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 value without separation by colour)

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

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

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

Naoussa – Red 9.0 · White 8.0

The highest score we award for 2025. There are 7 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 millimetres 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 colour, and it sits clearly above 2024. What stands out is the direction the style has taken - controlled tannins, restrained oak, precision rather than power.

Santorini – White 8.0

On the island it was not the heat that decided things, but the wind. During budbreak and flowering, strong southwesterly winds swept across the vineyards and damaged shoots and leaves, worst 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 emerged from this has exemplary acidity, a markedly mineral profile and, at around 13.5 degrees, even somewhat less alcohol than usual. The values in the cellar were 6 to 6.5 grams of tartaric acid and a pH around 3.1, in places below that. It is comparable with 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 hit several Nemea zones, and on the high plateau of Mantinia the thermometer dropped 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 altitude delivered it: small berries, thoroughly healthy fruit at harvest, plenty of aroma, practically no disease pressure. Agiorgitiko ripened evenly in Nemea despite the spring, with good colour 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 4 August for Liatiko to 30 September 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 thirteen Greek wines from 2025 so far, from eight producers. The median stands at 90 points.

They show the vintage from one side. Eleven of the thirteen are white or rosé - what carries this vintage upwards, the Xinomavro from Naoussa, is still in the cellar. At the top stands a rosé, the Lacules Estate. Just behind it, the Nomade Chardonnay from Oinotropai in Messinia, then, tied, the Malagouzia from Alpha Estate in Florina and the Malagouzia from Estate Manolesakis in Drama.

Top 3 of our own tastings

Rank 1 – 93 points Lacules Estate Rosé

Rank 2 – 92+ points Oinotropai Winery Nomade Chardonnay

Rank 3 – 92 points Alpha Estate Malagouzia · Estate Manolesakis Malagouzia