Agiorgitiko: Greece's great red wine
- Griechische Weine
- 1 day ago
- 13 min read
Agiorgitiko is Greece's most widely planted quality red grape and the star of the Nemea region in the Peloponnese, where as a single-varietal wine it yields the legendary “Blood of Heracles”. Typical are soft tannins, juicy red and dark fruit (plum, cherry, blackberry) and a remarkable range: from light rosé through the fruity, approachable everyday wine to the serious, oak-aged bottling with ageing potential. Here you can find out how Agiorgitiko tastes, which styles exist, what it goes with – and which ones have convinced us most.
What is Agiorgitiko?
Agiorgitiko (Greek Αγιωργίτικο, “the one of Saint George”) is Greece's most important red grape variety – after the white bulk carriers Savatiano and Roditis, the country's third-largest variety. The statistical authority ELSTAT recorded around 31,616 stremmata for 2020, that is roughly 3,161.6 hectares across 4,287 holdings; two thirds to three quarters of that lies within the PDO Nemea appellation, which has existed since the first OPAP ratification in 1971.
The variety is inseparably bound up with the myth of the area: Nemea is the place where Heracles slew the Nemean lion, and the region's deep red wine therefore carries the epithet “Blood of Heracles”. The lion still appears on labels today – on the Giannikos Winery The Lion 2018, for example, which is sold as PGI Peloponnese because the estate near Corinth lies outside the PDO, although stylistically it sits very close to classic Nemea. One structural detail sets Agiorgitiko apart from its rival Xinomavro: it holds PDO status only in Nemea, whereas Xinomavro has earned that honour in several appellations.
What does Agiorgitiko taste like?
The leitmotif is red fruit: cherry, sour cherry, strawberry, raspberry, redcurrant, cranberry. There is almost always a herbal streak as well, often a good dose of black pepper. In an unoaked Agiorgitiko we have even noted flint and “freshly dampened riverbed” – the variety can be mineral and idiosyncratic, not merely fruity. And there is a demonstrable north-south contrast: in the Peloponnese red fruit dominates, while in northern Greece (PGI Drama, PGI Pangeon) the picture shifts towards the dark – blueberry and black cherry, with more velvety tannins.
The tannin is not fixed by the variety, but a question of the winemaking: from the velvety, balanced everyday wine to the barrique-aged bottling that fills the whole mouth. Alcohol, too, spans a wide range, from 11.5 per cent in old mass-market Nemea to 15 per cent in modern, ambitious wines. Anyone who thinks of Agiorgitiko as one single style does not do the variety justice.
Honesty requires naming the limits: Agiorgitiko does not normally come with endless layers of complexity – it is lively enough to accompany an entire meal, but great aromatic intricacy is the exception. And a badly made Xinomavro at least still convinces with tomato, strawberry and good acidity, whereas a mediocre Agiorgitiko shows oxidative notes as early as the second day.
Nemea – the homeland
PDO Nemea prescribes 100 per cent Agiorgitiko – single-varietal, without exception. The zone covers 17 municipalities and is topographically highly varied: the vineyards lie between 200 and 815 metres in altitude. Acra farms clay-limestone plots between 300 and 550 metres, Ktima Driopi stands at Koutsi at 380 metres with 50-year-old vines.
That spread is the key to the appellation, because Agiorgitiko is one of the most site-sensitive varieties in Greece: heat stress and autumn rot hit the thin-skinned berry harder on the valley floor than on the slope. Our vintage database reflects this – for 2018 the sub-score for high sites such as Koutsi is 7 to 8, for valley wines 4 to 5; at the very top stands 2020 with a 9, the best Nemea year in three decades. The debate about a stronger internal differentiation of the terroirs, for which Yiannis Karakasis argues, is therefore not an academic one – the “Nemea Lion” announced in 2024, with stricter rules on vine age, yield and ageing, moves in exactly that direction.
Just how differently Nemea tastes in practice – from 78 to 95+ points – is shown by our large tasting of 19 Agiorgitikos from four decades: 17 wines in a row, framed by two exceptional bottles. That is also where the uncomfortable verdict appears: in this segment quality is patchy, you have to look closely.
