Grape varieties from Greece – 100% Negoska

Fact File Negoska

Area grown: Originated from Naoussa and planted in most regions of Macedonia, its most important presence is in the OPAP of Goumenissa. Goumenissa is one of the four Xinomavro OPAP zones of Greece, but only here is Negoska required to be at least a 20% blend.

Vines: Vigorous plant that is resistant to many diseases. Annual growth cycle starts in first half of April; harvest typically takes place after the second half of September.

Grapes: Deep coloured, high sugar levels, soft tannins, and moderate acidity.

Nose/bouquet: Fresh blueberries and plums, barnyard. Quite full bodied and round, high fruit level, needs to be accompanied with rich food.

I have analysed the findings of the German wine critics, who earlier reported their scores on over 60 Greek wines, and caused surprise and furore in both Germany and Greece, as well as many other countries. In order to ensure that the results are truly representative, I called Eckhard Supp, who ensured me that his ratings of 5 and 4 stars could be translated to 93 and 88 points on the 100-point scale.   

Top average scores by grape varieties, an average of 7 different wines per grape variety were submitted. I excluded varieties where less than 5 wines were tasted:

Grape variety Average score

Syrah                            88
Xinomavro                   87
Cabernet Sauvignon 86.5
Assyrtiko                      86
Agiorgitiko                   85.5

The fact that Syrah has outscored all other varieties is remarkable. It just shows how dynamic Greece’s wine industry has become. Xinomavro as number two might also come as a surprise to many, I have argued many times that the best resulting wines have much more individual character than most other varieties. Cabernet Sauvignon scored high because of the outstanding scores received by Christos Kokkalis’ Trilogia, without this wine the variety would not have been listed here. Assyrtiko as the top white variety does not come as a surprise. The list would have not been complete without Agiorgitiko.

Best value wines for less than 10 Euros:

Winery                                                                         Points Price

Palivou Anemos Roditis                                         85         6,50 Euro
Palivou Anemos Agiorgitiko                                   83         6,50 Euro
Kir Yianni Petra Roditis                                           83         7,00 Euro
Sigalas Santorini Assyrtiko/Athiri                          87.5      9,00 Euro
Dalamara Aghechoros Xinomavro/Merlot           86         9,00 Euro
Tselepos Moschofilero                                           85         9,00 Euro

I have repeatedly stated that it is not easy to find great quality wines at low prices, but that this can be achieved if one knows where to look. I am glad that the wine critics agree.

Top scoring wineries that submitted 3 or more wines:

Winery              Average Score

Manousakis    87.8
Sigalas            87.4
Kir Yianni         87
Pavlidis            86.9 (8 wines submitted!)
Palivou             86
Tselepos         85.8

This is a great compilation of well-established and newer entries of Greek wine estates.

Top scoring wineries that submitted less than 3 wines:

Winery                     Average Score

Christos Kokkalis       93
Thimiopoulos              88
Parparoussis              87.5
Tetramythos                87
Claudia Papayiannis 87
Mercouri                       86.7
Dalamara                    86.5
Gerovassiliou             85.5

This list includes all, very old estates and brand-new entries, pioneers and new blood.

Other wineries that were also rated highly:

Winery                  Average Score

Biblia Chora:        84.8
Gentilini:                84.75
Katogi Averoff:      85
Papantonis:          83
Vatistas:                82.7
Wine Art Estate:   84.25
Zafeirakis:             84.3

These are the written words of Eckhard Supp, a well-known German journalist and wine critic, who last week published the report “WorldWine Highlights: Greece” (link in German).

Mario Scheuermann, who is one of the top wine critics in Germany, today released a detailed report covering the wines presented by me. He awarded consistent solid scores throughout. More than 60 wines were awarded with scores between 82 and 93. To put this into context, less than a handful of all the wines I showed scored just below the 82- point mark. The wines came from 21 estates from all over Greece and included a great number of grape varieties. The newsletter by Scheuermann with more than 10 pages was his most comprehensive for all of 2009. It was sent out to more than 2000 subscribers. A summary of the newsletter in German can be found here.

I have repeatedly argued that Greek wines deserve much more recognition. Many of Greece’s finest growers are virtually unknown abroad. There still exist a number of misconceptions in regards to wines from Greece, and my hope is that these will be overcome. 

I wish to emphasise that nearly every single wine that I organised for the two tasting events received high scores. Most were in the 83 – 88 point range. This is a more than solid result. I spent a lot of time during my year meeting with growers and hunting for exciting quality wines.  I am glad this effort yields results. Reports on the two tasting events can be found here and here.

