Ktima Papoutsi – Rigma Merlot 2022

Ktima Papoutsi lies in the PGI Atalanti in central Greece, a minute away from Domaine Hatzimichalis, and is not to be confused with the almost identically named Ktima Papoutsis from Nemea. Giorgos and Despoina Papoutsis, both agronomists and oenologists, run the small organic estate, and the Rigma is their regular barrel-aged red. At first you don't expect much from it. You'll search the label in vain for the vintage, which is the 2022, and 13.5 percent alcohol seems moderate. The back label, by contrast, is pleasingly transparent and explicitly states the 15 percent Cabernet Sauvignon. Merlot and Cabernet were fermented together, aged nine months in French oak and then matured two and a half years in bottle. The vines grow unirrigated in Megaplatanos on clay-limestone soils.

As a vintage, 2022 stands at 8.0 out of 10 in Lokris, to which the Atalanti valley belongs, well above the Greek median of 6.5. I had the Rigma Merlot 2020 in my glass in April 2022, around a year and a half after the harvest, at 90+ points (16.5 out of 20) – back then with 13 percent alcohol, eight months in barrel and a tannin brought in by the Cabernet component that was still too astringent.

In the glass the 2022 shows a certain cloudiness without seeming opaque. On the nose you notice a touch of Atalanti style, tending toward the great neighbour Hatzimichalis, plenty of raspberry and nougat, plus quite perceptible alcohol. On the palate the Rigma is at first supple, bringing a little olive in the mid-palate, but it stays clearly in fruity territory, almost a shade too much fruit sweetness, a little agitated, and in this it shows that it doesn't belong in the top category. Raspberry, nougat and olive – precisely these three aromas were also what I had noted for the Hatzimichalis Merlot Alargino 1992 (93 points, tasted 2025). From the palate impression I'd sooner have imagined 15 percent Cabernet Franc here than the Cabernet Sauvignon that's on the label. What's decisive is the finish, which is genuinely impressive. It makes room for good salinity and clove and is more than just medium in length. A wine one wouldn't by any means need to be ashamed of even in Saint-Émilion.

Up to this point this would really be a clear 90 points. But if you then return from the palate to the nose, the wine is more appealing again and even stands a league above. On the one hand this is actually also a negative, because you notice that the wine as a whole simply can't play at that very high level. On the other hand, the assessment has to take into account that, on the aromatics of the nose alone, this could be one of Greece's top Merlots.

In Greece the wine costs around 9 euros. For me that's 91 points. And that, there's no other way to put it, is phenomenally good for a wine under 10 euros.