The styles
Young & fruity
The style with the most drinkability – and our secret favourite. No oak, short maceration, stainless steel. The Lafazanis Geometria proves that Agiorgitiko is fun without any barrel at all: sour cherry, black pepper, butterscotch on the nose. The Nemea Winery Nemea 2019 delivers, for under 10 euros, a vibrant fruit aroma that makes you forget every international variety – 90 points. Add to that Barafakas' Idea Nemea 2021 with only four months in tank and the Skouras Akres 2025 at around 8 euros. Drink lightly chilled – that is how this style works best.
Reserve & oak
The contrast can be read off two wines. The Kokotos Estate Agiorgitiko 2020 sees, according to Julia Harding MW, only five months in second-fill oak and gets by on 12.5 per cent alcohol: refreshing and elegant at the same time, 92 points for around 10 euros. The Ktima Driopi Reserve 2018 goes the opposite way – twelve months in French barriques, 70 per cent of them new, 14 per cent alcohol, 90 points. In between lie Acra with predominantly used oak and Barafakas Apocalypsis with at least two years in bottle before release.
At the very top stand the icons. The Ktima Biblia Chora Areti red 2013 from PGI Pangeon takes 94 points; according to the estate, the Areti was the first Agiorgitiko ever produced outside Nemea. The La Tour Melas Palies Rizes 2020 comes from an ungrafted vineyard more than 100 years old near Nemea – wild yeasts, 15 hectolitres per hectare, very finely polished tannin, 94 points. And the Philos Wines Apeiro “∞” 2015 holds, with 95+, the highest score we have ever awarded a single-varietal Agiorgitiko: black cherry liqueur, violet, graphite, sea breeze.
With bottle age
This is where it becomes contradictory. The basic rule: aged Agiorgitiko often turns brittle like dry wood – there is even a recurring fault profile that we call “the harshness of Agiorgitiko kept too long”: burnt, metallic, bitter.
And yet it is precisely the very old bottles that surprise. The Cavino Nemea 1978, opened for its 45th birthday, was remarkably supple – 90 points. The Boutari Nemea 1998, a plain standard bottling with 11.5 per cent alcohol, likewise reaches 90, and the Kourtakis Nemea 1990 still manages 89 after 34 years.
Two patterns stand out. First, ageing does not follow price: the worst old bottle is, of all things, the most export-driven brand of the three big houses, the Kourtakis Kouros Nemea 1992 with 78 – twelve points below the plain Boutari bottling. Second, the real losers are the middle-aged wines – Palivou Anemos 2013 ended up at 82 after eleven years, Nicolas Repanis 2011 at 83 after thirteen.
What preserved the old Nemea was not the alcohol but the load-bearing acidity. Ageing potential is real, but it is the exception – it depends on the bottle and the storage, not on the price bracket. The full body of evidence is set out in our large Agiorgitiko tasting.
Agiorgitiko rosé
The rosé is the most underrated variant – and in practice always a blend: among the nine Agiorgitiko rosés in our database not a single one is single-varietal; the highest stated share is 80 per cent.
The most convincing example is the Barafakas Treis Magisses 2021: 80 per cent Agiorgitiko, medium-sweet with 18 grams of residual sugar, 2.4 bar of sparkle and only 11 per cent alcohol – for us the best medium-sweet rosé in Greece of its vintage, 91 points. Drier and with plenty of grip comes the Barafakas Saint Modesto 2021, half Grenache Rouge, half Agiorgitiko, 88 points.
The range downwards is wide: the Dionysos Agiorgitiko-Moschofilero 2021 comes in at 79, the Dionysos Orizontes rosé 2021, because of oxidative notes, at only 70. Here it pays especially to look at the producer.
Agiorgitiko as a blending partner
Unlike Xinomavro, which has a blending tradition in PDO Rapsani, Agiorgitiko has no appellation of its own for blends: because PDO Nemea applies exclusively to single-varietal Agiorgitiko, every blend has to fall back on the PGI – even the most famous one.
That is precisely the story of the Domaine Skouras Megas Oenos 2019: 80 per cent Agiorgitiko, 20 per cent Cabernet Sauvignon, 18 months in new French barriques – and therefore PGI Peloponnese. George Skouras brought Burgundian know-how to the Peloponnese; his Megas Oenos is regarded as the unofficial ambassador of Greek wine, and in our blind line-up against five 2019 Bordeaux it tied for top place: 94. Its little brother Akres 2025 reaches 87.
