Torosidis – V diano 2025

"V diano" reads the front label, alongside a striking insect, "Nature defines the rules" and "single variety organic wine." You will search the bottle in vain for the word Vidiano, even though the wine is simply called that in the estate's sales listings and consists of 100 percent of this variety. The reason lies in its origin. Torosidis is based in Peteinos in the regional unit of Xanthi in Thrace. Administratively the village belongs to the municipality of Abdera, but it lies only about five kilometres from the town of Xanthi. The estate is keen to point out that this is not the established wine-growing region around Abdera. Peteinos lies outside the zone permitted to carry a protected geographical indication, so the wine runs as a varietal wine without protected origin. For single-variety wines in this category, Greek law does not permit certain variety names to be written on the label, among them Assyrtiko, Xinomavro, Malagouzia and indeed Vidiano. Blends of several varieties may carry the names. What remains is "V diano" and the reference to a single variety. According to the producer's account, the insect goes back to an encounter in his own vineyard and is meant to stand for biodiversity and organic cultivation.

Oh, this little winery, how it has given me headaches. The producer himself describes the operation as decidedly small. The owner is Efstathios "Stathis" Torosidis, who planted the first vines in 2013. The first wine for sale came from the 2020 harvest, bottled in spring 2021. The operation has been certified organic since 2023, having previously worked according to the Greek standards of integrated production. Torosidis has no winery of his own; vinification takes place at a partner winery in the region. As the owner wrote to me, not a single one of his wines sees a barrel. This one too is fermented and aged in stainless steel, without wood. There are no technical data sheets because, according to Torosidis, they are in a phase of experimentation and constant trials.

Vidiano originally comes from Crete. At Torosidis the variety went into the ground during the planting phase of 2017 to 2019, together with Malagouzia, Limnio and Syrah, according to the producer in exactly the year in which Vidiano was first approved for Thrace. Previously it went only into blends at Torosidis; 2025 is the first vintage of the single-variety bottling. This means Vidiano plays three roles at the house. In the Syrah Vidiano 2023 the variety is co-fermented at 25 percent with the red grape, in the white blend 2024 there are 55 percent Malagouzia, 35 percent Vidiano and 10 percent Chardonnay, and here Vidiano stands alone.

I tasted the V diano in October 2026, around a year after the harvest, as a sample from the estate. It was the last of six Torosidis wines I tasted together. First came the two other whites, the Cuvée Malagouzia Vidiano Chardonnay 2024 and the Viticulturist Malagouzia 2025. Then followed the Syrah Vidiano 2023, which simply left me speechless. After that came two rosés, the Limnio Syrah 2024 and the off-dry Limnio Malagouzia 2023, both interesting but not quite impressive. And to close, this wine.

In the glass it is quite clearly the darkest wine of the day, and it certainly does not match the easy charm of the two other whites. On the nose, alongside the quince, there is a distinct note of solvent. On the palate then a brutal acidity and a mouth-filling richness. The estate itself describes the wine as full-bodied with balanced acidity; I experienced the acidity as brutal. Only 12.5 percent alcohol, but a presence that leaves no one cold. And it really does get better the longer you keep it in the glass, a wine that over time convinces even the sceptics.

For me, Torosidis is the newcomer of the year. The V diano costs around 9 euros in Greece, which in the estate's range is already the upper end. For me, this is 90 points.