Merlot 2021: How Does Greece Compare Internationally?

Merlot has a tough time. The grape variety that produces some of the world's most expensive wines in Pomerol and Saint-Émilion struggles elsewhere with a reputation for making pleasant rather than great wine. Since the film Sideways (2004) at the latest, it has had an image problem – at least in the minds of those who let cinema dictate their wine preferences. I, for one, like the film – but I also like the grape.

In this article, I want to shine a spotlight on the 2021 vintage and examine in detail how a selection of Greek Merlots holds up against international benchmarks. Because I believe Greek wine is now good enough to deserve this kind of close scrutiny. For other countries and regions, it has long been standard practice to critically assess quality by terroir, single vineyard and vintage. Greece, too, should face that examination – and it stands up to it. So here is one building block toward that end, based on a tasting from February 2025. I hope to re-taste some of the wines discussed here before long and report whether the impressions hold – for one of them, I have already done so further below.

A Difficult Vintage in Bordeaux

2021 was a year Bordeaux's Merlot growers would rather forget. It started promisingly: a mild, wet winter led to early budbreak at the end of March. But that is precisely what left the vines exposed. On 7 and 8 April, severe late frosts struck across the entire Bordelais – from the Médoc to Saint-Émilion and Pomerol, Graves and Pessac-Léognan. The already emerged buds were left defenceless. On top of that, millerandage caused significant yield losses, particularly for the early-budding Merlot. Growers spent entire nights deploying frost candles and fans to protect their crop.

Cool weather in May then slowed growth. After flowering, heavy rainstorms from late June into early July created ideal conditions for downy mildew. The top estates responded with intensive spray programmes and meticulous canopy management to remove infected bunches and improve airflow. Only in August and early September did warm, dry weather return, stopping the rot and pushing ripening forward.

Even so, sugar levels remained low. The overall cool growing season made chaptalization necessary at many properties. Alcohol levels are more reminiscent of the 1980s than of the powerful 2018, 2019 and 2020 vintages. Shorter maceration times were chosen to prevent unripe, green seed tannins from entering the wine. Harvest began in late September with Merlot, followed a week later by Cabernet Sauvignon – all under the constraints of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Yields were on average five to ten per cent below normal, in some cases considerably more. The information in this section follows the Wine-Searcher Vintage Report 2021.

The two banks of the Gironde, however, tell different stories. On the Left Bank, Cabernet Sauvignon was clearly the lifeline. Top estates such as Lafite and Latour filled their Grand Vin with historically high Cabernet proportions of up to 96 per cent. Merlot played only a supporting role in many Médoc blends of 2021.

On the Right Bank – that is, in Saint-Émilion and Pomerol, the true heartlands of Merlot – the picture is more complicated. Here, "single varietal" is a relative term to begin with: most wines are Merlot-dominated, complemented by Cabernet Franc as the second key variety. Merlot thrives on the cooler limestone and clay-limestone soils, Cabernet Franc on the sandier plots. 2021 was not a great, homogeneous vintage on the Right Bank – but it was not simply weak either. Berry Bros & Rudd aptly describes it as "extremely heterogeneous" and, at the same time, a vintage of classical freshness rather than the warmth and richness of its predecessors.

Harvest timing was key: most Merlots were already in the cellar before the tricky October weather set in, while Cabernet Franc could hang longer on the vine. Where that succeeded, the extra ripeness brought perfume, tension and polish to the final blend. But it would be wrong to label 2021 on the Right Bank simply as "a Cabernet Franc vintage rather than a Merlot vintage." The majority of the best wines remained Merlot-dominated, especially on the top terroirs of Pomerol and Saint-Émilion. Cabernet Franc was often the star in the details – not the substitute. At the same time, the Right Bank fared slightly better overall than the Left, because Saint-Émilion and Pomerol sit in a somewhat warmer position and reached ripeness earlier.

