Ktima Gerovassiliou Malagousia 2025
£20.45
The wine
Expressive aromas of white pear, peach and lemon zest combine with floral hints. Opulent and harmoniously balanced, the palate offers a spicy, fresh and mouthwatering finish enveloped in a delicious flinty, mineral character. The wine that saved the variety.
This is the wine that saved a variety. Malagousia had fallen to a handful of surviving vines and was effectively extinct when Vangelis Gerovassiliou propagated what remained in the 1980s and planted it at Epanomi. It is now grown across Greece and is one of the country's most popular whites, entirely because of this.
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.
