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Great Days of Nemea 2013
Nemea Town Hall and the wineries and vineyards of the region
Tasted September 7, 2013 by Yiannis with 621 views
Introduction
The Great Days of Nemea are 3 days long festivities taking place during the first weekend of September to celebrate the harvest and the new wines of each vintage. A wine tasting is taking place in the Town Hall and various wineries organize their own festivitie such as wine tastings, concerts, art exhibitions, dinners etc.
Flight 1 (20 notes)
Red
2008 Gaia Agiorgitiko Gaia Estate
88 points
Tasted at the winery over lunch, during the "Great Days of Nemea" festivities. Dark ruby. Rich and expressive nose with dark cherry, sour cherry conserve, creamy oak and varnish scents. Medium+ body with noticeable sweetness, soft tannins, moderate acidity and a good length. A forward style. Ready to drink.
Red
2011 Gaia Agiorgitiko by Gaia
86 points
Tasted at the winery during the "Great Days of Nemea" festivities. Dark cherry and plum fruit combined with oaky scents like sweet spice and scents of varnish and leather. Medium-bodied with medium length. A simpler version of the winery's flagship Nemea.
Red
2012 Gaia Agiorgitiko Nótios
87 points
Tasted at the winery, during the "Great Days of Nemea" festivities. Remarkable freshness and purity of fruit, proving Agiorgitiko's capability of producing yummy unoaked reds for immediate consumption. Red and dark cherry and scents reminiscent of Beaujaulais Nouveau (carbonic maceration?) with good balance and adequate length. Summer sipper.
White
2012 Gaia Nótios
87 points
Tasted at the winery over lunch, during the "Great Days of Nemea" festivities. Expressive nose with fruity (peach) and floral aromas (white rose). Medium-bodied with freshness and nice fruit concentration, vibrant acidity and adequate length. Drink now.
Red
2009 Pyrgakis Cabernet Sauvignon 815
89 points
Tasted at Nemea Town Hall during the "Great Days of Nemea" festivities. Very dark, opaq. Ripe dark fruits like plums and berries alongside mint and cedar scents. Medium to full-bodied with firm tannins, high acidity and a long slightly drying aftertaste. Needs time. A Bordeaux varietal blend that was a joy to taste after so many agiorgitikos.
Red
2008 Zacharias Allegro Black Cubed
84 points
Tasted at Nemea Town Hall during the "Great Days of Nemea" festivities. Nice, expressive nose with etheral elements like mint, eucalyptus and red cherry fruit. Much poorer on the palate, lacking depth and concentration. Medium aftertaste.
Red
2004 Estate Papaioannou Terroir
93 points
Tasted at Nemea Town Hall during the "Great Days of Nemea" festivities.
Everytime I come across this wine I expect a noticeable imrovement over my previous tasting, and this time I wasn't disappointed. When first released it was an oak-dominated monster. Then gradually it started revealing an array of attractive aromatics, while it was constantly improving on the palate too.
Very dark, opaq. Complex and sweet nose with some lactic notes alongside cherry and berry jam, sweet spice, dark chocolate, coffee and blackberry liqueur. Full-bodied with massive fruit, juicy tannins, balancing acidity and noticeable sweetness. Very close in style to an ultra-premium and ultra-modern Rioja. Still expecting more to come in the future. Only one vintage has been released to date.
Everytime I come across this wine I expect a noticeable imrovement over my previous tasting, and this time I wasn't disappointed. When first released it was an oak-dominated monster. Then gradually it started revealing an array of attractive aromatics, while it was constantly improving on the palate too.
Very dark, opaq. Complex and sweet nose with some lactic notes alongside cherry and berry jam, sweet spice, dark chocolate, coffee and blackberry liqueur. Full-bodied with massive fruit, juicy tannins, balancing acidity and noticeable sweetness. Very close in style to an ultra-premium and ultra-modern Rioja. Still expecting more to come in the future. Only one vintage has been released to date.
Red
2005 Estate Papaioannou Mikroklima
91 points
Tasted at Nemea Town Hall during the "Great Days of Nemea" festivities. Very dark garnet. Loads of dark fruit under massive oak, dark chocolate and coffee. with scents of leather. Full-bodied, high concentration, massive tannins of high quality, high acidity and a long aftertaste. Needs time, and at the moment tastes younger than the 2004 Terroir.
Red
2007 Anagennisi Estate Agiorgitiko Reserve Nemea
88 points
Tasted at Nemea Town Hall during the "Great Days of Nemea" festivities.
Dark garnet. Similar nose to the "regular" Nemea Ek Petras from the same winery, with riper, darker fruit and more depth overall. Dark cherry, cherry jam, sour cherry in sugar syrup, sweet oaky scents. Medium-bodied with firm tannins, nice fruit and good length. 88 for the Reserve and 87 for Ek Petras.
