Three Glasses of Kir-Yianni and a Well-Earned Humbling

When you organise plenty of tastings for others and then watch them struggle blind while you yourself have long known what is in the glass, a false sense of security sets in over time. I recently had to learn this again, rather painfully, at first hand. We were invited to friends who know Greek wine very well, and I wanted to bring some wine along for the games evening. Looking at the shelf of bottles still to be tasted, three Xinomavro from Kir-Yianni caught my eye: three wines, three price brackets, three vintages. To keep it at least a little exciting for myself, I randomised the bottles before bagging them.

Three bottles, three price brackets, three vintages

Briefly on the estate: Ktima Kir-Yianni was founded in 1997 by Yiannis Boutaris; the vineyards around Giannakochori in Naoussa go back to 1970, and today Stellios Boutaris runs the house. A second base lies in Amyntaio.

In the bags that evening: the entry-level wine, the Naoussa Cuvée Villages 2022 (tasting note), a varietal Xinomavro with PDO Naoussa, around €12 in Greece. A year older, the house's traditional wine, the Ramnista 2021 (tasting note), also a PDO Naoussa, around €22 in Greece. And finally the Diaporos 2020 (tasting note), which alongside Xinomavro contains 13% Syrah and therefore does not carry a PDO Naoussa label but runs as PGI Imathia (the appellation requires varietal Xinomavro). Around €45 in Greece.

In the glass

The first wine gave away the grape variety immediately. On the nose a great deal of dried tomato, a little earth and plenty of strawberry. The colour, however, already showed clear signs of age, and on the palate a rather oxidative, raisiny finish accompanied the fine but dense tannin. Arriving at Xinomavro was thus not difficult. Landing in the right vintage range, on the other hand, was: most at the table went at least five years further into the past than was even possible given the candidates. I had my own suspicion, more on that later.

The second wine: noticeably less opaque, violet reflections. On the nose a broader spectrum of berry fruit, less tomato, still clearly recognisable as Xinomavro, but also a touch of blackcurrant, a hint of cassis, which can quite easily throw you off when guessing blind. That actually promises an interesting wine. On the palate, though, rather unresolved, unwieldy, the acidity not well integrated, too agitated. Vegetal and angular on the finish as well.

The third wine, finally, denser than the two before it, starting with the colour. On the nose blackberry and raspberry. On the palate gripping tannin, in very good concert with the acidity, good drive, long peppery finish.

The guessing and the reveal

Which was the youngest wine was clear to everyone at the table: glass two. That it had to be the Cuvée Villages followed automatically from this selection of three, at least for me as the one in the know. And that disappointed me a little, because I remembered the 2019 vintage as considerably better. In our big Xinomavro masterclass (in German), the Cuvée Villages 2019 with 90 points had even narrowly edged out the Ramnista 2019 with 88.

And glass one? Everyone else at the table was certain this was the oldest wine. What they did not consider, after I had at some point mentioned that all three wines came from the same estate: in such a case one can assume that the top wine has had the longest bottle ageing. I was certain it could not be the Diaporos.

For I have something of a love-hate relationship with the Ramnista. In the old days, when I did not take much interest in wine, I often had Ramnista in my glass and enjoyed it without memorising the vintages. Since I began dealing with Greek wine more professionally, however, not one vintage has come before me that convinced me entirely:

• Ramnista 2006, 86 points (tasted 2024): had lost too much primary fruit, “as if bewitched”.

• Ramnista 2010, 88 points (May 2026): “once again a Ramnista that did not really convince me”.

• Ramnista 2017, 90 points (2024): too little for the name and the vintage.

• Ramnista 2018, 90 points (2024): slightly corked.

• Ramnista 2019, 88 points (2024): surprisingly aged; a second bottle for comparison would have been welcome.

So I was sure: this was once again a Ramnista that did not convince me, one that, although a year younger, already seemed a few years older. Grandly, I therefore announced on opening that glass three was of course the Diaporos, the peppery note unmistakable; I genuinely thought I recognised it. Anyone who has read this far can guess: the humbling was considerable. The Ramnista was in bag number three. And yes, once you know, tobacco and leather suddenly come to mind again as you sip the first glass.

