Navitas Winery Terre de Zeus Xinomavro 2023
£21.45
The wine
Delicious Xinomavro aromas of sun-dried tomato and olive tapenade are enhanced by violet and sweet spice. Red cherry flavours are enveloped by beautifully integrated tannins through to a long, textured finish.
Xinomavro means acid-black, and it is northern Greece's great red grape, often compared to Nebbiolo for its pale colour, high acidity and formidable tannin. Its unmistakable markers are sun-dried tomato and olive tapenade, which no other variety quite produces. Grown here in Pieria rather than the better-known Naoussa.
The producer
Navitas Winery
View all Navitas Winery winesNavitas is Latin for energy, birth and creation, and the project's stated philosophy is mindful winemaking, meaningful wines. Winemaker Maria Dimitriadis and oenologist Grigoris Sotiriadis, both from Thessaloniki, founded it on sixteen hectares in Pieria.
Pieria lies at the foot of Mount Olympus in northern Greece, which is why the estate range is called Terre de Zeus. The mountain's mass moderates the climate and the vineyards catch cool air off it, while the Thermaic Gulf lies close enough to the east for maritime influence as well. It is not a well-known wine region, and the pair chose it deliberately for that combination of altitude and sea.
The range works Greek varieties, Malagousia and Assyrtiko for whites and Xinomavro for red, alongside a Grenache rose which is an unusual planting for the area. Production is small and the farming is deliberately low-intervention.
