Great Wine? Small Price?

Skouras Megas Oenos 2019 in a blind tasting against five Bordeaux renowned for their value. Who wins?

There are wines you drink more out of respect for their history than out of genuine excitement. Skouras Megas Oenos has long been one of those for me. For years it served as the unofficial ambassador of Greek wine – proof that Greece could produce serious, internationally competitive reds, not just Retsina. The story is well known and often told: George Skouras, trained in Dijon, brought Burgundian know-how to the Peloponnese and created a blend of Agiorgitiko and Cabernet Sauvignon that turned heads internationally in the 1990s. Suddenly the wine world was talking about Nemea, about Greek reds, about potential.

And the price? It mostly tells that story. Megas Oenos retails for roughly €26–28 – a sum I always found a bit steep given the actual drinking experience. I tend to order it when I'm out at restaurants and short on good alternatives. A big fan? Not really.

But that's precisely why it was time for an honest test. Not on its own, but in context – blind, against wines competing in the same price bracket.

The Setup: Six Wines, One Vintage, No Labels

The idea was simple: if Megas Oenos 2019 claims a spot in the €20–40 range, it needs to be measured against wines that are exciting and ambitious at that very price point. Pitting a Greek wine against overpriced bottles from premium appellations would hardly be a fair fight. So the choice deliberately fell on five Bordeaux from the outstanding 2019 vintage – wines with a reputation for delivering the best value the region has to offer: one 5ème Cru Classé, one Cru Bourgeois Supérieur, and three estates that have built their standing far from the big names.

The contenders:

• Château Meyney 2019 (Saint-Estèphe) – one of the appellation's oldest estates, historic Cru Bourgeois, situated between Montrose and Calon-Ségur

• Château Carmenère 2019 (Médoc) – a micro-estate built around the near-extinct Carmenère grape; Coup de Cœur in the Guide Hachette

• Clos Manou 2019 (Médoc) – Stéphane Dief's legendary garage-wine project, started in 1998 with 600 bottles, now a cult name in the northern Médoc

• Château Belgrave 2019 (Haut-Médoc, 5ème Cru Classé) – a classified growth right on the border of Saint-Julien, long under the radar but on a sharp upward trajectory

• Château Doyac 2019 (Haut-Médoc, Cru Bourgeois Supérieur) – biodynamic (Demeter), Merlot-driven, on pure limestone; one of Lobenberg's "three musketeers" of the Médoc

• Skouras Megas Oenos 2019 (PGI Peloponnese) – the Greek challenger

Tasters had a list of the wines in front of them but did not know which glass held which wine. The tasting took place in 2025 – I apologise for the delayed write-up. But perhaps that's actually an opportunity: with some distance, you can now verify our impressions for yourself. Have the predictions held up? All five Bordeaux are available from Lobenberg.

The Story of Megas Oenos

To understand why this wine commands its price, you have to go back to the mid-1980s. George Skouras studied oenology in Dijon – the heart of Burgundy, not exactly the most obvious training ground for someone who wants to make Greek wine. In 1986 he founded his domaine on the Peloponnese with a bold idea: blending the indigenous Agiorgitiko grape from the high-altitude vineyards of Nemea with Cabernet Sauvignon and ageing the result in French barriques. Megas Oenos – "the great wine" – began as an experiment sometime in the mid-1980s; the first commercial bottling is dated to either 1986 or 1988 depending on the source.

What followed was a small revolution. At a time when Greek wine barely existed on the international stage, Megas Oenos suddenly appeared on the radar of critics and importers. Cellar-worthy, serious red wine with real character – from Greece. Jamie Goode describes the wine as almost "super-Tuscan" in feel – and the comparison hits the mark: like the Super Tuscans in Italy, Megas Oenos was a wine that deliberately stepped outside the local appellation system to create something stylistically new. Because PDO Nemea is reserved exclusively for 100% Agiorgitiko, Megas Oenos still carries the PGI Peloponnese designation to this day.

Since then, Megas Oenos has remained a kind of door-opener: the wine people name when they want to argue that Greece produces reds to be taken seriously. That is also its problem – or at least mine with it. The reputation, the pioneer status, the history: all of it is baked into the price. The question that interests me is a different one: what's actually in the glass?

