The Best Greek Merlots for Grey Autumn Days

The grey autumn fog has now well and truly replaced the late-summer sun. Let that be our cue today to turn to warming red wines from Greece. We will be looking at several Merlot wines we have tasted recently. (On this, see also last year's article (in German).) Mind you – this much we will reveal up front – these are by no means always alcohol bombs that set your chest ablaze … Greece has genuine variety to offer in that regard.

ΡΟΕΣ 2020 / Ombre 2022 from Oinotropai Estate

Before we get to the red wines, let us first take a quick look at two rosés: the Merlot from Oinotropai Estate, which in the 2020 vintage still went by the name ΡΟΕΣ, and whose 2022 edition, under the name Ombre, I also had in my glass on vacation this year. The impression is very consistent. A rosé that leans toward spice and herbs, with a solid dose of acidity and tannin. Calls for food. Decidedly demanding. 90 points.

Liberté Day Nine from Jima Winery 2021

The 2021 (bearing the name Liberté – Day Nine) from Jima Winery shows a very complex nose, including candied citrus peel. On the palate, the lees aging makes itself felt. The finish is long, though not exceptionally long. The texture, however, is superb. The 14% alcohol is excellently integrated. Likewise more of a food wine. 92 points.

But now on to the red wines, from the entry-level bottling all the way up to world-class wines.

Merlot 2021 from Dionysos Winery

The Merlot 2021 from Dionysos Winery is a wine for immediate enjoyment. For little money (around €6) you get a wine that drinks quite wonderfully with food. The nose is red-fruited; the acidity buffers a considerable residual sweetness (at only 12.5% alcohol) very well. The finish is even medium-long and pleasantly spicy, though of course not extremely complex. It is a wine to drink right away – but then again it does not fade on you if you drink it with your supper over several days. 86 points. One of the better wines in the winery's range.

Κυριακή! 2019 from Ktima Kalogri

A semi-dry Merlot on a Sunday? That is the invitation extended by the Κυριακή! 2019 from Ktima Kalogri. The name presumably bears witness to the industriousness of these organic pioneers, who in earlier days allowed themselves no break. But I can easily picture this wine being enjoyed quite lazily on an early Friday afternoon. At only 13% alcohol, it is no heavy artillery. And although I am no lover of semi-dry wines and associate some gruesome memories of my youth with them, this wine is genuinely fun. Actually the ideal wine for a Brotzeit, a Vesper, or whatever it may be called in your region. The sweetness harmonizes wonderfully with spicy sausage and savory cheese. And in the finish a good measure of blackberry and blueberry does come through as well, so that the wine as a whole leaves a genuinely well-rounded impression. A very good 89 points.

Merlot 2019 from Menexes Winery

Next come two Merlots from the island of Crete – likewise from 2019. First up is the Menexes Merlot 2019 from Ktima Menexes. The 12 months in French oak come through intensely as vanilla in this unfiltered wine, from the first sniff to the very last aftertaste. The fruit recedes somewhat into the background, especially since the slightly sandy tannin already provides enough to keep you occupied. The 14.5% alcohol and the vanilla combine to create a distinctly sweet impression. As an overall package, though, this is very appealing and very much all of a piece. Despite all this harmony, boredom certainly never sets in. Whether further maturity will tease out even more complexity remains to be seen. The refrigerator test over several days rather suggests enjoying this lovely wine now, or by 2025 at the latest. Admittedly not the most complex Merlot in Greece – but a wine with a very distinctive profile that fits a great many occasions like a glove. An outstanding 92 points – and very fairly priced at around €15.

Materia Merlot 2019 from Agelakis Winery

The Materia Merlot 2019 from Agelakis Winery ups the ante considerably. Just six months of maturation in French oak (plus partial aging in pitharia) result here in an uncommonly sophisticated nose. The wood greets you with a broad spectrum of spice, without any single component sticking out unpleasantly. Added to this are sanguine, iron-like aromas that pique one's curiosity as to how the wine will show on the palate. There, given these high expectations, a bit of fruit is missing at first. But with time the perfectly matched acidity – at a pleasantly modest 13% alcohol – moves to the fore and carries the wine through a very, very long finish. What is more, with a little further maturity this wine has even more in store. So, 94+ points!