The current trend is towards Syrah: the Ktima Pavlidis Thema red 2017 is internationally perhaps the best-known Agiorgitiko blend of all (90+), while we liked the Ktima Dyio Ipsi Dialogos red 2019, half Agiorgitiko, half Syrah, even better (91+). For the racier wines, however, we consider Cabernet Sauvignon the better choice. With Merlot, Agiorgitiko works on the principle of like attracting like, above all in the more straightforward wines – for instance Olympia Land Estate Pheidias 2016 (90+) and Fteri Vinum Viale die Parioli 44 2020 (85+).
The biggest surprise was a wine well outside these categories: the Achaia Clauss Cava Clauss 1982, a blend of Agiorgitiko, Mavrodaphne and Cabernet Sauvignon – a 40-year-old “Vin de Table” with 93 points. Even so, it does not appear in our best-of list: Achaia Clauss has never stated the proportions of the three varieties, so we do not know whether Agiorgitiko really plays the leading role here.
What Agiorgitiko contributes to a blend: fruit and approachability in youth, a recognisably floral aromatic profile, delicacy and, in the fresher examples, moderate alcohol. What it does not usually deliver: tannic backbone, structure, reserves for ageing – which is exactly why the Cava Clauss is the exception that catches the eye.
In these wines Agiorgitiko is a minority or equal partner – they are not Agiorgitiko wines in the narrower sense, but they are worth seeking out: Ktima Biblia Chora Plagios red 2013, Oenotria Land Cabernet Sauvignon – Agiorgitiko 2018, Andreou Winery Thiseas 2017, Ktima Biblia Chora Plagios red 2012 (tasted 04/2022), Ktima Biblia Chora Plagios red 2012 (tasted 10/2022), Domaine Costa Lazaridi Amethystos red 2023, Domaine Skouras Peplo 2024, Ktima Biblia Chora red 2019, Ktima Biblia Chora red 2010, Domaine Costa Lazaridi Amethystos red 2015, La Tour Melas Idylle d'Achinos 2021, Oenotria Land Syrah – Agiorgitiko 2020, Katogi Averoff Red 2018, La Tour Melas Nautilus 2021, Ktima Biblia Chora red 2023, Domaine Costa Lazaridi Amethystos red 2018, Estate Manolesakis Pelagia 2017, Muses Winery Clio, The Red Muse 2018, Nemea Winery Rosé Signature Collection 2021, Nestor Winery Avarinó red 2019, Dionysos Winery La Culture en Rose 2021.
The whole blending landscape – from the Bordeaux trios through Mavrodaphne to loose ends such as an Agiorgitiko-Xinomavro blend – we have worked through in the article Agiorgitiko blends.
What goes with Agiorgitiko?
Agiorgitiko is an outstanding food wine, because it brings along what counts at the table: soft tannin, juicy red fruit, herbal spice and moderate alcohol.
One very concrete recommendation comes from our tasting practice: wild boar and aubergine goulash goes superbly with the aromatics of Agiorgitiko. From there the field opens up – herbal spice and red fruit point naturally to lamb, grilled meat from the charcoal grill and the classic moussaka, since aubergine and Agiorgitiko are a proven pair. The moderate acidity of the fresher examples makes tomato dishes unproblematic, where tannic reds otherwise clash. Spicy hard cheese such as kefalotyri, by contrast, calls for the oak-aged reserve with more grip.
Rule of thumb: the younger and less oaked the wine, the more lightly chilled and the more flexible at table.
Agiorgitiko as an alternative to …
Anyone who likes soft, fruity reds has come to the right place with Agiorgitiko – only at prices that no longer exist in better-known regions.
Instead of Merlot: the kinship is so close that the two varieties are even blended with one another – gentle meets gentle. If you drink Merlot for its round approachability, you will find the same softness in Agiorgitiko plus a herbal, peppery edge.
Instead of young Chianti: Sangiovese also spoils you with cherry – but after a few sips you would rather pull the cork on a quite different bottle. With Agiorgitiko that is not the case: ten times rather Agiorgitiko than Sangiovese.
Instead of Côtes du Rhône: if you value the mixture of red fruit, black pepper and herbal spice there, you will find it again in Agiorgitiko, often at lower alcohol.
The price argument is not a footnote: several wines with 90 points and more cost us under 10 euros, and the Panagiotopoulos Agiorgitiko Cube 2015 cost 6.80 euros at the cellar door.
