of quantity. The two belong together, and one cannot be offset against the other.

The winter of 2024/25 was mild and, above all, too dry — the third hot, dry year in a row. On Santorini, rainfall between September and August totaled 165 millimeters, about half the twenty-year average, and the usable portion of it fell as early as December. The mild February, with lows around 6 to 8 degrees, caused the vines to bud unevenly.

What saved the vintage came at the end: a cool ripening window without a heatwave and an autumn without rain at the wrong moment. The factor with the greatest destructive potential, wet weather during the harvest window, was absent practically throughout the country. The grapes came in healthy.

Naoussa – Red 9.0 · White 8.0

The highest score we award for 2025. There are seven nines across 26 vintages, and three of them belong to Naoussa – 2011, 2019 and this year.

Spring here ran counter to the rest of the country: April and May were cold and wet, with 169 millimeters against an average of 123. The shoots developed late and unevenly, and anyone who wanted a clean picture in autumn had to select.

Then the year turned. Cool nights and a rain-free late-harvest window are exactly what Xinomavro needs: it ripens late, it rots easily, and it was spared both in 2025. What came of it has solid phenolic ripeness, good acidity and deep color, and it sits clearly above 2024. What stands out is the direction the style has taken - controlled tannins, restrained oak, precision instead of power.

Santorini – White 8.0

On the island, it was not the heat but the wind that decided matters. During budbreak and flowering, strong southwesterly winds swept across the vineyards and damaged shoots and leaves, most severely in the south. Over the ripening period, the anedosa then returned, the sea mist that gives the vines moisture without any rain falling.

The Assyrtiko that resulted has exemplary acidity, a markedly mineral profile and, at around 13.5 degrees, even slightly less alcohol than usual. The numbers in the cellar were 6 to 6.5 grams of tartaric acid and a pH around 3.1, in some cases below. It is comparable to the electric 2015.

And then the other side. The island brought in around 450 tonnes, in places less than 500 kilos per hectare - the historic low. The grape price rose from 85 cents to 10 to 15 euros per kilo, with the vineyard area halved. That is a structural crisis, and it does not appear in the rating, because what is rated is what is in the glass.

The Peloponnese – Mantinia 8.0 · Nemea 7.0

Here the year began with damage. At the end of March, frost and hail struck several Nemea zones, and on the Mantinia plateau the thermometer fell to minus 5 degrees. Budbreak became uneven, and the cool, rainy April and May built up fungal pressure, which could be kept under control.

For Moschofilero, this turned into the opposite. The aromatic variety lives on the gap between day and night, and the high elevation delivered it: small berries, thoroughly healthy fruit, plenty of aroma, practically no disease pressure. Agiorgitiko in Nemea ripened evenly despite the spring, with good color and balanced acidity - saved by the absence of late heat and by the northerly winds.

Crete – 7.5

Snow in winter filled the reserves, early drought stress was countered with zeolite, and the harvest stretched from August 4 for Liatiko to September 30 for Mandilari. The whites from Vidiano, Vilana and Thrapsathiri came in with high acidity, full body and rich aromatics. The reds show lively ruby and soft tannins.

Our Wines

We have tasted 25 Greek wines from 2025 so far, from 13 producers. The median stands at 90 points.

They show the vintage from one side. 23 of the 25 are white or rosé - what carries this vintage upward, the Xinomavro from Naoussa, is still in the cellar. At the top stands a rosé: the Silphium from La Tour Melas from Achinos in Fthiotida. Behind it the Malagousia from Ktima Gerovassiliou from Epanomi, then four wines tied – the second rosé from La Tour Melas, Idylle d'Achinos, the rosé from Lacules Estate, the white Biblia Chora from Pangeon and the Viticulturist from Torosidis from Thrace, a Malagousia.

Top 3 of Our Own Tastings

Rank 1 – 95 points La Tour Melas Silphium

Rank 2 – 94 points Ktima Gerovassiliou Malagousia

Rank 3 – 93 points Ktima Biblia Chora Biblia Chora white · La Tour Melas Idylle d'Achinos · Lacules Estate Rosé · Torosidis Viticulturist