Greek wine guide: what Santorini, Naoussa, Nemea and other wine names protect

The short answer

A place name on a Greek wine label may be an EU-protected designation. The EU register lists 33 Greek wine names as PDOs and 114 as PGIs.[2] The European Commission draws the line between them in grapes: for a PDO wine, the grapes must come exclusively from the area where the wine is made; for a PGI wine, at least 85% of them must.[1]

Every registered name has a technical file in the register, and the files are where the substance is: which villages or islands, which grapes, which kinds of wine, and which words may go on the label. This guide reads seven of them. It does not rate wines or producers.

How the register writes Greek wine names

The register stores almost every Greek PDO wine name in Greek script only: Σαντορίνη, Νάουσα, Νεμέα. The exceptions are the five names that include Malvasia or Candia.[2] Santorini's technical file gives "Santorini" as the equivalent English term.[3] How Greek names are written in Latin letters is explained in Greek letters on signs and place-name spellings.

Most of the PDO names are old. Twenty-four of the 33 carry the same EU protection date, 11 June 1981. The four Malvasia names, Malvasia Paros, Malvasia Sitias, Malvasia Chandakas-Candia and Monemvasia-Malvasia, date from December 2011.[2]

Each row restates the files cited in the sections below.

Santorini

Santorini's technical file defines the area simply: the islands of Thira and Thirasia. The name covers three categories, wine, liqueur wine and wine from sun-dried grapes.[3]

The dry white must be at least 75% Assyrtiko, the rest Aidani and Athiri. The file calls Assyrtiko an old native variety that, until a few decades ago, was grown only on Santorini. It also sets Reserve and Grande Reserve terms for the dry white, with at least one year of ageing including six months in oak, or two years including twelve months in oak.[3]

The sweet wines are where the file is most specific. The naturally sweet Liastos is made from over-ripe grapes left in the sun to dry partly, at least 51% Assyrtiko. Vinsanto, one of the traditional terms the file lists, covers both the naturally sweet Liastos and the liqueur wine from sun-dried grapes; it must age at least 24 months in oak, and the whole of that oxidative ageing, however long, has to happen on Thira and Thirasia. Optional age statements on Vinsanto run in steps of four years: 4, 8, 12, 16 and so on.[3]

The vineyard rules are written into the file too: vines trained in Thira's traditional goblet shapes, including the coiled form, or on linear systems, and a maximum yield of 8,000 kilograms of grapes, or 60 hectolitres of wine, per hectare. Its history section traces wine-making on the island to finds at prehistoric Akrotiri, and its list of applicants includes the Union of Santorini Cooperatives, described as representing all the farmers of Thira and Thirasia.[3] The register lists a later publication for Santorini, in 2022, which XTOUR has not read.[2]

XTOUR's Santorini page covers the island.

Naoussa, Nemea and Mantinia: three mainland names

Naoussa is a red-wine name, dry, medium-dry or medium-sweet, from one principal grape, Xinomavro. Its area is a list of communities in the municipalities of Naoussa and Veria, in the prefecture of Imathia.[4]

Nemea is also red, made from Agiorgitiko, and covers dry and medium-sweet wine as well as sweet liqueur wine and wine from sun-dried grapes. Its technical file places the zone on the northeastern side of the Peloponnese and lists fifteen communities in Corinthia, among them Nemea and Archaia Nemea, and two, Gymno and Malandreni, in Argolida.[5] So a Nemea wine need not come from the town of that name, and the zone crosses a prefecture boundary.

Mantinia is white, at least 85% Moschofilero with the rest Asproudes, and may be a dry wine or a quality sparkling wine. The vineyards lie in the cadastral area of the municipality of Tripoli and in Kouvli, in North Kynouria, with marshy soils excluded.[6] The register lists publications for Mantinia from 2018, which XTOUR has not read.[2]

Samos and Robola of Kefalonia

Samos is a sweet-wine name. Its technical file lists liqueur wine and wine from sun-dried grapes, with types from vin doux naturel to vin naturellement doux, and names white Muscat, Moschato Aspro, as the main grape. The applicant is the Union of Winemaking Cooperatives of Samos.[7] The area section of the register's PDF does not render as text, so XTOUR does not describe the area. Greece's tourism board mentions Samos wine on its North Aegean page.[13]

Robola Kefallinias is a dry white from the Robola grape. Its zone is drawn by altitude and road as well as by community: land at least 50 metres above sea level in five named communities, Omala, Davgata, Dilinata, Troianata and Faraklata, plus the parts of Mousata and Vlachata above the Argostoli to Poros provincial road.[8] The tourism board's Ionian page mentions Robola wine in Kefalonia.[12] The register lists a later publication for Robola, in 2023, which XTOUR has not read.[2]

Crete: Candia and the Heraklion PGI

Chandakas-Candia is a PDO for dry white and dry red wine from parts of the prefecture of Heraklion. Its technical file explains the name: Chandakas and Candia are historical names of today's Heraklion, and from the Venetian period non-Greek speakers called both the city and the whole of Crete Candia. Its principal grape is Assyrtiko, with Kotsifali, Vidiano, Athiri, Thrapsathiri, Vilana and Mandilaria also listed, and its zone is a list of units and settlements in the municipalities of Archanes-Asterousia, Gortyna, Heraklion and others.[9]

The Irakleio (Heraklion) PGI shows how much looser a PGI can be. Its area is the whole prefecture of Heraklion above 30 metres, and its principal varieties are Cabernet Sauvignon and Liatiko, with Syrah, Merlot, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc listed beside Cretan grapes such as Kotsifali, Vidiano and Mandilaria.[10] Crete also has a PGI of its own, Kriti, and PGIs named after Chania, Rethymno and Lasithi.[2] See Heraklion.

Island-wide PGIs and the Retsina names

Some PGIs take the name of a whole island group. The register holds Kyklades (Cyclades), Dodekanisos (Dodecanese), Kriti (Crete) and Aigaio Pelagos (Aegean Sea).[2] The Kyklades PGI's technical file defines its area as the administrative boundary of the prefecture of the Cyclades, at 30 metres altitude and above, and names Assyrtiko and Savatiano as its principal grapes.[11] XTOUR's reading is that the Kyklades PGI area therefore takes in Santorini as well as the other Cycladic islands above that altitude, while a wine sold under the Santorini name has to meet the stricter Santorini file. Greek island groups explained sets out which islands those group names cover.

Fifteen PGI names begin with "Retsina", each followed by a place: Retsina Attikis, Retsina Viotias, Retsina Evoias, Retsina Megaron, Retsina Spaton and ten more.[2] XTOUR has not read their technical files and does not describe how retsina is made.

What XTOUR does not tell you

XTOUR does not list wineries, tastings, cellar-door visits, prices or vintages, and it does not rate wines. The technical files quoted here are the register's copies, mostly from 2011, and several names have later amendments listed in the register; XTOUR has not read those amendment texts and does not say what changed. Food names, including spirits such as ouzo and tsipouro, are covered in the Greek food guide.