Boutari – Cava 2020

"Cava" in Greece is not an indication of style but the traditional term for an aged wine. At Boutari, the Cava sits one rung below the Grande Reserve. According to the trade, the 2020 contains Xinomavro, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah, though the exact proportions for this vintage are not known. The fact that international varieties are blended here with Xinomavro also explains its classification as PGI Makedonien, since a PDO Naoussa would not be possible because that designation requires single-varietal Xinomavro. The wine carries 13.5 percent and was aged in oak barrels. I tasted it in October 2026 alongside three other Boutari wines, the Grande Reserve 2013, the Grande Reserve 1993 and the Cava 1976 – essentially two pairs, the two Grande Reserve twenty years apart, the two Cava forty-four years apart.

Boutari was founded in 1879 by Ioannis Boutaris in Naoussa. The Cava line dates back, according to Dimitris Koumanis (Heteroclito, 2019), to the early 1970s, and he has traced how its recipe shifted over the decades. In the beginning it was Xinomavro and Agiorgitiko, Mandilaria was added in 1986, Cabernet Sauvignon in 1992, Syrah in 2000. In the 1980s, according to Koumanis, up to 600,000 bottles were filled, with the Greek diaspora playing an important role.

For the PGI Makedonien, which stretches from the highlands around Amyndeon down to the sea, there is no vintage rating of its own. Viewed nationally, 2020 was overall an above-average good vintage in Greece, an 8 out of 10 in my vintage database and thus clearly above the median of 6.5 for the years 2000 to 2025.

Any expectation of the wine can only be formed via the line. Dimitris Koumanis tasted a vertical of the Cava from 1976 to 2013 for Heteroclito in 2019, without awarding points. All the wines were aerated for about two hours and tasted again after 24 and 48 hours, developing positively in the process. He described the 1990 as structured and complex, and credited the 2012 with potential.

On the nose some sour cherry, a little cocoa. On the palate a decent acidity, along with olive and a rather bitter finish.

The whole thing does not come together nicely, yet a relatively wide range is on offer. Within this quartet the Cava 2020, at 86 points, came in one notch above the Grande Reserve 2013 with 85, which ranks a step above it within the house. The Grande Reserve 1993 led with 87, the Cava 1976 reached 70. In Greece it costs around 12 euros. For me this is 86 points.