Comparing 2021 against its immediate predecessors makes the character of the vintage even clearer. 2018 brought opulence and power, 2019 charm and approachability, 2020 combined structure with elegance and is regarded by many as the finest of the three. 2021, by contrast, is clearly the lightest, coolest and least opulent of the four. What it can offer – when successful – is a beautiful classical line reminiscent of the Bordeaux style of earlier decades. My short verdict for 2021 on the Right Bank: classical, fresh, often elegant, but very selective. Top results only with good terroir and rigorous selection.

A Very Different Vintage in Greece

In Greece, 2021 tells an entirely different story. March was cold, which slowed budbreak – paradoxically an advantage, since the buds were still protected when the few late frosts occurred. April and May brought intense drought with large diurnal temperature swings, delaying flowering by about a week.

Summer was then hot and dry – with two pronounced heatwaves in June and again in late July/early August, but without the disease pressure that plagued Bordeaux. No downy mildew, no rot. The vines did suffer considerable drought stress, which reduced yields by 10 to 15 per cent compared to 2020, but the smaller berries delivered outstanding concentration with deep colour extraction and excellent phenolic ripeness.

The available regional harvest reports point to a clear hierarchy for 2021: red wines benefited more than whites, late-ripening varieties more than early ones, northern regions more than southern ones. That is how the 2021 Harvest Report of the Greek Wine Federation (PDF) sums it up. In terms of style, many 2021 red wines can be expected to show deep colour, firm tannins and high ripeness – with moderate to low acidity. Indigenous varieties such as Xinomavro, better adapted to hot, dry conditions, had the overall advantage. For international varieties like Merlot, one needs to look more closely at the region.

Merlot and Syrah in particular benefited from the conditions – though not equally everywhere. The 2021 Harvest Report from Kir-Yianni, one of Northern Greece's leading estates, explicitly states that these two varieties were "favoured" by the summer's dryness and heat: the grapes arrived in the cellar healthy, aromatic and rich in phenolic compounds. In Amyndeon, Kir-Yianni rates its own 2021 Merlot at 10 out of 10. From Drama, too – a region officially recognised as particularly well suited to international red varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah – producers report aromatic intensity, surprising freshness and good acid balance despite the heat and drought.

On the Peloponnese, 2021 is more interesting but also trickier. For Nemea, the official report describes deeply coloured, tannic wines at significantly reduced volumes – but also frequently low acidity. The result is powerful, structured wines rather than classically balanced ones. Altitude and water management were decisive: vineyards above 600 metres coped with the heat better than lower, non-irrigated sites.

To put 2021 in proper context, it helps to look at the surrounding vintages. 2019 and 2020 are regarded in Greece as the more "classical" reference years: 2019 with sufficient water, no extreme heatwaves and unusually high acidity for a Mediterranean climate – one of the best harvests of the past twenty years. 2020 was almost a textbook year for varietal typicity, with a mild winter and no heatwave during the ripening phase. 2021, by contrast, is the more selective, more powerful vintage – not the most harmonious, but in good sites often particularly concentrated. Those seeking clean, balanced Merlot are better served by 2019 or 2020. Those looking for powerful, structured wines with depth and ageing potential may find 2021 a real pleasure – provided the producers knew what they were doing.

How Do the Greeks Fare?

I wanted to know what Greek Merlots could achieve from this selective vintage – and whether they could hold their own in international company. To find out, I tasted six wines, including a reference Pomerol, a world-class Italian Merlot and four Greek wines from very different regions: from the Atalanti Valley to the Peloponnese and Northwestern Greece:

• Château La Croix 2021 – Pomerol (90% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc)

• Galatrona 2021 – Petrolo, Tuscany (100% Merlot)

• Merlot Alargino 2021 – Ktima Hatzimichalis, Atalanti Valley (100% Merlot)

• Lacules Estate Merlot 2021 – Messinia (100% Merlot)

• The Emperor Limited Edition 2021 – Papargyriou Winery, Korinthia (95% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc)

• Dame Rouge III 2021 – Jima Winery, Arta (90% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc)

The outcome? This much can be said up front: Greece need not hide.

