Papargyriou Winery — The Emperor 2021

The truly regal The Emperor 2021 is the new flagship from Papargyriou Estate. It's Merlot with 5% Cabernet Franc added to the blend. Yields of just 35 hl/ha and a production of slightly over 2,000 bottles in this inaugural vintage underscore the ambition behind it. 18 months of oak ageing signal that Papargyriou is thinking long-term here.

If you're interested in Merlot with serious cellaring potential, you need to grab this. Red wine doesn't get much denser than this — any more and you'd be spooning it out of the glass. While some wines from Papargyriou Estate divide opinion with their high extract and sweetness (the Le Roi des Montagnes Syrah, for instance), this wine convinced everyone across the board. It clocks in at 15%, but brings enough acidity to keep things in check — it never overwhelms and never turns into cloying drinking jam. Right now, blackberry and vanilla are still very much front and centre. Tertiary aromas will round out the picture in time — the oaky frame should reveal more than just leather and cigar box once the still rather brash berry aromatics slowly fade. This is genuinely a wine that needs to mature. Hold off until at least 2025.

At the moment, the wine sits at 95+ points. In time, it will comfortably reach 97–98 points, and there's no reason it shouldn't hold until 2050. With climate change in mind alone, this sideways glance from France to southern Europe is well worth taking. In Germany, The Emperor retails for around €65 — well worth snapping up, as it's bound to become a sought-after collector's piece in Greece before long.