Dark garnet. Similar nose to the "regular" Nemea Ek Petras from the same winery, with riper, darker fruit and more depth overall. Dark cherry, cherry jam, sour cherry in sugar syrup, sweet oaky scents. Medium-bodied with firm tannins, nice fruit and good length. 88 for the Reserve and 87 for Ek Petras.
Red
2008 Skouras Agiorgitiko Grande Cuvée
89 points
Tasted at Nemea Town Hall during the "Great Days of Nemea" festivities. As always, this represents the masculin side of Nemea's agiorgitiko. Excellent nose with etheral aromas of herbs like mint and eucalypt alongside dark cherry fruit, subtle oak and chocolate. Medium-bodied with firm, somewhat harsh tannins, high acidity and a long aftertaste. Might soften with time.
Red
2009 Estate Barafakas Agiorgitiko
89 points
Tasted at Nemea Town Hall during the "Great Days of Nemea" festivities. A different style of Agiorgitiko, based less on fruit and more on savoury elements like leather, meaty and earthy scents. Medium-bodied with silky tannins, obvious evolution, balance and a medium aftertaste. Ready to drink.
Red
2009 Palivou Estate Terra Leone Ammos Reserve
89 points
Tasted at Nemea Town Hall during the "Great Days of Nemea" festivities. Dark ruby-garnet. Lactic nose with dark cherry, dark plum, sour cherry conserve and sweet oak. Medium+ body, juicy, fine-grained tannins, smooth and round with good fruit concentration and balance. Good length. Drink now and over the next couple of years.
Red
2009 Lafkiotis Agionimo
89 points
Tasted at Nemea Town Hall and then at the winery during the "Great Days of Nemea" festivities. Dark ruby. Attractive nose with a nice combination of Agiorgitiko fruit with spices like black pepper. Medium-bodied with firm tannins, bright fruit, balancing acidity and good length. Consistently one of my favorite Nemea Agiorgitikos.
Red
2010 Semeli Reserve Nemea
89 points
Tasted at Nemea Town Hall during the "Great Days of Nemea" festivities. One of the greatest noses of all the wines tasted, with coriander, Asian spice, sour cherry. Equally spicy on the palate, but still very youthful with fiem tannins that require more time. Medium+ aftertaste. Drink after 2 to 3 years. Excellent value.
Red
2010 Katogi Averoff Agiorgitiko
86 points
Tasted at Nemea Town Hall during the "Great Days of Nemea" festivities. Very dark ruby. Intense oak, dark chocolate and dark plum on the nose. On the palate it rather disappoints given the density of the nose with moderate fruit concentration, slightly drying tannins and medium length.
Red
2010 Skouras Agiorgitiko
85 points
Tasted at Nemea Town Hall during the "Great Days of Nemea" festivities. Evolved nose of red cherry and undergrowth. Medium-bodied with somewhat stewed fruit and medium length.
Red
2010 Lafkiotis Agiorgitiko
87 points
Tasted at Nemea Town Hall and then at the winery during the "Great Days of Nemea" festivities. This is the entry level Nemea from this winery with the label featuring the acrobats, hence the wine's nickname. Good purity of agiorgitiko fruit, featuring cherry and plum. Medium-bodied with freshness, balancing acidity and somewhat coarse tannins. Medium length.
Red
2011 Mitravelas Estate Agiorgitiko
78 points
One of the most disappointing wines of the show with varnish and woody aromas reminiscent of a furniture factory or a carpenter's workshop. Medium+ bodied but oak-dominated at least at this stage.
Red
2011 Palivou Estate Nemea
85 points
Tasted at Nemea Town Hall during the "Great Days of Nemea" festivities. Medium ruby-garnet. Sweet nose of ripe cherry and flowers. Medium-bodied with obvious evolution (a surprise given the wine's youth), slightly stewed fruit and a medium, drying aftertaste.
Red
2012 Mitravelas Estate Agiorgitiko Red on Black
88 points
Unlike the winery's "premium" offering, this is an absolutely attractive wine showing the virtues of pure, unoaked agiorgitiko at its best. Medium ruby. Attractive nose of pure red and darker cherry and berry fruits with noticeable eukalyptus notes that add in freshness and elegance. Medium-bodied with vibrant fruit, firm tannins and good length. Excellent for what it is.
Closing
This year's festivities prooved to be the most successful of the recent years, with more visitors and more wineries participating. Concerning the wines themseleves, the fresh, unoaked agiorgitikos (the main red grape of the region and the only onepermitted for a wine to carry the "NEMEA" appelation) proved extremely reliable and pleasent, while those representing the more ambitious "Reserve" style were a mixed bag, only a few being successful while many were overoaked and lacking balance.