Boutari – Grand Reserve Naoussa 1993

The Boutari Grande Reserve Naoussa 1993 is a varietal Xinomavro with 13 percent alcohol, back then still classified as OPAP, which today would be the PDO Naoussa. Boutari was founded in 1879 by Ioannis Boutaris in Naoussa, and the winery in Stenimachos has stood since 1978. This vintage still dates from the period before 1996, when Yiannis Boutaris left the family business and subsequently went his own way with Kir-Yianni. It was precisely this 1993 that Boutari presented in London on 7 February 2013 at the Circle of Wine Writers, a presentation the house organised together with Konstantinos Lazarakis MW. I acquired my bottle at auction.

I tasted it in October 2026, 33 years after the harvest, alongside three other Boutari wines: the Cava 2020 (86 points), the Grande Reserve 2013 (85 points) and the Cava 1976 (70 points).

The expectations that outside tastings have set for this wine run high. In 2016, Mark Squires in the Wine Advocate gave the 1993 92 points; in the same flight the 1990 reached 93 and the 2011 likewise 92. Simon Woolf in 2015 on TimAtkin.com called it an outstanding example of ageing, a mature Naoussa with preserved fruit. Richard Hemming MW had described it in 2013 for JancisRobinson.com as distinctly tertiary, and Hayley Hamilton Cogill in D Magazine in 2012 drew a comparison to a mature Barolo. Only Alder Yarrow was more reserved in 2011 at Vinography, with around 8 out of 10 and an already drying tannin.

In the glass it was of course no longer quite as opaque as the 2013 and already showed slightly brownish reflections. On the nose, though, it was still astonishingly fresh, with a fair amount of undergrowth, plus a touch of tomato coming through, and lavender, plenty of lavender. On the palate the structure was genuinely convincing at first, just as with the 2013. The tannin is grippy and has lost nothing. Added to this a very good interplay of acidity and sweetness, like coffee on the finish. The drying tannin that Yarrow described in 2011 stands in my glass against a grippy tannin – a different bottle, 15 years later.

The Grande Reserve 2013, by contrast, seemed to me already past its peak, with plenty of tobacco and little fruit, and earned only 85 points from me. The twenty-years-older 1993 was still astonishingly fresh and sits two points ahead. The Cava 1976, the oldest of the flight, lagged well behind at 70 points, with a rather brownish colour and a fairly unpleasant acidity, where the 1993 still shows that very good interplay of acidity and sweetness. Among the four wines of this tasting, the 1993, with 87 points, carries the highest score.

In my Boutari Grande Reserve series too, the 1993 thus holds the highest score. At the Xinomavro masterclass in 2024, the 1987, at around 37 years, suffered from cork problems and reached only 84 points, while the 2013 remains at 85. I have experienced mature Naoussa going both ways – the Tsantali Reserve Naoussa 1992 reached 92 points at the same masterclass, at around 32 years, with a surprisingly fresh palate and perfectly preserved tannins, while the Naoussa of the Winzergenossenschaft 1988, at around 36 years, had clearly passed its peak and sat at 85.

After 33 years this is very impressive. There is no market price for the 1993; the current line costs around 20 euros in Greece. For me this is 87 points.