Torosidis – Syrah Vidiano 2023

Torosidis is a small, young winery from Thrace, and the Syrah Vidiano 2023 is the only red among the six samples I received from Stathis Torosidis in August 2026. His vineyard lies near the settlement of Peteinos in the Xanthi district, around five kilometres from the town. Administratively, Peteinos belongs to the municipality of Avdira, but it lies outside the zone of the PGI Avdira, which covers Avdira, Mandra, Myrodato and Maggana. Vidiano, too, does not appear on the variety list of this PGI. The wine therefore carries no protected designation of origin and is sold as a varietal wine, as a "Wine from Greece". The estate describes Peteinos as an experimental, non-classical site, markedly different from the established Avdira vineyards, and its own vineyard area as "extremely small".

According to public profiles, Torosidis is a trained agronomist. After trial plantings from 2003, the first vines went in during 2013, and between 2017 and 2019 Malagouzia, Limnio, Syrah and Vidiano were added. By his own account, he planted the Vidiano in the year the variety was first approved for the Xanthi viticultural district. The first bottling came in 2020, and organic certification was completed in 2023. Torosidis has no winery of his own. Vinification takes place at a partner winery in the region, according to the producer at Anatolikos. There are no technical data sheets. "In the phase of experimenting and constant trials" none were drawn up, Torosidis writes.

The name simply states the two varieties. In the 2023 vintage it is around three quarters Syrah and one quarter Vidiano, and that is no fixed recipe. Torosidis determines the proportions each year at harvest, according to the characteristics of the two varieties. The red and white grapes are then fermented together in tank. Wood plays no part, with fermentation and ageing taking place exclusively in stainless steel. The estate regards it as a tank wine meant to showcase the aromatic potential of both varieties. The alcohol sits at 15.0 percent. The predecessor was called Limnio Syrah Vidiano 2022 and was a blend of three varieties, still from the organic conversion period at that time. The 2023 carries the EU organic logo. I did not have the 2022, which the estate still offers, in my glass.

Syrah with a white variety is familiar from the Rhône, where Viognier is co-vinified. This model exists in Greece too, for instance at Ktima Gerovassiliou, which uses Viognier in one of its reds. So is this a Greek answer to the Rhône, only with even more white wine? And can something like that work?

I tasted the wine in August 2026, barely three years after the harvest, in a line-up with four other Torosidis wines, the Viticulturist Malagouzia 2025, the Malagouzia Vidiano Chardonnay 2024 and the two rosés Limnio Syrah 2024 and Limnio Malagouzia 2023. I only had the single-variety Vidiano 2025 in my glass in October. So Vidiano crops up three times at Torosidis: as a varietal, in a white cuvée and here as the partner to a red variety. The red was the third wine into the glass, right after the two whites. These had fascinated me so much that I was already wondering whether something was wrong with me at this price-to-quality ratio. Almost anxiously I opened the bottle. Could it be that the third wine stays on this same line? Surely hardly possible.

In the glass this could just as well be a Gamay or a Pinot Noir, only a shade deeper in colour. Then the nose, and oh my goodness. The thought of Gamay really cannot be dismissed. This smells like a truly, truly, truly good Beaujolais, and I don't believe you could find a wine from that French region that could race ahead of it on the nose. A floral nose, "lush", as one would say in English. Incredible. Some of those I drank the wine with felt the 15 percent in it as a sharpness. I notice nothing of the sort, so there must be different predispositions. What I do notice is how the whole thing changes with air. The flowers recede into the background, and it smells of sugar-sweet raspberry jam at just the right degree of ripeness, of raspberry jam and cream, with a tiny, tiny trace of rosemary. This is unbelievably delicious.

Then the sip. It rolls softly through the mouth, and then it grips after all. Now the Syrah shows itself, with pepper, cocoa and a bacony finish, and the alcohol is noticeable too. Once nose and palate come together, you are briefly confused, as though drinking an Amarone. What devilish stuff is this?

I cannot remember drinking a Greek red in recent years that left me so perplexed. And here the paradox of this winery reveals itself. The wine demands something of you, and yet the bottle empties as one otherwise almost never experiences. Of course Greece has low-intervention wines, orange wines, wines with rough edges that can sometimes get a little barnyardy, and I rather like those. But with those wines I end up on my own. Torosidis's wines have character, yet they never grate. They thrill.

Among the six, the red stands at the top. The Viticulturist Malagouzia 2025 reached 93 points with me, the Malagouzia Vidiano Chardonnay 2024 got 91. The Vidiano 2025 reached 90, the rosé Limnio Syrah 2024 got 89 and the rosé Limnio Malagouzia 2023 got 88. I absolutely want to taste a second bottle one day alongside a comparable top Beaujolais. I can only recommend slipping this wine into a blind tasting. For me it is the greatest red-wine surprise of recent years.

Because Torosidis sets the proportions anew each year at harvest, there is no guarantee that a wine like this will return. One can only hope that a future vintage will again put something like this into the bottle. The thought that the 2023 was something one-off is downright unbearable.

It has three years on its back, and how it will develop further I cannot yet assess from this first encounter. That is why my score is in fact very, very conservative. And may I even mention the price? It really ought to be banned. In Greece the wine costs around 8 euros, and in terms of price-to-quality ratio that is simply unbeatable. For me this is 95 points.