Domaine Hatzimichalis — Alfega Red 2021

Hatzimichalis has a special place in my affections. Almost no one championed pure-varietal international grapes in Greece so early and so doggedly — Dimitris Hatzimichalis bought his first nine hectares in the valley of Atalanti in 1973 and astonished the scene in the early eighties with a Cabernet Sauvignon that no one had thought the variety capable of in Greece — and the estate still turns them out at the highest level today. The Alfega Erythros is the house's estate wine, a classic Bordeaux blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot at 40/40/20, vinified separately and aged at least twelve months in French barrique, from the PGI Atalanti.

The 2021 vintage was a year of extremes in Greece. In Fthiotida, a cold, rain-heavy winter and a cool spring delayed the growing cycle, then came three heatwaves; in early August 46.3 °C was recorded in that same regional unit, and the country battled its worst wildfire season in over a decade. Leonidas Hatzimichalis reported mid-harvest that, because of the heat, they had begun picking around ten days early and hoped they had just managed to escape the smoke taint. A normally unfolding September ultimately saved grape health and balance; yields came in reduced, and the red varieties got off comparatively lightly.

In the glass, little of all this drama is apparent at first. The nose is fairly tame, dark-berried but rather restrained; then, however, a little bit of smoke does emerge, a little bit of ash — nowhere near as pronounced as one knows it from, say, Biblia Chora, and that I actually rather like. On the palate, good tannin, built for the long haul. Whether one should really wait fifteen years? Well, fifteen years is at least what the label states; this wine will surely shrug off ten years with ease. It doesn't, however, need the ageing. Nicely saline on the finish, somewhat crumbly in places, balanced, but not especially enticing. In general, only middling tension through the mid-palate.

I waver between 89 and 90 points and land, once again, on 89. That is respectable for a bottle already available in Germany for around ten euros — well below the estate wines of Biblia Chora and Gerovassiliou — and one that, with its synthetic cork, marks its more limited ambitions fairly clearly too. But really, one would wish the estate took one small further step up in quality here. The name interlocks Alpha and Omega — everything in its own hands from the first step to the last, consistently thought through to the end. And precisely because everything here lies in its own hands, I would sometimes wish for just a bit more punch.