Kourtakis — Nemea 1990

The Kourtaki Nemea 1990 (PDO Nemea, 100% Agiorgitiko, 11.5%). While Kouros was the somewhat more ambitious line with brief barrique ageing, the plain "Kourtaki Nemea" is the base bottling — the wine with which Kourtakis became, according to Wines of Greece, the leading private Greek producer of Agiorgitiko red wines, at around 30 million bottles of annual production. We have thus definitively arrived in the mass market of early Greek wine modernity, and the 11.5% alcohol — another half percentage point less than the Kouros — underscores this. If one wants to obtain aged wines from Greece, especially in Germany, one simply cannot avoid such estates. But sometimes there are great surprises. So what about this wine from my birth year? The colour is actually relatively good again. We are clearly on an upward trend here. The nose is also relatively appealing — not as much caramel as the Boutari before it, more coffee-espresso. On the palate, this time none of the Agiorgitiko over-ageing harshness that I have so often criticised today. Rather a bit watery; the low alcohol is noticeable. At the same time, however, considerable extract. Particularly astonishing then is that no off-notes come through. The wine still convinces with stable, enlivening acidity. Positively moreish. It lacks just a little complexity on the finish — there the Boutari is ahead. Many people, however, would probably be able to drink this wine with greater enjoyment. I myself rate it at 89 points owing to the somewhat lesser complexity. That is no small feat for such a wine! And one can soberly predict that it will probably still be quite drinkable in five years. The drinking window thus likely does not close until 2029. Quite remarkable for a 35-year-old mass-market bottle.