Monsieur Nicolas – NOBLIS 2024

NOBLIS is a play on the words "Noblesse" and "Chablis." Under this name, Giorgos Karamitros bottles his upscale white wine at his Monsieur Nicolas estate in Messenikolas, in Thessalian Karditsa by the Agrafa mountains near Lake Plastiras. Officially it carries the Greek designation "Οίνος Λευκός Ξηρός Παλαιωμένος," that is, aged dry white wine. The agency The Brandhouse built the packaging around elegant everyday rituals in interwar Europe. A ladies' and a gentlemen's hat stand for social elegance, and the wine is filled into the classic Burgundy bottle. The bottle alone is of high quality and reflects a certain ambition.

Karamitros took over the family business from his parents Giannis and Giannoula in 1990 and founded the modern winery in 2000. According to Gregory Kontos, the family has been making wine for four generations. Local tradition holds that in 1455 a French or Frankish nobleman named Monsieur Nicolas settled in the area and promoted viticulture, and he is associated there with both the village name and the Mavro Messenikola variety. The estate is expressly committed to indigenous varieties, above all this one. The Noblis, by contrast, relies on Chardonnay.

In the glass is a single-varietal Chardonnay from the 2024 vintage, from the PGI Karditsa, with 13 percent alcohol. It was aged for about a year in French oak, with bâtonnage. At the Balkans International Wine Competition 2026, this very 2024 received 89 points and a gold medal. The older 2020 vintage was rated 8 out of 10 by Simos Georgopoulos in the FNL Guide on 11 January 2023, who credited it with yellow fruit, a buttery fullness and a considerable length.

I tasted the Noblis in November 2026, around two years after the harvest. On the nose it shows quite a lot of honey, along with yellow, ripe apple. On the palate there is then a very clear acidity. In fact, to my mind, it is not buttery at all. The 2024 has little in common with the buttery fullness Georgopoulos described in the 2020. The oak is not yet so well integrated, and on the finish it comes across as somewhat awkward. That finish, however, is fairly long and carries lovely quince aromas.

The wine is best given another year. The Noblis is the first white wine from Monsieur Nicolas in my notes. In September 2026 I noted two single-varietal Limniona from the same estate, the Moi Je M'en Fous! Aged Amphora from the 2024 vintage with 90 points and the Moi Je M'en Fous! Aged from the 2023 vintage with 89 points. The Noblis costs around 25 euros in Greece. For me these are 89+ points.