The Best Greek Wines of the First Half of 2026

Griechische Weine
18 hours ago
6 min read

Four-decade-old legends alongside wines that have only just reached the shelves; monastery wines from Mount Athos next to a Tuscan that lined up as the benchmark: in the first half of 2026, 62 new tasting notes appeared on griechische-weine.info — 60 reds, two whites, among them a striking number of vertical tastings. We didn't drink all of it this spring: many of the wines come from tastings in 2024 and 2025 and have only now been digitised. So this is less a diary of the season than a stocktaking of our highlights — the most powerful, the oldest and the most story-worthy bottles, gathered in one place. At the very bottom we also link all 62 notes at a glance.

We tasted and scored all the wines ourselves; the scores come from our own tastings.

International Benchmarks

An honest retrospective needs benchmarks — which is why a few non-Greeks were in the glass as well, wines our best had to measure themselves against: a Merlot from Tuscany and a Shiraz from South Australia. The Galatrona comes from our big 2021 Merlot blind tasting, the St Henri from the Syrah trio.

Petrolo Galatrona 2021 – 97+ – Tasted alongside the Saffredi 2022, this Merlot led at first; with more air, the Saffredi pulled past it.
Penfolds St Henri Shiraz 2021 – 97 – Penfolds' counterpoint to Grange matures for twelve months solely in large old vats, without any vanilla polish from new oak.

Syrah Trio 2021

The big story of the half-year was a flight of three Syrahs from the same vintage, grown in three utterly different climates. We won't lay it all out again here — the full story (including the Penfolds St Henri) is in Three Syrahs 2021. Just the two Greeks, briefly:

Manousakis Winery Nostos Syrah 2021 – 95 – In this Cretan Syrah, the finish is stronger than the palate, and the grapefruit returns.
Lacules Estate Syrah 2021 – 94+ – The coastal plot where this Syrah grows was given to an Austrian architect in 1995 as payment for building a cellar.

Great Verticals

Open the same wine across several vintages side by side and you have what is called a vertical — and it often teaches you more about an estate than ten separate bottles ever could: at a single glance you see what comes down to the vintage and what is the signature of the house. The first half of the year brought an unusual number of them together — from a Château Carras more than four decades old to the wines of two Athos monasteries:

Château Carras Château Carras 1984 – 95 – After more than four decades, the tannin still bites, but it makes way for the fruit.
Château Carras Château Carras 1997 – 94 – The saltiness of this 1997 goes on and on — I've never encountered it this pronounced in a Greek wine.
Metochi Mylopotamos Epifanis 2016 – 93 – Probably varietal Limnio: the flagship wine of an Athos monastery, with plum, earthy undertones, and good saltiness.
Ktima Gerovassiliou Avaton 2017 – 92 – Four years after the first tasting, what stands out is a concentration of eucalyptus rarely found in Greek wines.
Ktima Gerovassiliou Avaton 2020 – 92+ – Aromatically rounder than the 2021, lots of nougat, easy to drink, yet the tannin stays front and center.
Ktima Gerovassiliou Avaton 2021 – 92+ – With plenty of air, the roles reverse: the 2017 oxidizes quickly, while the 2021 opens up.
Château Carras Château Carras 2012 – 91 – Tasted under poor conditions and therefore given an extra point; a fresh bottle is firmly on the agenda.
Metochi Mylopotamos Mylopotamos Red 2017 – 88 – The monk Epiphanios revived the Athos vineyards from 1990 onward; sweet floral scent on the nose, short finish.
Metochi Chromitsa Agathon 2017 – 87 – Half Cabernet, half Limnio, and yet no classic Cabernet: Greek mountain tea on the nose.
Metochi Chromitsa Metochi Chromitsa 2017 – 87+ – On the Holy Mountain of Athos, Cabernet dominates at 65 percent: barnyardy, leathery, the tannin still very coarse.
Metochi Chromitsa Agathon 2006 – 85 – A 20-year-old Athos wine with astonishing acidity at 14.5 percent, herbs and tea instead of mushroom notes.

Top Greek Wines

The top tier: Greek red wines that can hold their own internationally — several of them from our Merlot tastings (Merlot 2021 · Merlots for grey autumn days) and from the Wines of the Year 2022.

Christos Kokkalis Trilogia 2008 – 96+ – Varietal Cabernet Sauvignon from the west coast of the Peloponnese, tasted side by side with the Etos 2008.
Lacules Estate Merlot 2021 – 96 – The wave of eucalyptus on the nose makes this Merlot from the Peloponnese seem like an Australian Cabernet when tasted blind.
Papargyriou Winery The Emperor 2021 – 96+ – 7.4 g/l of acidity at 15 percent alcohol: this Merlot grown at over 800 meters never feels heavy.
Ktima Biblia Chora Etos Semillon & Assyrtiko 2012 – 95 – One of only two whites of the half-year, and the stronger of them: the 2012 didn't reach the market until 2022; in the glass, it looks almost orange.
Ktima Biblia Chora Etos Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 – 94+ – In the glass, Biblia Chora's Etos 2008 met the very Cabernet whose story the estate would later carry on.
La Tour Melas Palies Rizes 2020 – 94 – The own-rooted Agiorgitiko vines near Nemea, more than 100 years old, weren't rediscovered until 2013, by Panos Zoumboulis.
Domaine Hatzimichalis Merlot Alargino 2021 – 93+ – This is where Greece's first varietal Merlot was bottled in 1989; the 2021 adds sea buckthorn and marzipan to the cherry jam.
Jima Winery Dame Rouge III 2021 – 93+ – These Merlot vines grow just 3.3 meters above sea level, cooled solely by the breezes of the Ambracian Gulf.

A Journey into the Past

And now a look back: old Nemea bottles that tell more stories than their price ever promised (more in the Agiorgitiko tasting).

Boutari Nemea 1998 – 90 – Once available in Ireland for ten euros, this 1998 Nemea is now caramel brown and full of toffee.
Kourtakis Nemea 1990 – 89 – At just 11.5 percent alcohol, the drinking window of this 1990 mass-market bottle probably won't close until 2029.
Tsantali Nemea Reserve Epilegmenos 1993 – 84 – Back then, Epilegmenos was not a marketing term but a legal requirement: at least three years of aging, with six months each in wood and bottle.
Kourtakis Kouros Nemea 1992 – 78 – Beneath sharpness and metallic notes, dark plum still lingers after more than 30 years.