When is a wine ready to drink?
We provide drinking windows for all our wines. Alongside the drinking windows there is a bottle icon and a maturity stage. Bear in mind that the best time to drink a wine does also depend on your taste.
Not ready
These wines are very young. Whilst they're likely to have lots of intense flavours, their acidity or tannins may make them feel austere. Although it isn't "wrong" to drink these wines now, you are likely to miss out on a lot of complexity by not waiting for them to mature.
Ready - youthful
These wines are likely to have plenty of fruit flavours still and, for red wines, the tannins may well be quite noticeable. For those who prefer younger, fruitier wines, or if serving alongside a robust meal, these will be very enjoyable. If you choose to hold onto these wines, the fruit flavours will evolve into more savoury complexity.
Ready - at best
These wines are likely to have a beautiful balance of fruit, spice and savoury flavours. The acidity and tannins will have softened somewhat, and the wines will show plenty of complexity. For many, this is seen as the ideal time to drink and enjoy these wines. If you choose to hold onto these wines, they will become more savoury but not necessarily more complex.
Ready - mature
These wines are likely to have plenty of complexity, but the fruit flavours will have been almost completely replaced by savoury and spice notes. These wines may have a beautiful texture at this stage of maturity. There is lots to enjoy when drinking wines at this stage. Most of these wines will hold in this window for a few years, though at the very end of this drinking window, wines start to lose complexity and decline.
Buying options
Add to wishlist
Description
In a world awash with wine, it is gratifying to discover something new, something with a real sense of place. This selection of Hellenic Island wines from Cyprus, Crete and Santorini is the epitome of wines with a story. Each of them is associated with a culture resonating with millennia of wine making culture employing rare vine material with extremely ancient origins. The producers in this offer are all artisanal and operating from small vineyard plots. They are fully engaged at every step of the way, from the cultivation of their own grapes, right through to the bottling of the finished wines.
Demetri Walters MW, Hellenic Wines Specialist
Case price: £87 (11% saving on single bottle price, total saving of £9.60)
This 6 bottle mixed case contains one bottle each of the following Greek and Cypriot wines
Hatzidakis Winery, Assyrtiko Nikteri, Santorini, Greece
Domaine Lyrarakis, Thrapsathiri, Armi, Crete
Domaine Lyrarakis, Dafni, White, Crete
Zambartas, Maratheftiko Krasochoria, Limassol, Cyprus
Domaine Lyrarakis, Okto Red, Crete
Kyperounda, Commandaria Limassol, Cyprus Crete and Santorini offer some of the most exciting, authentic white wines made in the Mediterranean today. From Santorini the acclaimed Haridimos Hatzidakis has fashioned a traditionally late harvest, almost saline style of Assyrtiko. Though full bodied and thoroughly intense, this wine affords pairing opportunities with a wide array of fish and poultry dishes.
Nearby Crete is home of some of the rarest white grapes in the Hellenic world, and the single vineyard apply Thrapsathiri and bay-scented Dafni are a delightful alternative to almost every other white wine you’ve ever tasted. As a blend of some of these Cretan white varieties incubated by Lyrarakis, the reds Kotitsifali and Mandilari combine with Syrah for a fruit-laden style of wine.
Across Homer’s ‘wine-dark sea’ sits Cyprus. Though still only constituting some 4% of red wine vines in production, Maratheftiko is fast showing its mettle as a high quality red grape. Akis and Marcos Zambartas are becoming masters at taming its firm tannins whilst correspondingly showing off its fragrant violet bouquet. From aloft the highest winery and vineyards in Europe, Kyperounda’s Commandaria shows how great this hugely complex liquorous wine can be without the mask of fortification.
Delivery and quality guarantee