Domaine Costa Lazaridi — Amethystos rot 2023

The Amethystos Rouge is the oldest red-wine label from Costa Lazaridi in Drama, a Bordeaux blend of 70 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 20 percent Merlot and 10 percent Agiorgitiko, whose red wines Michel Rolland has been advising on for years. It takes its name from the amethyst, which antiquity held to protect against drunkenness. For under twenty euros this is a reliable, widely available wine that I have been following across the vintages; I had both the 2018 and the 2015 in the glass in 2021, three and six years after the vintage, at 89 and 91. 2023 was a good year in Macedonia, at least as far as can be established for the Xinomavro in the northwest, though for the Bordeaux varieties in Drama that's only a rough guide.

All the more curious, then, was I to see where this 2023 would land, and it surprised me. On the nose raspberry, blackberry, blueberry and a hint of juniper, and above all none of the excessive vanilla that has overlaid some older vintages. On the palate it is immediately present throughout the whole mouth, plenty of berry, a touch of ink, along with the roasted green pepper that Cabernet likes to bring with it, and a good balance of alcohol and acidity that carries the flavor far. This progression is long, only in the final stretch before the actual finish does little in fact happen, the grand unfolding of complexity fails to materialize. The wine sates rather than fans out, and it is precisely this that at the same time makes it enormously drinkable, even for people who would otherwise steer clear of hefty red-wine slabs. For me this is the best Amethystos I have had in the glass so far, an astonishingly good product for this vintage and this price.

For me that's 93 points.