The Tasting

What connects the first four Bordeaux: they are all Cabernet-heavy – from 62% Cabernet Sauvignon in the Belgrave, through 60% in the Carmenère and 57% in the Meyney, down to 47% (level with Merlot) in the Clos Manou. In the blind tasting, these four were immediately recognisable as a subgroup. We therefore discuss them first, in ascending order of our scores.

Wine 1: Château Meyney 2019 (Saint-Estèphe)

Meyney is an estate with serious history: the vineyard appears in the Gironde archives as early as 1276, and the domaine was founded in 1625. Today the property spans 51 hectares in a single block, wedged between Montrose and Calon-Ségur – a location many a Cru Classé can only dream of. The soils: a naturally drained gravel ridge over deep clay-limestone, shot through with a distinctive seam of blue clay. Since 2004 Meyney has belonged to the CA Grands Crus group; organic conversion has been underway since 2021.

A word on classification. Meyney appeared on the 1932 Cru Bourgeois list and was classified as Cru Bourgeois Supérieur in 2003. In the current official classifications (2020 and 2025), however, the estate is absent – according to Lobenberg, Meyney more or less withdrew in protest against the reclassification process. "Cru Bourgeois" at Meyney is therefore a historical shorthand rather than a current title – which does nothing to diminish the fact that the terroir ranks among the finest unclassified sites in Saint-Estèphe.

The 2019 is 57% Cabernet Sauvignon, 27% Merlot and 16% Petit Verdot – an unusually high dose of Petit Verdot, but one with deep roots at Meyney: the variety was introduced in the 1920s by Désiré Cordier and has been part of the estate's DNA ever since. Harvested from 24 September to 11 October, vinified parcel by parcel after rigorous selection, aged in French oak with 35% new barrels. The critical reception is impressive for the price class: Neal Martin awarded 95 points from bottle, Suckling 94, Anson 93, Galloni and Dunnuck 92. Heiner Lobenberg himself calls Meyney a "shooting star" since 2016 and the 2019 a "price-performance blockbuster" – at roughly €29 per bottle.

Colour was the first thing that stood out: less violet than the others, leaning more toward mature garnet. On the nose, lots of raspberry – brighter and more fruit-forward than you might expect from a Cabernet-dominated Saint-Estèphe. The palate brings distinct marzipan, lending the wine a sweet, soft dimension. The finish falls rather flat; some chocolate does emerge, and it's quite delicate. Overall impression: very round, very agreeable – but not particularly exciting. A wine that lacks tension. 91 points.

Wine 2: Château Carmenère 2019 (Médoc)

This wine's story begins with a nearly forgotten grape. Carmenère was once a mainstay of the Médoc but virtually disappeared after phylloxera – today it accounts for just 0.1% of red Bordeaux plantings. Richard Barraud built his small estate in Queyrac in the northern Médoc programmatically around this variety: roughly 3.5 hectares, established in the mid-2000s, planted at a density of 8,000 vines per hectare. That this is no hobby operation is clear from context: Barraud's day job is vineyard manager at Château Haut-Batailley in Pauillac, and his consultant is Eric Boissenot – the oenologist who also advises every Premier Cru. The optical sorting machine in the cellar was bought second-hand from Ducru-Beaucaillou. Lobenberg calls him "a similar extremist to Stéphane Dief at Clos Manou."

The 2019 Grand Vin is 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 24% Merlot and 16% Carmenère at 13.5% alcohol – harvest didn't start until early October. Aged 24 months in French oak, fermented spontaneously in concrete. The critical picture is split: Guide Hachette gave it two stars and the Coup de Cœur, Parker/Wine Advocate and TerroirSense came in at 89 points. Merchant scores are far more enthusiastic: Lobenberg awards 97 points and draws a comparison with Ridge Monte Bello, Gerstl gives 19+/20. At roughly €21, the price-to-quality ratio is remarkable.

