Alpha Estate Xinomavro Hedgehog Vineyard 2018
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Robert
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Winemaker Notes
Bright purple-red color. Complex, typical bouquet of small berries red fruits, leather and spices (vanilla, pepper, clove), with hints of ripe blackberry. Full mouth, rounded tannins, balanced acidity and well integrated wood tones. Long aftertaste with intense quince aroma.
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Wine & Spirits
Angelos Iatrides maps his vineyards in exceptional detail, so that he can fine-tune the farming down to each vine. Those vines experienced both drought and excessive wetness in 2018, but his care in farm- ing produced a textbook xinomavro in the most elegant way—notes of tomato, roses and forest floor mingling in its scent, with a cool freshness that lasts.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Xinomavro Hedgehog Vineyard was aged for 12 months in an equal mixture of used and second use French barriques. It comes in at 13.9% alcohol. This is a Xinomavro that shows earth and character, but it is rather soft and refined. It's a middle-of-the-road Xinomavro, pleasing on all fronts and very elegant. Ready to drink right now, it adds velvety texture to go with its balanced demeanor. This will hold reasonably well, but the goal here is obviously an early-drinking Xinomavro, not a powerhouse that needs to be cellared for some years. It's delicious and a pleasure to drink. You can dive in now.
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Alpha Estate is a winery located in the depths of Amyndeon's finest pastures. Alpha represents the "new beginning", the "birth" of a new era in the world of Greek wine. Makis Mavridis, a third generation skilled grapegrower, and Angelos Iatridis, the winemaker, educated in Bordeaux, trained in France, Italy and Greece and ''good father'' to many international well known Greek wines, planted a 65ha vineyard in the Amyndeon region in the late 1990's.
The creation of a privately owned estate vineyard was an enormous and pioneering investment at the time, which signalled the birth of pilot-structured vinicultural exploitation. Our on-going mission is to make wines that bring out the true characteristics of the region they originate from, wines that can reveal the characteristics of the soil, the climate and the typicity of the grape varieties they are made from.
Contribution of the human factor is indispensable to achieve our final goal, which is the production of grapes of the highest quality potential. The wines produced from such grapes are powerful and complex, displaying an intense fruity flavour and excellent balance. The company devotes a tremendous effort in improving the quality of its wines, through carefully planed investments and research programs, in collaboration with many research institutes. The success of these programs allows the company to evaluate permanently the quality and the character of its wine from one "vintage" to the next.
Awarded Wine & Spirits Top 100 Wineries of 2021.
Native to Greece, Xinomavro is widely regarded the finest red wine of the country. Its name literally means “acid black”, and attains fullest potential in the country’s northwest region of Naoussa. These single varietal bottlings of Xinomavro (blending is not allowed here) are often compared to the fine Barolos of Italy for their structure, finesse and age-worthiness. While its vines are fickle and blue-black grapes grow in tight clusters, similar to Nebbiolo, Xinomavro actually appears unrelated. Somm Secret—The use of French oak can help tame Xinomavro but too much can overwhelm it. Some eschew oak entirely during winemaking; other producers use locally-grown walnut.
As one of the few continental-climate, mountainous growing areas of Greece, Macedonia produces notable, high-quality red wines. Xinomavro is its star variety, capable of making a spicy and age-worthy red.