Alpha Estate Reserve Vieilles Vignes Single Block Barba Yannis Xinomavro 2022
£27.95
The wine
A complex and typical Xinomavro showing aromas of ripe red berries, strawberries, dark cherries, liquorice, sundried tomatoes and delicate spice. Full bodied and structured, with a rich depth of fruit, concentrated savoury notes and a touch of oak. The velvety tannins lead through to a persistent and aromatic finish.
The estate's greatest asset: a block of ungrafted Xinomavro planted in 1919, growing on sandy soils that phylloxera never colonised. Vines over a century old crop almost nothing, and the concentration that follows is the reason this is the flagship. Vieilles vignes means old vines, and few in Greece are older.
The producer
Alpha Estate
View all Alpha Estate winesAlpha Estate was founded in 1997 at Amyndeon in the cool highlands of north-western Greece, by second-generation grower Makis Mavridis and Bordeaux-trained winemaker Angelos Iatridis.
Amyndeon is Greece's coldest wine region, a high plateau at around 650 metres ringed by lakes and mountains, with snow in winter and sharp temperature swings through the growing season. It is the only Greek appellation permitted to make sparkling wine from Xinomavro, and it produces a lighter, more aromatic version of the grape than Naoussa to the east.
The estate's greatest asset is a block of ungrafted Xinomavro planted in 1919, growing on sandy soils that phylloxera never colonised. Vines of that age crop almost nothing and the concentration is exceptional. Alpha now farms 220 hectares of certified sustainable single-block vineyards, and the single-vineyard wines are named for the creatures found in each parcel: turtles, hedgehogs.