The Tasting

Château La Croix 2021 – Pomerol

Every tasting needs a reference point. For a Merlot comparison, Pomerol is an obvious choice – that small appellation on the right bank of the Dordogne that produces some of the world's most expensive Merlot-based wines. Pétrus, Le Pin, Lafleur – the icons, of course, play in a league that would exceed the scope of this tasting. Château La Croix, however, offers an honest, realistic benchmark as a solid mid-range Pomerol.

The estate sits in Catusseau, right next to Château Beauregard, on sandy gravel terraces with iron-rich soil. This terroir was long considered second-rate in Pomerol – too light, too sandy. Only with climate change has it become clear that precisely these soils can produce wines of unusual finesse. The Janoueix family has owned the ten-hectare estate for over 150 years and manages additional holdings on the Right Bank. On the composition of the 2021: the publicly available data are surprisingly contradictory. Depending on the source, one finds 90% Merlot with 10% Cabernet Franc or 95% Merlot with 5% Malbec – and even the alcohol level varies between 13.0 and 14.0 per cent. The Lobenberg website itself lists different blend data for the same wine and vintage on two separate product pages. For the Greek wines in this tasting, data can generally be verified directly with the producer; with Bordeaux, where information passes through several layers of négociants, that is sometimes harder. I am working here with 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc at approximately 13.5% alcohol.

The La Croix 2021 shows great density on the nose, and the palate entry continues in the same vein. Lots of dark berries, sloe above all, with a fine sandalwood note that settles beneath the fruit like a carpet. Then, with some air and time, the wine opens up and reveals a quite different side: juicy, fruity, refreshing – a lovely, classical Pomerol that aims to impress not through extraction or heavy-handed oak, but through the grape and the terroir. 92 points.

Around the same time I had the La Croix 2015 in my glass – and the comparison makes the vintage difference tangible. 2015 is regarded on the Right Bank as one of the clear counterpoints to 2021: Decanter calls the vintage "seductive" – Merlot was a great success, with plenty of fruit and very fine tannins. My impression of the La Croix 2015 confirms this: it scores at least 94 points and shows what this estate can deliver in a great Merlot year. The two-point difference from the 2021 may sound small on paper, but it is clearly perceptible in the glass.

Lobenberg awards this wine 97–98+ points, Weinwisser 95–96. I find that considerably too generous. The La Croix 2021 is charming and easy to drink, no question. But 2021 was a difficult vintage for Bordeaux Merlot, and the wine reflects that. It is lighter and more delicate than La Croix in great years – a solid benchmark, but no revelation. That, however, is precisely what makes it the right reference wine for our purposes: what can an honest Pomerol deliver in a difficult Merlot year? The answer is: 92 points. That is the bar.

Galatrona 2021 – Petrolo, Tuscany

If Château La Croix was the honest benchmark, then the Galatrona from Petrolo is the statement. You notice it the moment you pour: visually a different league altogether, incredibly dense in the glass. Anyone who sees the two wines side by side needs no tasting note to know that a different ambition is at work here.

Petrolo is a small family estate in the Val d'Arno di Sopra, a subzone east of Chianti that has made a name for itself with international varieties. The Bazzocchi-Sanjust family acquired the property in the 1940s; today Luca Sanjust runs it in the third generation, having given up his career as an artist in Rome in 1993 to return home. Galatrona, his flagship, was first bottled in 1994: 100% Merlot from a single vineyard planted between the late 1980s and mid-1990s with low-vigour Bordeaux clones. Around 50,000 vines stand on roughly ten hectares with southeast exposure at approximately 300 metres elevation. The soil – clay with schist, marl and sandstone – retains the moisture Merlot needs in the hot Tuscan summers. The estate has been certified organic since 2016 and is dry-farmed without irrigation.

In the cellar, Petrolo takes a deliberately restrained approach: hand-harvesting with sorting, spontaneous fermentation with indigenous yeasts in glazed concrete tanks, gentle manual extraction, malolactic fermentation in oak, then 18 to 20 months' ageing in French barriques and tonneaux, approximately one-third new. This is not a wine that seeks to impress through 100% new oak or aggressive extraction, but one that relies on fruit, precision and terroir.

