Domaine Costa Lazaridi — Château Julia Merlot 2020

From the PGI Drama in northeastern Greece comes the Chateau Julia Merlot 2020 by Costas Lazaridis, named after the winemaker's wife. During an Easter tasting of Greek Merlots, it added blackberry aromas to the raspberry and cherry notes offered by the other wines. Despite 14.5% alcohol, this doesn't show negatively in any way – quite the opposite. The wine has an enormous amount of extract and handles it excellently. In fact, at first glance you'd hardly take it for a Merlot. Flying winemaker Michel Rolland has truly left his stamp very deeply here. This dense wine with an enormously long finish undoubtedly already deserves a magnificent 93+ points. With time, there's likely even more to come, as at the moment – at least shortly after opening – vanilla aromatics still dominate quite heavily. As already observed with another wine from the estate, these can undergo beautifully elegant transformations over time. The prognosis is therefore that 94 points should be within reach with more maturity. The previous 2019 vintage was available at the time of tasting for €17.50 a bottle – a really excellent price.