In my experience, the wine critics in Germany are amongst the most critical in the world, rarely scoring as high as their respective US and UK counterparts. For example, several of the wines included in the above mentioned reports received distinctively higher scores from Mark Squires (Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate) or the Wine & Spirits Magazine. 

As far as I know, this is the first time ever that Greek wines caught so much positive attention in Germany. Michael Pleitgen, who runs the Wine & Spirit Education Trust programme in Berlin,  had already reported about his positive impressions in November. The German wine critics have openly spoken, and their message is loud and clear.

I will report in more detail later this week.

Last weekend marked the start of a new important phase in my quest to promote Greek wines abroad. Up until then, I had presented wines solely to wine merchants and wine critics. The feedback received so far on the quality has been extremely positive. The time had come to do the same for the public – after all, feedback from the consumer is the most important indication one can gauge.

I am very much indebted to Dirk Wuertz, a well-known German vintner located in the heart of the wine region of Rheinhessen in Germany.  Dirk not only offered to host the event at his winery, the Koenigsmuehle, he also actively promoted it. I also wish to thank his wife Gabi, her twin sister and actually the whole Wuertz family for all their hard work and effort; you are truly wonderful people who make things happen!

We had invited wine lovers for Saturday noon. I had organised to show a representative range of about 20 different Greek wines, many of which are currently not available at all in Germany. In addition, I had a pallet of 4 different wines from one vintner delivered from Greece, so that people would be able to make purchases. In true Greek precision, the wines arrived just 90 minutes before the event. Gabi and the family had prepared a variety of Greek “finger food” dishes, and the entrance fee was set at 15 Euros.

About 25 to 30 people made their way to the Koenigsmuehle, 2 of them even travelled all the way from Hamburg (a 5 hours drive) to attend. Over the next 4 hours I presented the wines, the main challenge being to give out non-boring information about the grape varieties, growers, areas etc. The atmosphere was very relaxing, I would introduce a wine, then people would sip it, make conversation, help themselves to some delicious food, exchange thoughts, until I would move on to the next wine.

I made several key observations:

In general, the reds were favoured. Given the cold season of the year, this was not a surprise. It takes some imagination to enjoy complex exotic fruit flavours when all trees have lost their leaves and the wind is blowing cold outside.

The interest from the participants was real – very real. Every person tried every wine that was presented. Most asked me to fill their glass with very small quantities, as they wished to experience the wine to the full by swallowing.

The biggest surprise for me was that the most excitement – by a large margin – came from wines made from the Xinomavro grape variety. Xinomavro is a personal favourite of mine, but these wines are usually no crowd pleasers. Please take a look at my guest post at Snooth where I explore the differences between Agiorgitiko and Xinomavro. While I presented two of the top wines I know, I would not have imagined beforehand that they would be so polarising to so many different people. In addition, they were at the more expensive end of the price spectrum, nevertheless my (to be fair relatively small) stock was sold out quickly and I continue receiving orders.

About 50% of the participants purchased wines (there were quite a few couples so the real percentage number is probably above 75%), and on average a purchase consisted of 9 bottles. 

Not a single wine disappointed. Of course everyone has a different taste, but in general there was a very consistent level of quality in all price segments. This did not come as a surprise to me, but obviously the participants did not expect this.

The only – but large – disappointment for me was the number of participants. This event was promoted via Blog, Facebook, Email and twitter, and many more people were aware of it. I bet if this had been an Italian wine tasting, 4 or even 5 times as many people would have shown up. This clearly shows how deeply rooted the negative image of Greek wines still is in the public eye. From the twitter world, @GazzettadelVino @jbbrana , @Burzuko and @mgmall all showed their support by attending.

Most people left by 4 pm, but at 6pm about 10 more people arrived and I repeated the exercise. From 10 pm onwards, the wine was flowing and a party with music and dancing started. I went to bed about 1 am. At 1130 am on the Sunday a group of 6 wine lovers arrived for a 5 course menu accompanied by the finest Greek wines, some of which I had carried in my suitcase for this occasion. Gabi served truly inspiring and very authentic Greek dishes (I had mailed her a Greek cookery book written in German a few weeks before). I had a lot of time to talk through the 9 wines I presented and the wine and food pairings were very successful. These guests knew Greek wines, but I was told several times that none of them had come across such a fantastic quality offering before. This was a very nice compliment to receive, as it shows that I am able to source really exciting and special wines. I was even invited to present Greek wines to 50 or so wine friends in February – of course I gladly accepted.

To sum it up, I believe strongly that a market for good quality Greek wines exists in Germany. The consumer knows how to value quality, and is also willing to look at premium offerings. There is still a lot of prejudice out there, and a lot of patience and hard work is needed to overcome this. I will continue to push as hard as I can to make these well-deserved changes happen.