The 2021 vintage was no easier in Tuscany. Spring frost and summer drought reduced production at Petrolo by around 30 per cent below normal levels. The grapes that made it through the vintage, however, reached optimal ripeness – and the analytical data show it: 14% alcohol at 5.89 g/l total acidity and pH 3.56. That makes the 2021 analytically even fresher in acid than the 2019 and 2020 vintages – a combination of concentration and freshness that is immediately apparent in the glass.

And that is exactly how the wine tastes. On the palate it is absolutely mouth-filling, with the finest nougat and a delicate juniper that lends an almost Mediterranean herbal note. The oak is beautifully integrated – present but never dominant, which given the moderate proportion of new wood comes as no surprise. The tannins are fine but still youthful, and behind the dense, dark fruit lies a freshness that gives the wine an unusual verticality for Merlot. 97 points – one of the world's best single-varietal Merlots, in my view.

Some months after the Merlot tasting, in December 2025, I opened another bottle – this time alongside the Fattoria Le Pupille Saffredi 2022, a Bordeaux blend with a slight Cabernet Sauvignon majority. The Galatrona performed superbly, especially at the outset: so much fruit, so much power, mouth-coating richness and a wonderful bloody aftertaste. Also astonishingly much tannin – more than I had remembered. I had given it somewhat less air than the Saffredi, which made the Galatrona appear more youthful and powerful at first. With more air and rising temperature, the Saffredi then showed its strengths and pulled ahead (98+ for the Saffredi). Galatrona confirmed at 97 points – but with enormous potential. I would not be surprised if it one day reaches 99 points.

The international critics see it similarly: Falstaff awards 100 points, James Suckling 98, Wine Enthusiast 97, Vinous 98, Decanter and Parker 97 and 97+ respectively. That this wine is still available for around €100 borders on an oversight, given the prices for comparably rated Bordeaux or its more famous Tuscan neighbour Masseto. After the modest benchmark from Pomerol, then, a wine now enters the picture that embodies genuine world-class quality. The question is no longer whether the Greek Merlots can beat the Pomerol – that would be too easy. The question is how close they can get to the Galatrona.

Merlot Alargino 2021 – Ktima Hatzimichalis, Atalanti Valley

If there is a single wine through which the history of Greek Merlot can be told, it is the Merlot Alargino from Domaine Hatzimichalis. In 1973, Dimitris Hatzimichalis founded his winery in the Atalanti Valley in Central Greece – a stretch of land between Mount Parnassus and the Euboean Gulf, whose cool cross-breezes give the vines the night-time recovery they need in this climate. Hatzimichalis was one of the first Greek wineries to plant international varieties alongside indigenous grapes, and the very first to bottle Merlot as a single varietal – starting with the 1989 vintage. That is not a footnote. It means the history of Greek Merlot begins here.

I have been following the Merlot Alargino for several years, and the vertical that has resulted is among the most instructive experiences I have had with Greek wine. My first encounter with Hatzimichalis Merlot, though, was rather sobering: the Merlot Yataki 2017, the estate's entry-level wine, failed to convince me at 86 points, with a hot alcohol finish. All the greater the surprise when I then discovered the Alargino – a different world entirely. The 1992 – which I only tasted in 2025, more than thirty years after harvest – was reportedly the first Greek wine ever on the IWC Top 100 list. At just 12% alcohol, it still showed fresh and juicy, with dense raspberry aromas woven into mushroom and earth, and soft but still perceptible tannins: 93 points and a wine that should comfortably hold until 2030. The 2004 was then the high point of my Alargino experience to date: leather, liquorice, flint, graphite, blackberry, superb acidity – at the peak of its development. 95 points. The 2011 surprised with an entirely different story: initially mushroom and undergrowth, but over several days a remarkable improvement, with the black olive aromas typical of mature Hatzimichalis Merlot and a complexity that surpassed even the 2020. 94+ points. The 2020, finally, showed a bright colour, reminiscent of a Pomerol from a hot year – cherries, marzipan, firm but finely polished tannins, outstanding finish. 93 points, with room to improve.

