Moschofilero in Pink(ish) Red

A sunny evening in March finally gave us the chance to open the tasting year outdoors with Greek rosé. Moschofilero is a red-skinned variety, much like, say, Pinot Gris, which we know here. Under German wine law, such grapes always yield white wine. In Greece, though, as also for instance in Italy, it's very common to call the sometimes genuinely quite colourful resulting wine a rosé – or rather, what you often even get served in tavernas as κόκκινο κρασί (red wine) belongs in this category too. We've already written about this phenomenon in another context – and there (in German) you'll also find a few lovely photos of a comparable "grey" variety. Now, on to the wines...

We start with the Dialogues 2019 from Ktima Kalogri, a wine from PDO Mantineia – the Moschofilero variety's home region. The producers, whom you can follow here, have been in business since the 1980s – with just 3 ha even today – and have pursued their philosophy of minimal intervention in the vineyard unwaveringly ever since. Apart from the wine's origin, absolutely nothing here is conventional. The must stays on the skins for 10 days and then ferments with wild yeasts for 40 days in stainless steel. After that it matures for 12 months in old wood. Only very little sulphur is added at bottling (40mg/l), and it isn't filtered at all. Seen that way, it's actually rather fitting that the producers put only PGI Arcadia on the label. On the nose the wine shows itself as a typical flower meadow, yet still racy. On the palate it beguiles above all with a fascinating structure and a very long finish, in which the oak, very well integrated, keeps making appearances too. Anyone who otherwise drinks rosé at most as a refresher, and otherwise pushes it aside on the grounds that they'd rather have something "serious" in the glass, gets their money's worth here. The bottle empties itself, all on its own, leaving plenty to keep tasting back for. A wonderful wine, worth a magnificent 17.5 points. (For more information on our rating system, see here.)

Moschofilero needs the cool that, in Greece, is often simply not there. The Mikros Dromos 2020 from Ktima Kissa shows that, given the right altitude – here: a small plot at 750m – Moschofilero can also be grown successfully near Corinth, not far from Mantineia. Despite the high elevation, the Gulf of Corinth is just a 20-minute drive away. Temperature swings of more than 15°C ensure very slow ripening. The dry farming practised here adds further stress to the vine. In the glass, all of that pays off. Jasmine blossom on the nose continues on the attack too. On the finish, though, surprising red-fruited notes then appear, and in a second aftertaste complex ethereal aromas dominate, above all eucalyptus. We give it an outstanding 16.5 points. A very appealing, wonderfully rounded wine. You can't go wrong with this one at a summer party.

Before we move on to the next wine, one thing needs to be established briefly as a matter of principle: we'll be discussing a few more white wines made from Moschofilero this year, and we need to note upfront that, in doing so, we'll also be including wines whose label states the variety as "Fileri". Who descends from whom here, or to what extent this is even just different degrees of ripeness causing a different tint, is entirely unresolved.

Now, then, to the Fileri Rosé 2020 from Nestor Winery, a wine cooperative taken over by Spyros Lafazanis in PGI Trifylia, within PGI Messenia. Here we find ourselves at just 300 to 400 metres on the west coast of the Peloponnese. We'll discuss the same wine's white version later on. The 2020 rosé is still fairly spritzy. A no-frills wine that sits more towards the fruity end of the spectrum than the floral one. Blood orange stands out above all. Generous fruit sweetness at a balanced 12.5% alcohol makes the wine very approachable for a broad audience. An uncomplicated wine that deserves a very good 15.5 points, and which, in the 2019 vintage, can be bought in Germany for €9.99 via our partner shop "Wine and Nature" (buying via this link (in German) supports our website).

Actually, this was only meant to be a few rosés. But the aforementioned Ktima Kalogri also has a cuvée on offer in which 80% Cabernet Sauvignon is blended with 20% Moschofilero: the Kalos Agros 2016. On the estate's website it's listed as a red wine; under German classification, though, it would actually be a blend of red and white varieties (i.e. dark-skinned and light-skinned grapes). The wine, in the end, intrigued us too much. What was meant to be just a brief detour ended up dominating the conversation for quite a while. The label states an ageing potential of up to four years. And indeed, the wine already pours a fairly rusty brown into the glass. On the nose, with all that dried fruit, you might even think of an aged sweet wine. Of the floral aromas you might expect because of the Moschofilero, there's barely a trace to be found. On the first sip, though, this variety very nearly takes your breath away – because on the palate the wine is anything but tired with age; instead it presents as a crisp white wine. Of the Cabernet Sauvignon, you simply can't taste a thing any more. A crazy blend. Perhaps too crazy for some. We loved it. Unique, at any rate, it certainly is. And it deserves an outstanding 17 points for another reason too: the wine went down wonderfully well even with guests who are generally less adventurous. Definitely a wine in the "you really ought to have tried this" category.