Cavino — Atelier 1994

This mature PDO Mantinia from Cavino was picked up at an online auction and opened as part of a Moschofilero tasting. The cork was still in pretty good shape. The yellow hue is typical for a wine of this age. Butterscotch dominates both the nose and the finish. Canned mushrooms are present but not yet too intrusive. Floral aromas — lilac above all — keep fighting their way to the surface. In terms of freshness, citrus notes still have the most to offer. Overall, the wine is already lacking a bit of acidity to make it a truly compelling drinking experience — it's there, but it shows up rather late on the palate. The finish certainly invites you to linger, but the attack is too mineral. A mere 11% alcohol speaks of an entirely different era in Greek winemaking. In general, PDO Mantinia experienced a major boom in the early 1990s, when Greeks suddenly discovered this cool-climate-style wine for themselves. So it's not all that surprising that what we have here is a really quite decent mass-market product. An impressively good 76 points — and it wouldn't have taken much more for an upward surprise.