The best Agiorgitiko wines: our recommendations
Every wine on this list is at least half Agiorgitiko – documented, not estimated. Blends with Agiorgitiko as a minority partner or with an unstated share deliberately do not appear here, but in the blend section.
Philos Wines Apeiro “∞” 2015 – 95+ – 100% Agiorgitiko, old vines, unfiltered; perhaps the most complex bouquet we have ever encountered in a Greek red
Domaine Skouras Megas Oenos 2019 – 94 – 80% Agiorgitiko, PGI Peloponnese; tied for top place blind against five 2019 Bordeaux
Ktima Biblia Chora Areti red 2013 – 94 – 100% Agiorgitiko, PGI Pangeon; the pioneering wine of cultivation outside Nemea
La Tour Melas Palies Rizes 2020 – 94 – 100% Agiorgitiko from ungrafted vines more than 100 years old; very finely polished tannin, very long finish
Domaine Costa Lazaridi Château Julia Agiorgitiko 2020 – 92 – 100% Agiorgitiko, PGI Drama; blueberry and black cherry, velvety tannins, discreet oak
Kokotos Estate Agiorgitiko 2020 – 92 – 100% Agiorgitiko, PGI Peloponnese; refreshing and elegant at 12.5%, superb quality for around 10 euros
Ktima Dyio Ipsi Dialogos red 2019 – 91+ – 50% Agiorgitiko with Syrah, PGI Ilia; forest fruit, very fine tannin, excellent drive
Ktima Pavlidis Emphasis Agiorgitiko 2018 – 91+ – 100% Agiorgitiko, single vineyard Perichora, PGI Drama; the serious, oak-marked northern style
Barafakas Winery Treis Magisses 2021 – 91 – 80% Agiorgitiko, medium-sweet lightly sparkling rosé at 11%; for us the best medium-sweet rosé in Greece of its vintage
Ktima Biblia Chora Areti red 2016 – 91 – 100% Agiorgitiko, PGI Pangeon; cold maceration and twelve months in French oak
Palivou Estate Nemea 2018 – 91 – 100% Agiorgitiko, PDO Nemea, under 10 euros; so much cherry, strawberry and herbs all at once
Ktima Pavlidis Thema red 2017 – 90+ – 60% Agiorgitiko with Syrah; internationally perhaps the best-known Agiorgitiko blend
Olympia Land Estate Pheidias 2016 – 90+ – 50% Agiorgitiko with Merlot, PGI Ilia; ethereal, with fir, eucalyptus and rosemary
Acra Winery Nemea Agiorgitiko 2020 – 90 – PDO Nemea from 300 to 550 metres, lyre training in the vineyard
Ktima Driopi Reserve Agiorgitiko 2018 – 90 – PDO Nemea Reserve from Koutsi; 70% new French barriques, 50-year-old vines
Nemea Winery Nemea 2019 – 90 – PDO Nemea for under 10 euros; vibrant raspberry, redcurrant and cranberry
Panagiotopoulos Wines Agiorgitiko Cube 2015 – 90 – PGI Trifilia from the western Peloponnese; rustic, oak-marked, long-lived, 6.80 euros at the cellar door
Cavino Nemea 1978 – 90 – PDO Nemea, remarkably supple at 45 years of age; our strongest evidence for ageing potential
Boutari Nemea 1998 – 90 – plain standard bottling at 11.5%, after 26 years still carried by lively acidity
A note on the scale: our older articles still use the 20-point scale (18.5/20 corresponds roughly to 95/100). All scores on this page have been converted to the 100-point scale.
What should go in the glass now?
In one sentence: Agiorgitiko is Greece's soft, fruity red with a herbal, peppery edge – best drunk young and lightly chilled, at prices that no longer exist in better-known regions.
If you do not know the variety yet, the easiest place to start is the Domaine Skouras Akres 2025: around 8 euros, 87 points, uncomplicated and true to type. If you want to know how far the variety reaches upwards, take a bottle from the best-of list.
One caveat: the oldest bottles on this page, the Cavino Nemea 1978 and the Boutari Nemea 1998, are archive wines from our own cellar. They stand here as evidence that Agiorgitiko can age – not as a buying tip. You will no longer find them in the trade.
