Tsantali — Nemea Reserve Epilegmenos 1993

The Tsantali Nemea Reserve Epilegmenos 1993 (PDO Nemea, 100% Agiorgitiko, approx. 12%) comes from one of the most influential names in modern Greek winemaking — and at the same time one of the great exporters who made Greek wine internationally visible in the 1980s and 1990s — one that was declared bankrupt in January 2026. Opening a Tsantali bottle over thirty years old thus also carries a certain wistfulness. The "Epilegmenos" designation (Reserve) meant, under the Greek regulations of the time, at least three years of total maturation, of which at least six months in wood and six in bottle — not a marketing term, but a regulatory promise. Old Tsantali wines have surprised us on this blog before: the Reserve Naoussa 1992 scored 92 points in 2024, and with Rapsani we have seen that Reserve and Grande Reserve at Tsantali can truly make an enormous difference. Would it now be the same with the Agiorgitiko? Additionally, in 2022 Pavlos Gegas gave the Evangelos Tsantalis Agiorgitiko Nemea 2000 — a wine only seven years younger from the same house — a proud 94 points and described forest floor, truffle, old coffee and chocolate notes with surprisingly bright acidity and completely resolved tannins. Hence quite high expectations — and indeed the wine is also noticeably denser than the Boutari, with considerably more extract. On the nose, relatively well preserved: stewed fruit, stewed plums. On the palate, not quite the classic harshness of over-aged Agiorgitiko that usually hits you immediately, but rather more distributed, which makes the whole experience more pleasant. However, a very slight bitter note creeps in, which unfortunately detracts from the wine, and right at the very end a slight cardboard-like quality in the finish. It is these many small weaknesses that each lead to point deductions: in certain phases of the tasting the wine could well sit at 90 points, but it shows in each of these phases during the tasting