Estate Manolesakis – Gennima Psychis Red 2022

How does Greece answer Bordeaux? Most often with Agiorgitiko. Of the 29 Greek blends of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot in my holdings, eight take Agiorgitiko as their third, native variety – Limnio only three. Here it is ten percent Limnio alongside 60 percent Cabernet Sauvignon and 30 percent Merlot, and for that reason alone I was curious.

In the glass the wine is remarkably transparent, not so far removed from the EXIS red 2025 I had in my glass immediately before. On the nose, by contrast, one notices the wood at once, vanilla and a touch of Spekulatius, but not heavy; beneath it plum, a little marzipan, some blackberry. On the palate a fruity attack at first, which is then quickly commandeered by the tannin. On the finish some tertiary aromas already show themselves, and on the second finish it turns nicely herbal. Overall it remains somewhat flat.

With that it hits the vintage expectation quite precisely. Drama is one of the very few Greek wine regions without access to the sea, running continental and therefore regularly moving against the national trend: while 2022 was a strong year nationwide, here it stayed late and cool, with a delay of up to half a month compared to 2021 that persisted right up to the harvest. In my ranking Drama 2022 stands at 6.5 out of 10, together with 2023 the weakest year in the series since 2019. Anyone expecting depth and pull from a 2022 out of Drama is expecting against the data. The wood is there, the fruit is there, but the mid-palate does not carry as far as fourteen months of French oak and twelve months of bottle age would promise – not a cellar fault, but an average year.

It gets more interesting when you go further back. I had the 2018 in my glass in 2021 and rated it 79 points, back then with very dominant acidity at only 12 percent alcohol; the plum was already present there. Beside it stood the Katogi Averoff Red 2018, which pursues the same idea with Agiorgitiko instead of Limnio and reached 90 points with me.

The seven-point gap between then and now cannot be explained away by the vintage: Drama 2018 stands at the same 6.5 with me as 2022. Same wine, same house, same vintage quality. The obvious reading is that the winery has improved – even if two tastings remain two data points and the bottle age differs.

Incidentally, Limnio in this third slot is not a recent decision. A presentation from 2014 still names Syrah there, an older dataset Agiorgitiko, but by the 2018 at the latest Limnio was in the blend. The estate planted it in 2008.

Within its own house I place it below the Gennima Psychis white and below the rosé of the same line, both of which stand at 87; the rosé was my favorite. In the wider field 86 is a value at the lower edge – the Amethystos red from Costa Lazaridi in the same region lies, depending on the vintage, between 89 and 93. The only outside score, the Thessaloniki Wine & Spirits Trophy 2026, arrived at exactly the same number as I did.

From the estate the wine costs 15.20 euros, and according to the estate it is served at 16 to 18 degrees. I would drink it soon; it will endure a few more years, but it will not get better. It remains interesting nonetheless, and precisely for the question posed at the outset. Anyone wanting to know how Greece answers Bordeaux finds here an answer that is not the usual one. That it was uttered in a weak year is bad luck, not intent. For me that is 86 points.