The Carmenère pours an almost purple colour – a statement from the start. On the nose, something barnyard-animal at first, leather, smoke; one taster asked whether a Syrah had smuggled itself into the blend as a stowaway. The palate brings blackcurrant, including red. At first the wine needs a moment to shake off some funk, but over the course of the tasting it shows increasing complexity and develops an interesting fruit sweetness. Intriguing – but still a bit unbalanced. Above all, it's not clear where this wine is heading: plenty of potential, but also plenty left unresolved. For now, 92 points, no plus.

Wine 3: Clos Manou 2019 (Médoc)

If there is one estate in the northern Médoc that proves terroir and work matter more than classification and postcode, it's Clos Manou. Françoise and Stéphane Dief started in 1998 in a garage with 600 bottles. Today they farm 18 hectares in Saint-Christoly de Médoc and Couquèques – still tiny by Bordeaux standards, but the qualitative leap has been enormous. Planting density sits at 9,000 to 10,000 vines per hectare, yields at a maximum of 500 grams per vine. Only about half the crop makes it into the Grand Vin. The estate also includes a historic Merlot parcel from the 1850s that survived phylloxera.

The soils are unusually mosaic-like for the northern Médoc: gravel-clay, Couquèques limestone, sand, and mixtures thereof. The cellar work is ambitious: 70% new French barriques for 17 months, plus 25% concrete eggs and 5% terracotta jars, malolactic via co-inoculation, weekly bâtonnage through an Oxoline system. Since 2018 Clos Manou seals its entire production with Ardeaseal technical corks.

The 2019 final blend is exactly equal: 47% Cabernet Sauvignon, 47% Merlot, 4% Petit Verdot, 2% Cabernet Franc. 14.5% alcohol, pH 3.54. Harvested 23 September to 14 October. The critical picture clusters tightly in the 92–94 range: Kelley/WA 92+, Martin 92, Suckling 92, Dunnuck 92, Beck 94, RVF 94, Hachette two stars plus Coup de Cœur. Lobenberg goes far above the consensus at 97–100 points and draws a comparison with Pauillac quality: "If this were not Médoc but Pauillac, these wines would always be in the €100 range alongside Pontet-Canet." At Lobenberg, the bottle costs roughly €27.

On the nose, the Clos Manou is surprisingly restrained at first – especially compared to the other wines in the lineup. On the palate it then piles on the structure, though there is quite a bit of fruit in there too. The blend is exactly 50/50 here (47% each Cabernet and Merlot, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc only in trace amounts), and yet very varietal cassis aromas come through. Plenty of blackberry too – though in a very jammy register, which you either like or you don't, particularly combined with the sluggish nose. The finish keeps feeling like it's about to take off but never quite leaves the launch pad; it can't overtake the other wines in this respect yet. It's stuck in earthy notes, the tannin still holding it back. 92+ points, with clear room for improvement. Can be drunk gently from this year, but best to wait until 2027.

Wine 4: Château Belgrave 2019 (Haut-Médoc, 5ème Cru Classé)

The only 1855-classified wine in our lineup – and the one that spent the longest flying under the radar. Belgrave sits in Saint-Laurent-Médoc right on the border with Saint-Julien, next door to Château Lagrange. The terroir – two gravel ridges over clay subsoil at 23 and 26 metres elevation – is, according to Lobenberg, "identical to Lagrange"; he goes on to call Belgrave "really the better Saint-Julien." Since the Dourthe takeover in 1979 and massive vineyard investment (now 10,000 vines per hectare, yields under 500 grams per vine), the estate has developed dramatically.

The 2019 is 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot and 3% Petit Verdot at 14% alcohol. Hand-harvested into crates, optically sorted, spontaneously fermented, 32% new oak. Consultant: Eric Boissenot. Critics: Wine Enthusiast 94, Suckling 93, Falstaff 93, Weinwisser 18.5/20, Parker/WA and Wine Spectator 90 each. Lobenberg awards 97 points and describes the wine as a "scent orgy" and "deeply concentrated Saint-Julien" that reminds him of warm vintages of Léoville-Poyferré. At Millésima, the price is roughly €39.

