Diamantakis Winery – Petali Red 2022

At Diamantakis, the Petali Liatiko is a single-varietal Liatiko bottled as PGI Crete, and in price it sits between the Prinos and the Diamantopetra. The name alludes to craftsmanship. "Petali" refers to the treadle of a loom, and the front label shows two wooden treadles. The grapes grow in the Chaniotis and Vorina sites near Kato Assites in the regional unit of Heraklion, with a northeasterly exposure at 350 to 550 metres, on calcareous clay, loam and limestone, under sea breezes from the Aegean. Yields come in at 8 tonnes per hectare. Vinification is classic, with five to seven days of extraction in stainless steel, after which the wine rests for twelve months in tank, entirely without wood. The man responsible is Zacharias Diamantakis, one of the three brothers who founded the family estate in 2007 and today farm 15 hectares across 30 parcels. Of the 2022, 12,000 bottles were produced, with a declared alcohol of 13 percent. The first vintage of this wine was 2017.

As a vintage, 2022 on Crete was a selection year with very high variation between estates. In early April storm winds caused damage, July was unusually cool, the grape moth hit the vines hard, the harvest began about a week later than usual, and in the final third of August heavy rain came on top of it all. For 2022, Crete stands at 7.0 out of 10, a point below the strong national vintage, and the native reds fell well short of the outstanding 2019.

Liatiko really does take some getting used to visually, and this one is almost orange in the glass. That is not unusual for the variety, as Liatiko is thin-skinned, very low in colour and browns quickly. On the nose it is very vegetal, a touch vegetable-like. On the palate it is then good, very powerful on the attack and immediately very present with its aromatics, joined by tomato and beetroot and a grippy, very even tannin. As it develops and on the finish it becomes a little too dark for my taste, and a bit more fruit would do it good. Still, a very good single-varietal Liatiko.

I rated the Petali 2019 at 92 points in 2023, around four years after the harvest, and this 2022 was likewise about four years old at the time of tasting. On the nose the 2019 could well have competed with great Pinot Noirs and showed the finest tannins of all the bottles in a tasting of single-varietal Liatikos, along with a genuinely long finish. Tina Gellie gave it 90 points at Decanter. At 91 points the 2022 stays just behind it, which places it second among the dry single-varietal Liatikos in my notes, behind its own predecessor.

In Greece the wine costs around 13 euros. For me this is 91 points.