Achaia Clauss – Cava Clauss 1982

As part of a tasting of Agiorgitiko cuvées, the Cava Clauss 1982 from Achaia Clauss was tasted – the biggest surprise of the research for this article. The 40-year-old wine was produced from Agiorgitiko, Mavrodaphne, and Cabernet Sauvignon (without specification of the exact proportions). The winery in PDO Patras is of course best known for its dessert wines made from Mavrodaphne. After four decades, expectations for such a 'vin de table' were frankly minimal. But how wrong we were! The short cork was still sitting perfectly snug, and the wine poured a vivid scarlet into the glass. On the nose, there's a touch of undergrowth, but it's anything but musty or overrun with mushroom notes. The fruit is clearly dominant, especially red currant. On the palate, the wine then completely wins you over with crisp acidity and a magnificent drive. A wine that, even after all this time, you can simply drink up with great pleasure! An unexpectedly magnificent 93 points. It seems that 1982 – a vintage of the century in Bordeaux – must have been very good in Greece as well. The label proudly states that this is one of 'only' 139,564 bottles – which becomes more understandable when you consider that in the 1980s the wine 'Demestica' was churned out in editions of around 20 million bottles. The historic estate, founded in 1861 by the German Gustav Clauss, has suffered greatly from changes of ownership and restructuring, and today is really only known for its Mavrodaphne dessert wine. Interestingly, a large-scale modernization took place in precisely the year 1983. Could the outstanding condition of this wine have something to do with the fact that it still hails from the preceding era?