The Belgrave immediately stands out with a different aromatic profile. The speculoos spice on the nose has the closest parallels to the Doyac – which we'll come to shortly; this made Belgrave a bridge between groups that initially pushed it away from the other wines and had us questioning our assignments. Then there's a lot of plum. A minimal sulphur note too. On the palate, though, a very delicate, dusty tannin emerges. Ambitious Cabernet with good oak maturation is unmistakable here. The finish is long and hints at the aromatics this wine will still develop. 93+ points with clear upside.

That concludes the four Cabernet-heavy Bordeaux.

Wine 5: Château Doyac 2019 (Haut-Médoc, Cru Bourgeois Supérieur)

And then there were the two wines that immediately fell outside the Cabernet-heavy group of four.

Doyac is a family estate in Saint-Seurin-de-Cadourne, right on the northern border with Saint-Estèphe. Max de Pourtalès – former banker – bought the property in 1998, his wife Astrid joined him, and daughter Clémence came on board in 2016 as a trained oenologist. The philosophy: fine, elegant Bordeaux, no over-extraction. What really sets Doyac apart are two things: first, the terroir – pure limestone with minimal clay overlay, which explains the unusually high Merlot proportion. Second, the biodynamic approach: 2019 was the estate's first Demeter-certified vintage.

Doyac too is advised by Eric Boissenot and Marco Balsimelli – the same oenologists as at Clos Manou and Château Carmenère. Lobenberg calls these three the "three musketeers" of the Médoc and Haut-Médoc: all advised by Boissenot, all on a par with classified growths in quality, yet astonishingly different in style.

The 2019 is 85% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Sauvignon at 14.5% alcohol. Spontaneously fermented, 15 days at 26°C in stainless steel, 12 months' ageing with 25% new oak. 100,000 bottles, 80% Grand Vin. Critics: Suckling 93, Beck 93, Terre de Vins 94–95, Vinous 92, Hachette two stars. Lobenberg awards 97 points: "This 2019 even stands slightly above the brilliant 2018." Gerstl gives 19/20. At roughly €19–23, the price for a biodynamic Haut-Médoc with this critical profile is borderline absurd.

"That's not the Greek one" – on that much we agreed immediately. At the same time, the Doyac stood out sharply against the Cabernet-heavy wines. Of all six wines it was the easiest to identify in the blind tasting. The nose is intense but dark, not light – lots of gingerbread spice, and honestly a touch of sulphur whose merit is debatable. On the palate, blackberry – but as jelly: far more elegant than the Clos Manou. Plus herbs. Tannins and acidity form a solid but already drinkable structure. The finish brings plenty of iodine and plenty of black tea. A very strong wine that deserves 94 points. You hesitate a little to write that – after all, at roughly €22 it's by far the cheapest of the lot.

And yes, we are fans of the Right Bank, though usually quite demanding there. Here you have something from the Left Bank that need not hide from a Saint-Émilion Grand Cru Classé. Perhaps the Doyac also benefited a little from the comparison with the still somewhat angular Cabernets? The last wine argues against that theory – it had the most aggressive oak treatment of the entire lineup, and yet scored very well:

Wine 6: Skouras Megas Oenos 2019 (PGI Peloponnese)

I know, I know: ending with the top score for the Greek wine on a Greek wine blog – that looks like a fix. I would have preferred a different result, if only for the sake of credibility. But I can't change what happened. And honestly: I really hadn't expected it.

For context: the 2019 Megas Oenos is somewhat polarising among critics. Wine Advocate awarded 92 points but noted that the oak was still very present in its youth and that the wine wouldn't truly find its feet until 2025–2027. Wine Enthusiast came in at just 89. Jamie Goode, on the other hand, saw a lively, classic, cellar-worthy wine at 93 points with an almost super-Tuscan feel. The 2020, which I also had recently, receives more uniformly positive reviews – Wine Advocate 93, Gold and Best Red Wine at the Thessaloniki Wine & Spirits Trophy 2024 – and comes across as more composed overall. The 2019 is the stricter, less charming, more exciting interpretation. Same story with us.

80% Agiorgitiko, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, 14.5% alcohol, 18 months in new French barriques, 4 months sur lie, Agiorgitiko vines up to 70 years old at 700 metres elevation in Gimno – the technical specs are well known. The 2019 retails for roughly €26–28 in Germany; Lobenberg does not stock it.

