Recent years have seen Aigialeia’s native grape variety, Mavrodaphne, constantly gaining ground. Without renouncing its earthy quality, it sheds its sweetest, most concentrated form and embraces a drier and more delicate expression. The perfect example of this change in direction, Tsigello from the Rouvalis winery, a wine which owes its name to the variety’s top-of-the-range grape, is an irresistible dry red wine with quality, finesse and a discreetly smooth taste.
When it first appeared in 2017, Tsigello attracted immediate attention on the international scene, receiving 92 points from Decanter, one of the top media brands for wine in the world.
The next harvest, that of 2018, earned yet another distinction: it was included among the 50 Great Greek Wines for 2020, an institution that got off to a dynamic start with connoisseurs of international repute awarding prizes to the country’s top wines.
50 Great Greek Wines was the brainchild of Master of Wine Yiannis Karakasis, whose aim it was for ‘50 wines to serve as ambassadors for Greek wine, opening up markets around the world, creating reliable and easy access to Greek wine for every buyer and wine lover, while stimulating in them a desire to find out more’.
The team of judges include top connoisseurs on the world wine scene including Mark Andrew, Master of Wine and co-founder of Noble Rot magazine; Lenka Sedlackova, Master of Wine; Stefan Neumann, Master Sommelier; Kelli White, Senior Staff Writer for GuildSomm; Terry Kandylis, Head Sommelier at Club 67, Pall Mall, London; Wojciech Bońkowski, wine journalist and author of 4 books about wine; and Grigoris Michailos, Dip WSET, independent consultant and wine trainer.
Vinified using mild interventions, the award-winning deep red Tsigello matures in handmade amphorae, which reduces its tannins, and develops unfiltered in a bottle, acquiring bouquets of rosemary, laurel and eucalyptus. Find out more about Tsigello here.