Sera Red 2015 and Enstikto Red 2015 from Silva Daskalaki Winery

The Kotsifali variety is often regarded as the Cretan counterpart to French Merlot. Just as Merlot in Bordeaux gives Cabernet Sauvignon a softer polish, Kotsifali is meant, in a cuvée with Mandilaria, to offset the latter's excessively assertive tannins. Mandilaria certainly has plenty of those, while lacking alcohol and intense aromatics. All the more exciting, then, that the winery Silva Daskalaki goes entirely its own way!

The "Enstikto" is made up of 70% Kotsifali and 30% Syrah. Since the 2015 vintage, the one we got to taste, it's aged for a year in new French oak barrels. Mandilaria, together with Cabernet Sauvignon, contributes equal halves to the "Sera".

Even the "Sera", with its memorable keyhole label, is already a very striking wine. As is hardly surprising given the varieties, it's a genuine tannin bomb. This wine from the 2015 vintage presumably needed every single year of its ageing. But it's now hitting its stride exactly on point for it. These tannins are nowhere near fine yet, and probably never will be, but they by no means push unpleasantly to the front, and simply wait for a hearty food pairing instead. That this wine ultimately earns outstanding 17 points from us is down above all to one quality: its remarkably fresh fruit. Cherry, above all cornelian cherry, is present here right from the attack. And this aromatic profile lingers and lingers, in a finish that's enormously long for this price bracket.

Another notch up, though, is the red "Enstikto" from the same year. This is truly a wine with character! On the nose, dark fruit, ripe plums and a hint of tar mingle together. Despite the deep dark colour, you immediately think of Nebbiolo. On the palate, the wine then shows unbelievable density. The clinging tannins reinforce this impression, coating the entire mouth. This wine undoubtedly deserves magnificent 18 points. It might even deserve a higher score still, if the great concentration of aromas on the attack weren't followed by a certain sag – though the bottle recovers from that over time, which saves the score. Above all, though, credit must still go to the fact that the finish increasingly pushes to the front with entirely distinctive aromas reminiscent of wet hemp twine, which makes the wine a long-lasting taste experience. With this wine, a vertical tasting really would be a very worthwhile project, to pin down exactly how far the quality extends. What we had in the glass was, in any case, already very impressive!