Oinotropai Winery – Nomade Chardonnay 2025

In early June 2026 I visited Ktima Oinotropai in Zevgolatio, not far from Kalamata, a small boutique estate on the Messenian plain that vinifies around 30,000 bottles a year. The winemaking couple Vasilis and Maria Kapopoulos gave me a very warm welcome, and I was granted some fascinating insights. The estate's name refers to the Oinotropoi, those figures from the myth of Dionysos. A word on label lore first: what is now called "Nomade Chardonnay" was formerly sold as "Roes" Chardonnay – the same wine, renamed. The estate has done this once before, when the "Roes" Merlot rosé became "Ombre" from 2022 onward.

The wine is a varietal Chardonnay from the PGI Messinia, made from vines that are neither irrigated nor fertilised – 65 stremmata on clay soil, with a pronounced day-night temperature swing and the cooling Ionian breeze. It is aged with barrel treatment; for the 2025 Oinognosia states six months in barrel, while older vintages ranged between four and five months, in part in American oak. I find the alcohol trajectory of this estate remarkable: for the Chardonnay the bottle tasted comes in at 13%, and the same downward tendency shows in the house Carignan, which fell from 15.5% in the 2018 to 14% in the 2021. Circulating trade figures of 14.2 or 14.5% are outdated copies.

As a vintage, 2025 is regarded on the Peloponnese as healthy and promising, with lively acidity, saved by a cooler, heat-free ripening window before the harvest; the reliable data, however, come from Nemea, Mantinia and Patras, while the coastal Kalamata plain lies distinctly warmer – so the template is only a rough guide here.

The Chardonnay has just come fresh onto the market, and you can tell. On the nose plenty of banana, along with fresher exotic fruit. On the palate invigorating, with still quite a bit of CO2, very good acidity and excellent grip. A kiss of wood, but no heaviness at all. This is exactly the style I appreciate in Greek Chardonnays: those that don't forgo oak, but that also don't turn into heavy lumps. More of this!

Stylistically, the 2025 fits into the small vertical I know of this wine. I rated the Roes Chardonnay 2018 in 2022 at the age of four years with 93 points – charming, clear fruit, baked apple, a lactic note reminiscent of vanilla sauce, and a long coconut-caramel finish with no off-notes. The Roes Chardonnay 2019, tasted in 2022 at three years, came to 92 points with me, more expressive and aromatically a touch forward, but also a shade harsher than the 2018. Externally, Wine Vein saw the 2018 at 89.

Price-wise the wine sits in Greece at around 14.50 to 15.45 euros. It can already be drunk now, but I would happily give it another six months, until the youthful carbonic acid and restlessness have settled; after that it will hold easily until 2030. Factoring in the reserve potential down the line, it comes to 92+ points with me – on the level of the 2019, but with room to grow.