All Agiorgitiko notes (as of August 2026)
More than 60 tasting notes in our database include Agiorgitiko. Here are all the wines in which Agiorgitiko plays the leading role – more than 40 notes from around 30 estates, vintages from 1978 to 2025, scores from 70 to 95+ points. Almost all are single-varietal or have a stated Agiorgitiko share of at least half. Added to these are two two-variety blends for which the producer does not state the proportions – Agiorgitiko is named first in each case, and in the tasting it unmistakably carries the wine.
Philos Wines Apeiro “∞” 2015 (95+), Domaine Skouras Megas Oenos 2019 (94), Ktima Biblia Chora Areti red 2013 (94), La Tour Melas Palies Rizes 2020 (94), Domaine Costa Lazaridi Château Julia Agiorgitiko 2020 (92), Kokotos Estate Agiorgitiko 2020 (92), Ktima Dyio Ipsi Dialogos red 2019 (91+), Ktima Pavlidis Emphasis Agiorgitiko 2018 (91+), Barafakas Winery Treis Magisses 2021 (91), Ktima Biblia Chora Areti red 2016 (91), Palivou Estate Nemea 2018 (91), Ktima Pavlidis Thema red 2017 (90+), Olympia Land Estate Pheidias 2016 (90+), Acra Winery Nemea Agiorgitiko 2020 (90), Boutari Nemea 1998 (90), Cavino Nemea 1978 (90), Ktima Driopi Reserve Agiorgitiko 2018 (90), Nemea Winery Nemea 2019 (90), Panagiotopoulos Wines Agiorgitiko Cube 2015 (90), Giannikos Winery The Lion 2018 (89+), Barafakas Winery Apocalypsis 2015 (89), Kourtakis Nemea 1990 (89), Lafazanis Winery Geometria Agiorgitiko 2020 (89), Barafakas Winery Saint Modesto 2021 (88), Lafazanis Winery Geometria Agiorgitiko 2023 (88), Lafazanis Winery Geometria Agiorgitiko 2024 (88), Ktima Pavlidis Emphasis Agiorgitiko 2016 (87+), Nikolaou Estate Nemea Agiorgitiko 2020 (87+), Domaine Skouras Akres 2025 (87), Barafakas Winery Idea red 2021 (86), Dionysos Winery Agiorgitiko 2021 (86), Domaine Spiropoulos Porfyros 1996 (86), Fteri Vinum Winery Viale die Parioli 44 2020 (85+), Astir X Winery Fare Rebels red 2017 (84), Semeli Estate Oneiros Helios 2019 (84), Tsantali Nemea Reserve Epilegmenos 1993 (84), Nicolas Repanis Agiorgitiko 2011 (83), Palivou Estate Anemos 2013 (82), Loukas Winery Ariston 2021 (80), Semeli Estate Charisma 2021 (80), Dionysos Winery Agiorgitiko Moschofilero 2021 (79), Kourtakis Kouros Nemea 1992 (78), Cavino Pandora 2021 (70), Dionysos Winery Orizontes rosé 2021 (70).
Further reading: our Agiorgitiko deep dives
This page gives the overview – the depth is in our four big Agiorgitiko articles:
Agiorgitiko tasting: 19 wines from four decades – the vertical from 1978 to 2021, with all the ageing data, the history of the great export houses of the 1990s and the comparison of an old Nemea with two famous Bordeaux of the same vintage.
Agiorgitiko in all its variants – the spectrum of styles from unoaked to single vineyard, with the detailed tasting notes on Geometria, Palivou Nemea, Cube and Emphasis.
Agiorgitiko: from its homeland to distant parts – how the variety fares 750 kilometres north of Nemea, and why the fruit turns darker there.
Agiorgitiko blends – the complete map of partners: Cabernet, Merlot, Syrah, Mavrodaphne, Pinot Noir, Grenache and Moschofilero.
Stay up to date
We are constantly tasting new Agiorgitikos – from the 8-euro bottle to the icon wine – and we write every note ourselves. If you do not want to miss any: Sign up for the newsletter here. Free of charge, cancel at any time.
Image credits
Landscape and vine photos via Wikimedia Commons: ulrichstill – Nemea Wine-Olives Corinthia Peloponnese (CC BY-SA 3.0 DE) · Zde – Vine tree near Archeological site of Nemea (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Elisavetch – Agiorgitiko (public domain). The two bottle photos are from our own tastings.
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