Ktima Gerovassiliou – Viognier 2024

This Viognier exists because in 1993 Ktima Gerovassiliou set out to discover whether the Rhône variety would work in the terroir of Epanomi. It was planted back then as a joint trial with the agricultural faculty of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Today it accounts for 100 percent of a dry white wine with 2.5 g/l residual sugar and 13.5 % vol, sourced from the estate vineyard near Papamola, from sandy-loam, calcareous soils with marine fossils, just a few kilometres from the Thermaic Gulf. In the cellar, following a cold extraction, the wine is fermented in French oak barrels and then rests for several months on the fine lees. At around 25,000 bottles it is a small production, roughly one eighth of what the estate makes of the Malagouzia.

Across the country, 2024 was an extreme hot year in Greece. At the estate this led to the earliest harvest ever documented. The starting gun sounded on 30 July with the Chardonnay, the Viognier followed shortly after and ahead of the Malagouzia, which came into the cellar from 13 August onward. Estate-wide the volume was around ten percent lower than in 2023. Epanomi lies as a maritime lowland site on the Thermaic Gulf, climatically the opposite of its continental Macedonian neighbours, and the proximity to the coast buffers the heat. For the white wines of this appellation, 2024 counts as a very good year.

On the nose the wine is at first somewhat reticent, with toast coming through, alongside slightly citrusy notes and a fruity side of apricot, nectarine and a hint of mango. On the palate it then becomes full-bodied, creamy and seemingly sweet – though this sweetness is ripe fruit and not residual sugar, since analytically the wine is dry. Despite the fullness there is sufficient acidity to carry it, along with a pleasant grip.

For me this is the estate's best white, and not because of a single peak but because of its reliability. Over the years no other white Gerovassiliou wine has delivered as consistently at a high level for me. The Malagouzia resonates far more strongly with me. I rated the 2020 at 95 in 2021 with a year of ageing, but the 2021 at the same age in 2022 only at 91, while the Viognier stays reliably at its level over the years. Monica Larner gave the 2024 91 points in the Wine Advocate in June 2026 and highlighted that, for a warm-climate Viognier, it was unusually fresh and balanced. In Greece the wine costs around 22.50 euros. For me it is 93 points.