What this vertical shows: the Merlot Alargino is not a wine that plays all its cards in the first year. It needs time, and it rewards it.

Technically, the Alargino is more closely related to the Galatrona than one might expect: it, too, is a non-irrigated, low-yielding single-vineyard Merlot – the grapes come from the "Alargino" vineyard in Zygos, meaning "the furthest away," at 320 to 350 metres elevation, with yields of just 3,500 kg/ha. Its total acidity of 5.8 g/l is nearly identical to the Galatrona's (5.89 g/l), and the altitude is comparable. In oak treatment, however, there is a clear contrast: where Petrolo opts for 18 to 20 months with only one-third new wood, Hatzimichalis chooses 12 months in exclusively new French 228-litre barriques, followed by a further 12 months of bottle ageing in the estate's underground cellars before release. With 100 per cent new oak, it is the fruit concentration of the vintage that decides whether the wood overwhelms the wine or gives it the right framework.

In the glass, the 2021 is quite expressive on the nose, with plenty of cherry jam – denser and more inviting than the somewhat more closed 2020 at the same age. On the palate, sea buckthorn and marzipan, good length, and right at the end a subtle plum note sneaks in behind the sea buckthorn. 93+ points – on the same level as the 2020. Both will one day reach 95 points, of that I am convinced. What is interesting, though, is that the 2021, at a roughly comparable time since harvest, already shows marginally better oak integration than the 2020 did at the same stage. For a wine with 100 per cent new oak, that is a good sign. Leonidas Hatzimichalis said in August 2021 that harvest had begun about ten days earlier than usual due to the heat and that 2021 was an excellent vintage – the concentration and ripeness in the glass prove him right.

With just 3,000 bottles and a price well below the Galatrona's, the Merlot Alargino occupies a singular position in the Greek wine landscape: a pioneer wine with over three decades of documented ageing ability, still largely ignored by international critics. The vertical speaks for itself.

Lacules Estate Merlot 2021 – Messinia

Lacules Estate is the kind of winery that should not really exist. An Austrian architect, Friedrich Gruber, specialising in wine cellar construction from Napa Valley to Monte Carlo, acquires land above Lacules Bay near Koroni on the southwest coast of the Peloponnese in the mid-1990s – and plants vines. His daughter Barbara completes an internship in Napa Valley; her partner Jörg Salchenegger, who holds a PhD in chemistry, takes over the winemaking. The result has little to do with what one expects from the southern Peloponnese.

At the heart of the Merlot are vines planted in 1981 in the Chandrinos vineyard in Messinia – at roughly 340 metres elevation, on intensely red, well-drained Terra Rossa. Particularly noteworthy: the vines are, according to the estate, ungrafted – not grafted onto American rootstock. The Merlot vine's own roots have been reaching directly into the Messinian soil for over 40 years. Such vines are rare in Europe but do still exist in certain favoured sites. The Lacules Merlot is therefore not a pre-phylloxera museum piece – the vines were planted in 1981, after all – but it is a remarkable example of old, own-rooted Merlot in Messinia. Add to this consistent dry farming without irrigation and very low yields – 2021 was even the first year in which the estate dispensed with green harvesting, as the vintage had naturally reduced yields on its own.

