Domaine Skouras – Megas Oenos 2022

The Megas Oenos belongs to that category of wines I have always regarded with a certain scepticism. The old, ponderous ship that never quite manages to turn around. I feel much the same about the Château Carras, which in my view has sadly gone from being one of the finest Greek reds to a rather disappointing, expensive wine, at least across many of its more recent vintages. Other pioneering wines of the higher-priced segment that have drawn on international varieties, such as Nico Lazaridi's Magiko Vouno, likewise disappoint me quite often. With the Megas Oenos, however, I was very pleasantly surprised in a blind tasting alongside wines from Bordeaux.

That was the 2019, which in 2025, at around six years of age, I had in my glass blind against five Bordeaux of the same vintage. It finished level with Château Doyac at the top of the flight, on 94 points. Vanilla dominated the nose, it was without doubt the most brutal use of oak in the whole flight, and I had admitted beforehand that I was not really a fan, only to concede at the end that I had changed my mind. The Wine Advocate gave the 2019 92 points, Jamie Goode 93.

The name simply means "great wine", and the Megas Oenos is the flagship of the estate that George Skouras founded in 1986 after his oenology studies in Dijon. His son Dimitris, who studied in Montpellier, tells of the beginnings in his grandfather's garage and of Cabernet as a bridge to foreign buyers. The cuvée is made up of 80 percent Agiorgitiko and 20 percent Cabernet Sauvignon. The Agiorgitiko comes from Gymno in the Nemea zone, at around 600 to 700 metres, from vines that are in part over 70 years old, while the Cabernet comes from Korinthia, from vines around 44 years old. Because the share of Cabernet rules out the PDO Nemea, which requires pure-varietal Agiorgitiko, the wine is classified as PGI Peloponnese. Yields are low, 22.5 hectolitres per hectare for the Agiorgitiko and 27.5 for the Cabernet. The wine ages for 18 months in new French barriques, of which four months on the fine lees, and has 14 percent alcohol, the 2019 had 14.5.

As a vintage, 2022 stands on the Peloponnese at 7.0 out of 10, above the median of 6.5, but a full point below the strong national figure of 8.0. In Nemea the year turned out more restrained. The summer was mild and dry, without heatwaves, and in the final ten days of August it then rained daily, which above all brought botrytis to the Agiorgitiko of the plain, while the mountain sites fared better. The harvest bulletin credits the reds there with moderate phenolic potential and satisfactory acidity.

So now the 2022, tasted four years after the harvest. On the nose it is distinctly too vanillic and on the palate, at first, rather lacking in complexity. A decent Greek red, one that at least does not betray its ambitions. After a few days open, however, it does reveal something of its potential. The nose becomes more inviting, the spectrum of berry aromas opens up, and on the palate it impresses with a truly outstanding, invigorating acidity. Only the finish remains merely medium-long, which is why it does not stretch to a higher score.

No heavyweight, then, nor the most filigree or complex wine, but very well balanced without becoming blandly dull. That draws a line to the 2019, which with its pale colour at first seemed astonishingly thin next to the almost black Bordeaux, but was anything but flat and never got stuck in blandness. In its acidity the 2022 sits clearly above what the bulletin attributes to the vintage in Nemea.

I would let it rest another year, until it has at least five years under its belt, and I think it will hold up with no trouble until 2037. With wines so dominated by Agiorgitiko I am cautious about longer forecasts. In Greece the wine costs around 28 euros. For me these are 92 points, and very tentatively I will add a small plus for the ageing potential, so 92+ points.