Ktima Kir-Yianni – Tarsanas 2023

Tarsanas is the name of a small boatyard, a shelter for boats. According to family lore, Yiannis Boutaris, who founded Kir-Yianni in 1997 after leaving the family firm Boutari, longed for such a place on the family's favourite island. His son Stellios, who runs the estate today, honoured that wish with the name of this wine. A maritime name, then, for a mountain wine. The Assyrtiko Tarsanas Single Block grows in Western Macedonia, in the area of Amyndeon near Agios Panteleimonas, in the Samaropetra site, which according to the estate lies at over 700 metres. More precisely, it comes from Block 10, a northwest-facing slope with a 10 percent gradient. The soil is shallow, poor and sandy-clay over limestone. The estate describes the setting as cool and continental in character, with the lakes acting as a temperature buffer.

The block was planted in 2004, so at the 2023 harvest the vines were around 19 years old. According to Kir-Yianni, twelve years of work and experimentation passed before the first vintage in 2016, and the estate describes this 2016, after nine years of bottle age, as still capable of developing further. Training is simple Guyot with 3,800 vines per hectare, in 2023 at no more than 5,000 kilograms per hectare. The PDO Amyndeon is based on Xinomavro, whereas Assyrtiko is permitted for white wine in the PGI Florina, under which this wine is released. In the cellar, half the grapes were pressed as whole clusters, the other half destemmed. Fermentation begins in stainless steel and continues in French oak. The wine matures for six months in barriques of 225 litres, half new wood, half in third and fourth fill, with occasional, gentle bâtonnage during the first three months. The result is 14 percent alcohol, 1.6 grams of residual sugar and 6.7 grams of total acidity per litre, along with a pH of 3.17. It is sealed with natural cork.

For the Tarsanas block in the 2023 vintage, the estate reports no significant disease pressure. Fruit set was impaired, however, which produced looser clusters and a smaller crop. The vines developed late, and hand harvesting took place only on 6 October 2023, after 26 September the year before.

I tasted it in October 2026, around three years after the harvest, at an evening white wine tasting of eight wines that moved from Vidiano to Assyrtiko and explored the question of acidity. The bottle was a sample. The Tarsanas stood at the end as the eighth and final wine, and as the only 2023 it was the oldest of the line-up. Immediately before it, two other Assyrtiko came into the glass, the Petali from Diamantakis and The North from the same estate, both from the 2025 vintage. The North is the house's more accessible Assyrtiko, matured in stainless steel and with a screw cap, while the Tarsanas is the barrel-aged single-vineyard version.

Expectations were high. Monica Larner gave the 2023 93 points in the Wine Advocate in June 2026, the same figure she awarded the 2022 in September 2025, while Vinous had it at 92. On JancisRobinson.com, Julia Harding MW noted a clearly perceptible cedarwood character.

In the glass it shows a touch more colour than The North right away. On the nose it is buttery and minty and at the same time refreshing. It is rare to have so many green notes and so much caramel at once on the nose. On the palate its structure is mouth-filling, and the acidity sets in only gradually, but then strikes ever more forcefully. Pineapple comes through alongside. The oak is really wonderfully integrated, and there is no other way to put it – wonderful. In the density of its aromatics it almost approaches a top Burgundy.

It did its little brother something of a disservice that evening. It was the highest-rated wine of the tasting, ahead of the Bidiano from Passas in the 2024 vintage at 92 and the Petali at 91 points. Among my Kir-Yianni notes, only the Diaporos 2018 scores higher, which I rated at 94 points in 2024 at six years of age. The Palpo Chardonnay 2022, another single-vineyard white from the house, reached 92+ in 2023 at around one year old.

A wine that holds its 93 points as securely as any other wine on this website holds its score. And one that dances on a knife's edge, poised to leap upward – 93 points and potential for more. In Greece it costs around 22 euros. With The North I said that anyone looking for an entry-level Assyrtiko from Santorini can find one there at half the price. With the Tarsanas it is 93 points for a third of the price you would pay for one on Santorini. For me these are 93 points.