The Merlot's ageing regime involves a detail that is difficult to establish from public sources, which is why I asked winemaker Barbara Gruber directly: the grapes are fermented in Greece in small stainless steel tanks, with up to five manual pigeages per day – an intensive but gentle extraction method. For the 2021 vintage, the finished wine was then transferred to Austria and aged there for 18 months in barriques, 70 per cent new, predominantly French with a small proportion of American oak. Bottling also took place in Austria. This means four fundamentally different oak philosophies are now on the table: Château La Croix with minimal new oak and large-format vessels, Galatrona with one-third new oak over 18 to 20 months, Hatzimichalis with 100 per cent new French barriques for 12 months, and Lacules with 70 per cent new oak of mixed origin for 18 months. All three serious single-vineyard Merlots – Galatrona, Alargino, Lacules – share dry farming at similar altitudes between 300 and 350 metres; what distinguishes them in the glass is above all the winemaker's hand. The estate's own winery in Greece is due to be completed shortly; from the 2027 vintage, Lacules Estate plans to carry out all ageing on site in Messinia. That the wine currently comes into being across two countries is a pragmatic compromise – and it clearly does no harm to quality.

From Lacules Estate I had already tasted the entire 2021 portfolio beyond the Merlot: the Syrah (96 points, one of Greece's finest Syrahs), the Grenache (93 points, the first vintage of this variety from the estate) and The Chord (92+ points, the blended second wine). René Gabriel has rated the Lacules Merlot at top level for years – the 2017 at 19/20, the 2018 and 2021 each at 18/20. Of the Merlot, I knew the 2018 (96 points, exotic and smoky, with candied pineapple on the nose) and the 2019 (94+ points, perfumed and floral, still astringent, but with a concentration next to which a Saint-Émilion Grand Cru Classé seemed like thin water). What distinguishes every one of these vintages is a completely individual aromatic profile – no two Lacules Merlots are alike.

The 2021 is no exception. Already in concentration it recalls the Galatrona – here two wines are separated no longer by country of origin but only by style. On the nose you could mistake the wine blind for an Australian Cabernet: a full-on eucalyptus blast that clears the sinuses. On the palate, incredibly powerful fruit on the attack, followed by a load of clove. You have to like that – it is distinctive. But that very distinctiveness is what defines the Lacules Merlot. Each vintage has its own unmistakable aromatic profile, just as unique as 2018 and 2019 were in their own ways. What stands out: the 2021 is noticeably more open than the 2019 was at the same age after harvest. You can drink it with great pleasure already – provided you enjoy the "freaky" aromatic profile. I do.

96 points – level with the legendary 2018 and just one point behind the Galatrona. With that, the Peloponnese – which according to the official vintage assessment should have been more of a power vintage with lower acidity in 2021 – has produced a Merlot that need not shy away from Tuscan world class. The difference: the Galatrona impresses through its verticality and tension, the Lacules through sheer concentration and its headstrong aromatic profile. Two philosophies, nearly the same height.

The Emperor Limited Edition 2021 – Papargyriou Winery, Korinthia

Yiannis Papargyriou is known in the Greek wine scene for powerful, concentrated reds – wines whose high extract and sweetness do not please everyone equally. The Le Roi des Montagnes Syrah, for instance, divides opinion, even though we gave it a strong 93+ points in the 2020 vintage. The Cuvée Espérance 2021, a single-varietal Montepulciano, also impressed us at 92+ points. The Emperor, the estate's new flagship, is another beast entirely. 2021 is the first vintage – and it will only be produced in exceptional years. The next, 2023, is expected to be released towards the end of 2026.

The specifications read ambitious: 95% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc, 15% alcohol, PGI Korinthia, only around 2,170 bottles. More interesting still are the details. The grapes come from the Rethi / Megalo Livadi site at roughly 800 to 850 metres elevation – by far the highest vineyard in this entire tasting. Galatrona, Hatzimichalis and Lacules all sit between 300 and 350 metres; the Emperor comes from more than double that altitude. The approximately 20-year-old vines grow on heavy clay-loam soil. Harvesting is by hand, at the end of September, targeting full phenolic ripeness.

In the cellar, too, the approach stands out: spontaneous fermentation with indigenous yeasts, 30 days of maceration with manual pigeage – considerably longer than any of the other wines – and 20 per cent saignée, meaning juice is bled off before fermentation to further increase concentration. And in oak treatment, a real surprise: while Hatzimichalis works with 100 per cent new barriques and Lacules with 70 per cent new wood, Papargyriou uses 500-litre casks in second fill, followed by 1,700-litre large-format vessels – 18 months in total, but no new small cooperage. The wine with the greatest power and concentration in this tasting thus has the most restrained oak treatment. That is no accident but a deliberate choice: the density should come from the grape, not from the barrel. Bottling is unfiltered.

