Ktima Gerovassiliou Chardonnay 2024
£21.75
The wine
Perfumed aromas of melon, ripe pineapple and orange blossom combine with toasty butterscotch notes. Opulent, with a rich and creamy texture and beautiful balance enhanced by a touch of spicy minerality.
Chardonnay is not what Greece is known for, and Gerovassiliou's is among the arguments that it should be. He trained in Bordeaux under Emile Peynaud, and the handling here shows it: barrel fermentation and lees work applied with restraint. Epanomi's coastal position keeps the nights cool enough to hold acidity.
The producer
Ktima Gerovassiliou
View all Ktima Gerovassiliou winesVangelis Gerovassiliou trained in Bordeaux under Emile Peynaud and returned to Greece to work at Domaine Porto Carras, then began replanting his family's vineyard at Epanomi, south of Thessaloniki, in 1981. That vineyard now runs to around 100 hectares.
His single most important act was rescuing Malagousia. The variety had fallen to a handful of surviving vines and was effectively extinct as a commercial grape; he propagated what was left, planted it, and made a wine from it that changed how Greece regarded its own varieties. Malagousia is now grown across the country and is one of its most popular whites, and it exists because of him.
The estate is among the most respected in Greece and Gerovassiliou is also a co-founder of Ktima Biblia Chora in Macedonia. Avaton, a blend of three indigenous reds, is the landmark red; the whites run from Malagousia and Assyrtiko to unusually convincing Chardonnay and Viognier. There is also a museum of corkscrews on site, which runs to several thousand.
