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.

It is no exception that I come across wines that are quiet, if not silent, to begin with. After half an hour or so, they slowly start to speak, then chat me up, and in the best cases end up singing to me with beautiful voices. How sad would it be to dismiss such wines as average or dull after the first few sips.

There are certain grape varieties that lack a fresh primary fruit element – Xinomavro is a good example. In many cases, these wines will be unexciting in the beginning, and only reward the drinker after having been aerated for several hours. By then they have gained depth and character. Once they have reached this stage, they keep changing their aromas for several more hours, and do not tire out easily. Unique terroir can also give birth to wines that share a similar thread. To me the red wines produced by the Alpha Estate are nearly always “slow starters” that accelerate after some time in the glass.

At some tasting events, one is able to pour the relevant wines in a decanter several hours before offering them. I see more and more Greek wineries doing this at exhibitions. I did the same for some of the wines I showed at the public tasting event I held a couple of weeks ago. Of course it can be argued that different tasting conditions now exist for different wines. However, I do find this fairer than not to cater at all for different wines. After all, no wine is the same; wine is a living organism, it evolves and changes – and every wine has a unique personality.

How should these wines then be judged? The wine critic needs to evaluate every wine under the same conditions; every bias has to be eliminated. A professional wine critic should have the ability, knowledge and experience to take the potential of a given sample into account. Exactly this is a key part of his or her job, and it is fascinating that these people are often capable of tasting and judging up to 100 wines in a few hours time. My limit before I start questioning my own judgement is about 50 wines. And even for this I need to be super concentrated, and I experience a lot of muscle tension along the way. I have high regards for the professional tasters who are able to clear this hurdle easily.

How about wine bloggers? Do they need to be as objective about reviewing a wine as the wine critic?  Josh Hermsmeyer, also known as the Pinotblogger, recently announced that he would start a new way of reviewing wines. I am fascinated by his attempt to combine objective assessment with subjective preference. He obviously uses a very time consuming approach. So far he has succeeded in publishing some very intriguing reviews. 

What about the consumer? There are many thousands of wine reviews on Snooth, Adegga and other similar sites. The conditions under which those reviews take place must vary massively. Yet, these sites are hugely successful and people use them as a resource.

I have published short reviews in the past, mainly from tasting events where I cannot spend more than 2 or 3 minutes per wine. Personally, I prefer my own notes where I have the time to become more intimate with the wines. They are honest, but more subjective. And they are still in the closet.

My experiences to date have demonstrated that German wine critics are quite demanding in their expectations and their high standards are a test for every wine. The unfamiliarity with Greek grape varieties presented an additional challenge to this venture.

There was no handpicking of wines; I aimed at displaying a representative selection of the overall quality available in Greece. Therefore wine estates participating at this event were left on their own, to choose which wines to send in, for the tasting. Even I found out of their selections on the day of the tasting. It ended up being a large range of Greek wines, covering different wine estates from several regions, including Greek and international grape varieties.

The panel to taste and judge the wines was made up of well-known wine critic Mario Scheuermann, wine journalist Eckhard Supp, and wine consultant Michael Pleitgen. The event took place at Ina Finn’s Villa Verde, whom I would like to extend a very special “thank you” for her tremendous help to make this happen – she provided the logistics and positive spirit that allowed the event to be a success despite some hurdles.

Eckhard Supp and myself arrived early Monday morning and proceeded to sort all the wines by growing regions and growers. A total of 64 different wines from 14 estates were submitted, unfortunately 6 wineries had failed to send any samples, despite all of them having ensured me of their support. This was a disappointment, as these included some very exciting growers who could have easily contributed another 50 different wines.

The following wineries were presented:
Biblia Chora  (Kavala), Dalamara (Naoussa), Gentilini (Cephalonia), Gerovassiliou (Epanomi), Kir-Yianni (Naoussa), Manousakis (Crete), Mercouri (Pyrgos), Palivou (Nemea), Pavlidis (Drama), Sigalas (Santorini), Tselepos (Arcadia), Vatistas (Laconia), Wine Art (Drama), and Zafirakis (Crete).

As can be seen, many wine regions were represented, including important islands, the Peloponnese and the winegrowing regions in the north of the country. The tasting started at noon and lasted for about four hours. I made the following key observations:

There was a variation of quality levels, which was to be expected, as no cherry picking took place.

In general, the Greek grape varieties were favoured over their international counterparts, with the exception of Syrah.

Reds outdid the whites – this is the second time in 10 days that I received this feedback.

Assyrtiko wines from Santorini outclassed all other whites; Malagousia came second.

The surprise of the day was the very high and consistent quality of reds made from Syrah. Mario Scheuermann was quite intrigued by this finding, and sees a lot of potential for Greek winemakers who work with this variety. On the other hand, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot wines were not able to leave such a marked impression.

With respect to cost, there was agreement that some of the more expensive wines were well worth their price tag and at the same time there were some bargains identified amongst wines in the lower price ranges.

It was interesting to me to obtain the views of experts on wines made of grape varieties that they were not familiar with. Overall, it was a great experience to dive into the ‘unknown’, both in terms of the supply and in terms of how it would be received. My experience though with Greek wines so far was overall confirmed: There is great potential out there, and there are some very fine producers indeed, that can stand to be measured with upmarket wines from other countries.

The following links have so far been posted in regards to the event, I will update this section as more content is expected:

http://elloinos.posterous.com/syrah-the-future-for-greek-wineries
http://www.weinakademie-berlin.de/griechenland-tasting-mit-positiven-ueberraschungen (German)
http://weinreporter.posterous.com/griechischer-wein (German)
http://weinreporter.posterous.com/viognier (German)
http://weinreporter.posterous.com/rote-favoriten (German)