The available analytical data explain why. 7.4 g/l total acidity at pH 3.29 – values that are in an entirely different league from the other wines here. The Galatrona sits at 5.89 g/l and pH 3.56, the Hatzimichalis at 5.8 g/l. The Emperor thus has by far the highest acidity and the lowest pH of this tasting – alongside the highest alcohol. It is precisely this combination that explains what one immediately senses in the glass: despite 15% alcohol, the wine never feels heavy, never cloying, never flabby.

I had already tasted the Emperor in autumn 2023, shortly after its market release, and scored it 95+ points at the time. Back then, blackberry and vanilla still dominated, and the tertiary aromas could only be guessed at. Now, in February 2025, a different picture emerges. On the nose, very fine but not overripe raspberry, with a hint of blackberry and some seagrass that brings freshness without tipping into heavy iodine. It recalls Pomerol – but nothing in Pomerol that I know is this electrifying. On the palate, in both aroma and tannin, anything but delicate: a real powerhouse. Incredible fruit sweetness on the attack, but then the impression is shaped by an astonishingly refreshing acidity – at 15% alcohol, hard to believe. With plenty of oxygen, truly plenty of oxygen, the wine reveals a cooler character and hints at where it is headed.

Up from 95+ points in 2024 to 96+ points now – and there is still a lot of room to grow. I have unfortunately already opened far too many bottles; the wine makes it hard to hold back. But one should, and give it time. From the very limited production, bottles are still available in Germany through Wine and Nature for around €60 – for a wine of this calibre, an almost absurd price.

Dame Rouge III 2021 – Jima Winery, Arta

After all that concentration and power, a wine that shows Greek Merlot can also go in a quite different direction. The Jima Winery in Kalomodia near Arta, just a few kilometres from the Ambracian Gulf, is a family operation founded by oenologist Panagiotis Jimas and his wife Kristy Karagiannidou. Jimas holds a WSET Diploma – a rarity among Greek winemakers, and you can tell from his wines. The estate produces two very different cuvées from Merlot and Cabernet Franc: the Odyssey 2021 (85% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc, 13.4% alcohol, 90+ points) is the more fruit-driven, accessible version – a wine that in earlier vintages was released under the name Âge d'Or and which I liked slightly better in the 2020 vintage. The Dame Rouge is the other extreme: more ambitious, more experimental, more uncompromising.

The Dame Rouge III is in several respects the outlier of this tasting. The grapes – 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc – come from Block 13, a tiny plot of just 0.45 hectares on calcium-rich clay soil with marine fossil deposits. Planted in 2013, these are by far the youngest vines in our comparison – just eight years old at the time of the 2021 harvest, while Lacules looks back on more than 40 and Hatzimichalis more than 20 years. And the elevation: 3.3 metres. Practically sea level. Where the Emperor sits at 850 metres and the other wines between 300 and 350 metres, the Jima plot stands almost at the water's edge, cooled only by the breezes from the Ambracian Gulf.

What sets Dame Rouge apart from everything else in this tasting is the winemaking. A portion of the Merlot grapes is shade-dried after the hand harvest on 5 September – appassimento-style, to concentrate flavours, tannins, sugars and acidity. These dried grapes are then added to the already fermented fresh wine, triggering a second fermentation. The fermented juice is then drained from the stems in a vertical basket press; fermentation continues in a new oak barrel until the following February. In December 2022, the wine is bottled without filtration or any other treatment; it then remains at the winery until November 2023. All told, this amounts to an ageing process spanning two calendar years – a considerable commitment for a winery of this size.

The analytical data reflect the result: 14.5% alcohol, 6.4 g/l total acidity at pH 3.8. The acidity thus exceeds that of the Galatrona and the Hatzimichalis; only the Emperor has more. For a partially dried Merlot, this is remarkably taut – what emerges here is not a sweet, opulent Amarone-style wine, but something with its own identity.

