Alpha Estate Single Vineyard Turtles Malagouzia 2025
£15.75
The wine
Lively aromas of citrus, sweet spice and hints of honeysuckle lead to a richly textured palate with superb length, balance and plenty of finesse. Bright and zesty on the finish.
Malagouzia was rescued from near extinction in the 1980s and is now one of Greece's most planted whites. Amyndeon is the country's coldest wine region, a plateau at 650 metres ringed by lakes, and that cool gives the variety an aromatic precision it does not always show further south. Named for the turtles found in the vineyard.
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.
