Christos Kokkalis – Trilogia 2012

The final vintage of the cult wine Trilogia that its creator Christos Kokkalis still produced himself, before a one-year hiatus after which Ktima Biblia Chora continued under the new name Ktima Dio Ipsi. The fact that the bottle was still half full at the end of the evening speaks volumes – all sympathies aside. For a wine 'only' a decade old, the 2012 shows quite a lot of oxidative notes. There have been individual vintages before that lacked real staying power (2001 likely among them), and unfortunately that seems to apply to this final vintage as well. A previously opened bottle from the same case had already appeared noticeably more mature next to the four-years-older Etos 2008 from Ktima Biblia Chora, but had managed to hold its own character with plenty of leather and cigar box on the nose – that bottle was closer to 91 points. With this bottle, luck was not on our side: the grippy tannins and the certainly noteworthy finish with lots of mocha felt somewhat meager compared to the other wines. A bare-minimum excellent 90 points. No need to hold on to these bottles any longer.