In the glass, a wine that immediately heads in a different direction. On the nose, a strikingly large amount of leather, beneath it ripe cherries and plums. On the palate, very fine tannins that lend elegance and strip away all brute force – after the powerhouse performances of Lacules and the imposing tannins of the Emperor, a welcome change of pace. Lots of olive paste in the flavour, long finish. 93+ points. A wine that would probably have shown even better with more air, and that will find its fans especially among those who, at 14.5%, are looking for a more delicate Merlot. Anyone who has one of the few hundred bottles should give it time – from this year, one can begin to cautiously try it.

Conclusion

The results at a glance:

• Château La Croix 2021 (Pomerol) – 92 points

• Galatrona 2021 (Petrolo, Tuscany) – 97 points

• Merlot Alargino 2021 (Hatzimichalis, Atalanti Valley) – 93+ points

• Lacules Estate Merlot 2021 (Messinia) – 96 points

• The Emperor 2021 (Papargyriou, Korinthia) – 96+ points

• Dame Rouge III 2021 (Jima Winery, Arta) – 93+ points

All four Greek wines clearly outperformed the Pomerol benchmark. One could argue that, given comparable pricing but the far greater prestige of the region, this was only to be expected. And the fact that 2021 was a difficult Merlot vintage in Bordeaux and a strong one in Greece does indeed explain part of the gap. But not all of it: the Lacules and the Emperor come dangerously close to the Galatrona, and the Galatrona is no vintage casualty – it is one of the finest Merlots in the world.

Yet the result could not have been predicted. The vintage reports classify 2021 in Greece as a year that favoured the north more than the south. The 2021 Harvest Report of the Greek Wine Federation, for instance, describes Drama despite heat and hail as showing aromatic intensity, freshness and good acidity – and the region is officially recognised as particularly well suited to international red varieties including Merlot. We had rated the Château Julia Merlot 2020 from Costa Lazaridi at 93+ points; the 2021 was not yet in our glass at the time of this tasting – it would be fascinating to see what Drama made of Merlot in this vintage. Three of the four Greek wines in our lineup, however, come not from the favoured north but from the Peloponnese or Central Greece – regions where 2021 was officially expected to deliver power rather than balance. Yet they produced wines at world-class level. That speaks less for the region than for the producers who understood what their terroir and this vintage could yield.

And so to the question that inevitably arises: can the Emperor dethrone the Lacules Estate Merlot 2018 as the finest Greek Merlot? The 2018 remains my benchmark – 96 points, exotic, smoky, complete. The Emperor is an entirely different wine: it impresses not through weight but through restrained power. The Peloponnese now has two outstanding Merlots that could hardly be more different from each other – and that is perhaps the real story.

Which brings me to a closing wish. Precisely because at least these Greek wines can hold their own at the international level, they also deserve the corresponding respect. And for me, that includes receiving adequate bottle ageing before they reach the market. The Emperor 2021 was released, in my view, at least two years too early – and as a result did not make the spectacular first impression on many people that it would have deserved. The Dame Rouge, too, needs considerably more time. Last summer I opened the Dame Rouge IV (Day 26) from the 2023 vintage, and it was clearly far too young. The same applies to the Odyssey III (Day 27) and the single-varietal Cabernet Franc 2023 (Day 28) – it felt like a barrel sample, and I was somewhat annoyed at the money spent and my own impatience. This kind of restraint should not be left to consumers. Not everyone has a temperature-controlled cellar. And the restaurant trade does not care about bottle ageing and pulls corks far too early. I myself only kept my hands off the 2021 vintage long enough because I was waiting for the Pomerol to be released. Those three years after harvest are the minimum a wine like this should be given. Of course, there are reasons why this is not yet standard practice. So I wish Greek producers that they will soon generate enough revenue – commensurate with the quality of their wines – to be able to invest in longer bottle ageing before release.