La Tour Melas – Cyrus One 2020

The Cyrus One is La Tour Melas's second wine, and it owes its existence to an act of restraint. In 2009 the estate bottled no Grand Vin; around sixty barrels that did not make it into the top cuvée still had to go somewhere. From these came the first Cyrus One. That origin in what was rejected is no longer audible in the wine today – and in any case you would never notice it in the price: at the same merchant the Cyrus One 2020 costs between 33 and 44 euros, the Grand Vin between 188 and 220. In terms of hierarchy it is a second wine, in terms of ambition an aspiring premium bottling.

The origin of the grapes is already unusual, for this wine unites two terroirs that mean not only different soils but different parts of the country. Merlot and Cabernet Franc come from Achinos in Fthiotida, where the estate farms around ten hectares on terraced slopes up to about 200 metres in altitude, a good half of them planted with red varieties. The Agiorgitiko comes from Nemea. For the vintage expectation this means that two figures are needed, and both speak in the wine's favour: Nemea in 2020 stands at 9.0 out of 10 for red – a top score, and that against a Greek median of 6.5 – while neighbouring Lokris stands at 8.0 for central Greece. For Achinos itself we carry no separate sub-value; Lokris is the nearest reliable cell, and the national figure sits at the same level of 8.0. 2020 was a very good vintage in Greece, an outstanding one in Nemea.

The cuvée is 60 percent Merlot, 25 percent Cabernet Franc and 15 percent Agiorgitiko – so state, in agreement, two sources expressly identified for 2020. A distributor page that deals with 2019 and 2020 together diverges and lists 35/35/30; an official producer data sheet for 2020 could not be found, which is why the contradiction remains and is named here rather than smoothed over. The direction is remarkable: the Grand Vin of the same vintage, at 60 percent Cabernet Franc and 40 percent Merlot, is weighted exactly the other way round. The Cyrus One is thus not a diluted first wine but one built differently – Merlot-led, where the big brother relies on Cabernet Franc.

In the cellar the three varieties were vinified separately, with the vineyard's own yeasts and, for the Agiorgitiko, at a lower fermentation temperature. Ageing took place in French oak with about half new wood, staggered by variety: Cabernet Franc 22 months, Merlot 20, Agiorgitiko 12. The harvest is by hand. The estate itself works in a four-storey, partly subterranean gravity-flow winery built in 2006 – Kyros Melas had decided on the project in 2000, the first vines went into the ground in Achinos in 2001. Some 6,000 bottles are said to have been made in this vintage, at a yield of 35 hectolitres per hectare; both figures come from merchant pages and not from the producer.

In the glass the wine is astonishingly vital, with a slight cloudiness that suits its style. The nose is racy and lively, with a very gentle stable note and a bloody, ferrous pull. On the palate the difference from many of its contemporaries becomes clear: little coarse tannin, but a great deal of fruit instead, cherry and plum to the fore, joined by a touch of bay leaf as a spicy counterpoint and a lovely fruit sweetness that never turns cloying. The finish is fiery and peppery without seeming alcoholic – an achievement at 14 percent – and leaves behind a light coffee note. The Agiorgitiko makes itself known above all through the plum, gently, without masking the Merlot-Cabernet Franc underlying structure. It is the smallest share of the cuvée and yet the one by which you recognise the origin.

What is truly impressive, however, is the development. Six years after the harvest this wine shows not the slightest oxidative fatigue: the fruit is intact, the tannin carries, and the finish has energy. That is all the more remarkable given that on this evening it went up against a Premier Grand Cru Classé from Saint-Émilion – Château La Gaffelière 2017 – which has three more years on its back and was already showing clearly oxidative traits. The comparison was not planned, both bottles happened to be open at the same time. It fell in favour of the Greek, and not narrowly.

One almost hesitates to say it, because here a second wine stands against a classified first wine and the suspicion suggests itself that the Greek is being deliberately shown a prominent opponent. But the wine delivers what it promises in the glass: 95 points – the same score that the Grand Vin 2020 of this estate has also received here. Which, by extension, means that with the first wine one should perhaps be a little more generous at the next encounter. From the same vintage, moreover, the Palies Rizes stands at 94 points, a varietal Agiorgitiko – La Tour Melas was clearly on a very good run in 2020.