In the glass, the Megas Oenos looks surprisingly thin next to the deep violet-to-near-black Bordeaux – the alcohol sits at 14.5%, level with Clos Manou and Doyac, and doesn't betray itself through heavier legs either. But this wine is anything but flat.

Vanilla dominates the nose. You have to like that – and it is unquestionably the most heavy-handed oak treatment of the entire lineup. On the palate, however, the wine convinces with very delicate, varied berry aromas, and by the fact that the oak here shows more range than on the nose: not just vanilla, but a whole spectrum – caramel, toast, spice. In the finish, flashes of sweetness, bitterness and peppery heat play off each other in a genuinely invigorating way. A wine that admittedly walks a tightrope – but it pays off that it takes that risk instead of getting stuck in the kind of inoffensive mediocrity I've found in other vintages. 94 points.

The Result

The ranking at a glance:

Rank	Wine	Points	Approx. Price
6	Château Meyney 2019	91	€29
5	Château Carmenère 2019	92	€21
4	Clos Manou 2019	92+	€27
3	Château Belgrave 2019	93+	€39
1–2	Château Doyac 2019	94	€22
1–2	Skouras Megas Oenos 2019	94	€27

The Megas Oenos and the Doyac sharing the top spot was the biggest surprise of the evening. The two wines that fell outside the Cabernet-heavy group turned out to be the strongest: a biodynamic Merlot-based Haut-Médoc at €22 and a Greek Agiorgitiko-Cabernet blend at €27.

What Stays

Three things I take away from this evening.

First: Megas Oenos has earned its price. I say this as someone who was sceptical for years. Against five ambitious Bordeaux specifically chosen for their value, Megas Oenos 2019 won. The vanilla nose is a gamble, the sweetness-bitterness-heat balance in the finish walks a tightrope – and yet the wine holds together. The 2019 is certainly not the most crowd-pleasing Megas Oenos ever made. But perhaps the most exciting.

Second: we need to be honest about ageing potential. The "plus" on the Clos Manou (92+) deserves an explanation, especially on a blog devoted to Greek wines. The ageing potential of good Bordeaux is something lovers of Greek wine must respectfully acknowledge. I think here of Ktima Biblia Chora's red estate wine from 2019, which was available for under €20 – though the much earlier release means you can no longer buy it in Germany a few years after harvest. We had this wine from the same vintage in our glass at just two years of age. Its varietal composition is quite similar, with Merlot just ahead of Cabernet and Agiorgitiko making up the remaining 15%. A genuinely good wine with delicate smoky aromatics and engaging minerality – it had earned 92 points back then. Unfortunately we didn't have it for comparison this time; it would probably have been a neck-and-neck race. But in five years' time, the Clos Manou will surely be well ahead. Granted, it also costs twice as much. Still, that's not something you should hide out of love for Greek wine.

Third: Megas Oenos is increasingly alone. We have discussed Agiorgitiko cuvées at length on this blog. In most cases Agiorgitiko plays a supporting role rather than leading opposite an international blending partner. Megas Oenos is one of the few exceptions – and an increasingly lonely one. I find it very regrettable that Ktima Biblia Chora, after taking over Christos Kokkalis' vineyard in Ilia, did not continue the second wine to the Trilogia (100% Cabernet Sauvignon) – the Mova – in its original form. The Mova was 70% Agiorgitiko and 30% Cabernet Sauvignon. That gave the Trilogia a certain dignity, because it was clear that only a selection of barrels went into the top wine – and there was, at least as a second label, another Peloponnesian classic with a very similar varietal profile alongside Megas Oenos. Now, as the sole torchbearer for this concept, Megas Oenos looks a bit like a relic. Unfairly so, in my view. The switch to Syrah as international blending partner in the "Dialogos" (now under the name Ktima Dyo Ipsi) drinks very well, but doesn't match the racier character of the Mova – if you ask me.

So, fine: I've changed my mind. Megas Oenos is no longer the wine I order for lack of alternatives at a restaurant. I'll be buying it on purpose – at least in good vintages. And if you're wondering whether a Greek red at close to €30 is worth the punt: five Bordeaux, chosen specifically because they are known for delivering the best value their region has to offer, say yes.