The wines in detail

I am a little disappointed by the Diaporos 2020. The Xinomavro for it comes from Block 5, planted in 1972, the Syrah from two blocks dating from 1987; both are vinified separately, the Xinomavro matures for around 16 months in first- and second-fill barriques, and the result is 15% alcohol. The name, incidentally, refers to the small island of Diaporos off Sithonia, the Boutaris family's retreat; the grapes nevertheless grow dutifully in Naoussa. In the 2024 masterclass I had rated the Diaporos 2018, likewise at six years of age, with 94 points: the second-highest score among 53 wines and the best Kir-Yianni of the masterclass; only the Vrana Petra 2017 from Thymiopoulos ranked higher with 99+. The Diaporos is certainly a fine wine, one that puts Xinomavro centre stage from the first sniff and, if you sit with it longer, is filigree and gives you something to think about. In direct comparison that evening, however, the Ramnista was considerably more convincing. The 2020 also seems further along in its development than the vintage would suggest: 2020 stands at 8.0 for red Naoussa on our vintage scale of 0 to 10 (the long-term Greek median is 6.5), dry and warm but with the day-night difference preserved, which helped the late-ripening Xinomavro; the dreaded autumn rot stayed away. The estate itself, however, described delayed, uneven ripening for the Diaporos parcels. The critics rate the wine considerably higher than I do: Wine Advocate gave 94 points in June 2026 (Monica Larner), and at the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles 2026 it took Grand Gold. For me it is 91 points; with that oxidative streak on the finish, no more.

The Cuvée Villages 2022, the plural coming from grapes from younger estate parcels and from small growers in several villages of the zone, has existed since the 2017 vintage. Around a year in wood, mostly French oak, a year of bottle ageing, 14%. Here too the vintage is no excuse: 2022, at 8.0, was a good year for red Naoussa. The external scores diverge widely: the Decanter World Wine Awards 2025 awarded Gold with 95 points, Vinous 91, JancisRobinson.com 16.5 out of 20, the FNL Guide of Simos Georgopoulos 8 out of 10. My 89 points (90 at best) thus sit more towards the lower end of that spectrum. The 95 does not fit at all for me, with all due respect to the jury.

That leaves the Ramnista 2021, my wine of the evening. In local usage the name means “royal hill”; in 2002 no Ramnista was bottled at all. “Single Vineyard” here means: selected parcels of the Ramnista vineyard, nine of them in 2021, most planted 1970-1973. Each parcel is vinified separately, followed by 14 months in French oak in 225- and 500-litre barrels, 14.5%, and the harvest began on 21 September 2021. 2021 stands at only 7.0 for Naoussa, a cool, elegant vintage with high acidity in which much depended on the picking date and on selection. Nationwide, 2021 even stood at only 5.5, dragged down by the heatwave from late July and the fires in northern Euboea, northern Attica and the Peloponnese. In Naoussa a cold March delayed budbreak, and the cool conditions also pushed back the late Xinomavro harvest, which dragged on until 10 October. By the vintage numbers, then, 2020 and 2022 should have come out ahead. The wine from the weakest of the three years won. With the Wine Advocate, incidentally, I align exactly here: Monica Larner also gave 93 points in June 2026. For me it is 93 points, and there would really be a plus behind it had I not had bad luck so often with mature Ramnistas, which may of course also have been down to storage. In any case, it is my highest-rated Ramnista to date.

Recommendations and a closing word

If you want to try Ramnista, take it from a Ramnista sceptic: buy the 2021. It is an absolute showstopper for the price. With the Diaporos, on the other hand, I would reach for a different vintage, unless you simply want to take your chances on a better bottle. And the Cuvée Villages can do more than it showed in 2022; the 2019 proved it.

Two of the three wines thus fell short of expectations that evening. A disappointing evening? Not in the least. Precisely this many-sidedness of wine, its dependence on the vintage, the sometimes unexpected development in the bottle, all of that is part of the deal and is what makes the whole thing exciting in the first place. And the joy is all the greater when one like the Ramnista 2021 suddenly puts on such a show. Three wines lay side by side that evening. Only the taster lay wide of the mark.

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