Roditis – Between Bulk Wine and Quality Product

The red-skinned grape variety Roditis has been on an upward trend in recent years, and is increasingly leaving behind gruesome memories of dreadful retsina. In many places the variety still delivers mostly bulk wine – but more and more estates are taking creative paths to explore this grape's potential entirely anew (see, for instance, also here)).

The Roditis 2019 from Ktima Oinotropai now makes a truly tremendous contribution toward getting sceptics to give Roditis a new chance. I count myself firmly among them. Until recently, I wouldn't have thought I could ever find a Roditis wine outstanding (for a fairly favourable, if not exactly enthusiastic, tasting note, see here (in German)). Roditis mostly reminds me of windfall fruit, of overripe, even slightly rotten, apples – and at the same time often has a tendency to come across a touch flat and watery. Baked apple does turn up here too, in this wine from the heart of the Peloponnese – but the malolactic fermentation rounds the wine out so thoroughly overall that you find yourself picturing the matching vanilla sauce alongside it. For me, the ideal wine for sunny autumn days, a memory of summer amid the colourful foliage. An elegant wine that isn't vain about it, though, but makes things easy and charms you along. Even so, it holds some secrets in store for the patient taster too – such as a fascinating minerality that only reveals itself over time. I can only agree with Yannis Athanasakopoulos that this wine is "one of the most delicate wines you can taste from the Roditis variety." The 89 points he awarded accordingly seem a touch stingy. Even as a Roditis sceptic, I'll confess: this is a magnificent wine that deserves 17.5 points. A wine that lends the PGI Messinia appellation of origin a whole new shine – and for just €7 in Greece, at that! Frankly unbelievable.

The Feggaropetra 2020 from Andreou Winery (named after the vineyard's stones that glitter in the moonlight) likewise shows impressively where Roditis can go from here. The cuvée of Roditis with Moschofilero definitely has what it takes to become trailblazing for the Peloponnese – at least for the higher elevations that allow for good Moschofilero. (The estate belongs to the municipality of Poros and thus to the Attica region, even though geographically it sits on the peninsula.) Here, the citrus fruit and structure of the Roditis vine come together beautifully with the floral notes of the Moschofilero. Small wonder that Master of Wine Konstantinos Lazarakis selected this wine from the small estate for Aegean Airlines' business class. Only one thing bothers us – at least for now – rather a lot: CO2. Only after a few days does the wine show what's actually inside it. (With sufficient chilling you can mask the carbon dioxide as well – though the wine then loses all its floral aromatics and mostly recalls blood orange and freshly reduced strawberries.) The outstanding 16.5 points it already earns will certainly be topped with ease in future vintages – just like its price of only around €10.

Also interesting to compare against this wine is what the estate KatrVin has come up with for its white Vodias 2020. Here the red grape variety Muscat de Hambourg comes into play, to lend Roditis some floral notes. A touch of Chardonnay then makes this affordable entry-level wine more elegant than you'd expect, too. You shouldn't enjoy it too cold, or all that's left is lychee aromatics. Properly chilled, though, this is a surprisingly complex wine for its price category – and accordingly deserves very good 16 points, which amounts to excellent value for money at well under €10 purchase price.

In a similar price category is also the white Avarinó 2020 from Nestor Winery. Trebbiano dominates here at 70%. Even so, we included it in the tasting, since here too Moschofilero and Roditis both feature as blending partners. This time "PGI Peloponnese" is allowed on the label as well. On the positive side, it's worth highlighting that this entry-level wine with Trebbiano is granted a mineral component at all. That said, it comes across less as a structural, pleasantly gritty element, and instead leaves, at least freshly opened, a somewhat unpleasant mineral aftertaste for some. In the contest between floral and fruity aromas, exotic fruit dominates here, above all banana, which will appeal to many. And the wine doesn't tire even after several days in the fridge. For a wine that's available in Germany, too, for under €5, you can't ask for much more, so we must award very good 15.5 points.