Etos 2006 and Plagios 2012, 2013 and 2014 from Ktima Biblia Chora

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Up to this point we have been proceeding in ascending order of scores. We now have to depart from that a little, because we still owe you a few impressions from autumn 2022. Back then we had Ktima Biblia Chora's varietal Etos Merlot 2006 and the Plagios red 2012, 2013 and 2014 side by side in the glass – with the oldest Plagios still containing 15% Agiorgitiko. This vertical tasting deserved to be discussed as a set. And we are, this much we can reveal right away, in 93–96-point territory here. So the general direction is right. We will get to the other wines in the picture afterwards ...

A little background on how we came to procure and taste these particular vintages: In our eyes, the 2013 stood at 95 points in 2021 (in German). In early 2022 (in German) we then had the 2012 and 2014 vintages side by side in the glass. The older of the two stood at 93 points, the younger at 94 points. Given the time gap, however, their respective aging potential compared to the 2013 was hard to assess. As already noted in that article, we were determined to have all three vintages in the glass on the same day at some point, in order to get a better picture.

And indeed, the joint tasting a year ago showed that the 2013 does indeed make the best impression and still deserves 95 points. The 2012 shows markedly stronger signs of age, but has lost nothing compared to the previous year – something we had certainly thought possible back then. It may yet hold onto its 93 points for some years to come. We were also able to confirm the rating of the 2014 – except that it now became apparent that it has the better aging potential of the two: hence a slight upgrade to 94+ points, and we expect it to sit at 95-96 points in 2025.

It could even be that this vintage of the Plagios red will live even longer than the Etos 2006. That splendid wine, which clearly showed the best acidity in this lineup, currently stands at 96 points, but has likely peaked. The Plagios 2014, by contrast, we can well imagine completing two or three full decades before it begins its journey back down. Sadly, that was my last bottle of Etos 2006, so I will not be able to follow this wine any further. Of the Etos 2008 – a varietal Cabernet Sauvignon – I fortunately still have one bottle. That wine – this much may be revealed here about the other grape variety – will not be running out of steam any time soon. But we will get to that in another article ...

Lacules Estate Merlot 2019 and 2018

Because first we are off to the Peloponnese once more, to the Lacules Estate. The Syrah 2019 thrilled us (94 points) and the Syrah 2018 downright blew us away (98+), as you can read here (in German). Now, then, the Merlot from the same vintages. Unfortunately we did not have the 2017 in the glass. It received 19 points (!) from René Gabriel. Perhaps we can still catch up on that …

At this point a brief aside is in order, since the comparison with these high ratings – rare for Greek wines, yet in such cases entirely justified – highlights a problem that Greek wine has in Germany, namely where some quite influential wine critics are concerned. At wein.plus, all of the varietal Merlot and Syrah wines just mentioned from the Lacules Estate receive only 87 to 88 points. These are ratings I simply cannot fathom. Especially since the second wine, "The Chord" 2019, sits only one point below them. That wine is undoubtedly not bad either. But how one can fail to see a major leap in quality between this second wine and the varietal bottlings is beyond me. Other international wine critics come considerably closer to our own impressions - especially when it comes to Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon (in German) (or cuvées (in German) made from them). One example would be this fine article by Peter Moser on Greek wines from Bordeaux varieties. When Greek wines are almost never given more than 90 points, something is amiss. Among the reds, for instance, Marcus Hofschuster in this article from 2021 regards only two wines from Greece (Lacules Estate Syrah 2015 and 2016) as just barely "outstanding" (namely, sitting at 90 points). Jancis Robinson, for example, regularly comes in well above that … This discrepancy cannot be blamed on a lack of access to the obscure indigenous grape varieties. Granted, sunshine in the glass is also a matter of taste, but that should not lead to divergences of this kind. Be that as it may. One thing is clear: when this platform, so influential in Germany, hands out such conservative scores, it is of course not exactly good for the reputation of Greek wines …

But enough of that. Back to the Merlot from the Lacules Estate. René Gabriel, at least, credits it with top quality. Accordingly, we too were naturally eager to see how it would show in the blind tasting of the wines pictured above. (Apart from the host, nobody knew which wines or vintages were being presented.) And indeed, both the 2019 and the 2018 vintage of the Merlot from Lacules Estate impress with their concentration from the moment they are poured. Aromatically, however, they are astonishingly different.

