Estate Manolesakis – EXIS White 2025

When I described the Gennima Psychis white two weeks ago, this estate's mid-tier line, I called it a fine quaffing wine, unlike the Greek whites one so often encounters, with Malagouzia and more floral notes that you don't always want with food. Now the Malagouzia version stands beside it, and it is precisely not the soft-focus, flowery type.

In the glass a light wine, but with distinct colour. Fruity on the nose, on the palate a lovely fruit sweetness. Then comes what I hadn't reckoned with: an astonishing tannin that carries the whole thing, along with a fine creaminess and outstanding acidity. The finish is very moreish, the aftertaste relatively long. Fruity fruits, a touch of banana, but also a certain seriousness and minerality.

The comparison with the Gennima Psychis is unusually clean: same estate, same vintage, same month of tasting, and both contain Assyrtiko. The difference lies in the partner, there 70 percent Sauvignon Blanc, here 60 percent Malagouzia. One international plus native, the other native plus native. The Gennima Psychis reached 87 points with me and costs 12.40 euros.

On the numbers the two are almost identical: 5.1 grams of acidity there, 5.22 here. For the Gennima Psychis I noted that the grip smothered the acidity a little, and with it the refreshing quality. Here the same figure carries. It isn't the amount of acidity that makes the difference, but what the wine sets alongside it in terms of substance.

The winemaking is careful for the price class. Harvesting is done at night, so that the grapes arrive in the cellar cool rather than hot and can be chilled down for the pre-fermentation cold extraction without heat shock. Only the free-run must is fermented, after which the wine rests two months on the fine lees. No wood, stainless steel, a fresh tank wine, as the estate itself puts it.

One puzzle remains. Malagouzia and Assyrtiko are both approved for white PGI Drama, the yield lies below the maximum, and even the 2022 was reviewed as PGI Drama. Yet the entire EXIS line now bears no protected origin, and why is documented nowhere.

Ex-cellar the wine costs 8.50 euros, four euros less than the bottle one floor above, and I like it better. For me that's 88 points.