The nose of the 2019 comes across as almost perfumed. The aromatics sit more on the floral side, though dark berries play a role as well. On the palate, the wine was still quite astringent at the beginning of this year – right from the attack, no less. The aromatics, however, were already fully present, shaped above all by cassis and vanilla. Also on the table was the Château Bellevue 2019. The 97-98 points that Lobenberg awards are (even allowing for a merchant's generosity) surely pitched somewhat high. But this is certainly a benchmark wine of some standing. One may well give it at least 93 points. And since this GCC from Saint-Émilion is also a varietal wine and also comes in at 14.5%, one may certainly draw connections. Parallels, however, do not emerge. For there can be no question that the Frenchman – despite plenty of red fruit and pleasant vanilla – comes off second best here. Simply a thin little wine by comparison, far too innocuous, more of a good quaffing wine. With its density, the Lacules Estate promises far greater aging capacity. For lack of long-term experience, one should of course be cautious with concrete predictions. But it will undoubtedly continue to develop until 2035. And there is no reason why it should not remain at this level until 2050 as well. So: 94+ points. It will be fascinating to see how far this journey goes …

The 2018 is fruitier on the nose. Candied pineapple makes an exotic appearance here. Fleshy on the palate. Red berries play a bigger role here. The floral side only emerges in the initial finish. A hefty rush of spice follows, which is symptomatic of this vintage's smokier profile. Yes, these notes are rather meager – but we were simply too busy enjoying ourselves. 96 points. Will it get even better, or merely different? We shall see … Anyone with a few bottles of this wine lying in the cellar may in any case count themselves lucky.

The Emperor 2021 from Papargyriou Estate

Can that be topped? Yes and no. The best Greek Merlot for drinking right now is the Lacules Estate 2018. A few months ago, however, the new flagship from the Papargyriou Estate, the truly regal The Emperor 2021, also came onto the market. The Merlot is joined by 5% Cabernet Franc. Yields of only 35 hl/ha and a run of just over 2,000 bottles in this first vintage underscore the winery's lofty ambitions. Price-wise, at around €65 in Germany, the wine is on a par with the Etos and above the wines from the Lacules Estate. Does it have the makings of an "icon wine"?

One thing is certain: anyone interested in Merlot with high cellaring potential has to grab this one. For red wine can hardly be made any denser – otherwise you would have to spoon it out of the glass. However: while some wines from the Papargyriou Estate divide opinion with their high extract and sweetness (the Le Roi des Montagnes Syrah (in German), for instance), this wine won over absolutely everyone who got a sip from the first bottle of the case. True, it also comes in at 15%, but it brings enough acidity along too, so that it does not overwhelm, never turns into cloying jam in a glass. Admittedly, at the moment blackberry and vanilla are still very much in the foreground. The tertiary aromas will round out the picture in due course. The oak frame may yet come forward with a little more than leather and cigar box once the berry aromatics, which currently dominate this picture rather garishly, slowly fade. This really is, for once, a wine that needs to mature. The 18 months in oak barrels indicate that Papargyriou, too, is planning for the longer term. At the moment the wine stands at 95+ points. You will really need to be patient until 2025. In any case, you should still have a few bottles left when, next autumn, you can get the 2021 vintage from Pomerol for comparison. An aside: for the Emperor, too, I would see nothing wrong with an even later release. (And in my opinion the label could also be a touch more high-end, so that the total package adds up. But enough griping.) In view of climate change alone, this sideways glance from France in particular toward the south of Europe is worthwhile, showing as it does where the journey is heading in more northerly regions as well. I see no reason why this wine should not hold until 2050. Along the way it will comfortably reach 97-98 points. On that confident note, we close this article with this wine as its high point, even though, as said, the Lacules Estate 2018 is already world class (and may well taste even better to some). In Germany, "The Emperor" is available for €65. It is worth snapping up, for it will soon enough be a coveted collector's item in Greece.