Vintage report 2010
The year started with a lot of water reserves in the soil
Vines started their vegetative stage at the beginning of April as usual. Rainfall which persisted till late June and favorite temperature resulted in high rhythm of vegetation while flowering was occurred in late May (25 May till 30 May for all our varieties)
In July temperature was high but not extreme and vegetative rhythm was getting slower while beginning of veraison appeared at the end of July. Till mid August all our varieties were in veraison phase (earlier than usual in the case of Xinomavro, Negoska and Moschomavro). In the mid August the increased temperature (more than 40o C for 3-4 days) shocked plants and retarded ripening procedure.
At the end of August nocturnal temperature was below 14ο C (which was also repeated for several days in September) while diurnal was more than 33o C. So berries skin became thicker and extremely bitter. It seems that these sharp temperature alterations mobilized defensive mechanisms in plants, which resulted to high phenolic compounds production and to a less sugar concentration. While waiting desirable sugar content to be achieved we picked up all our varieties later than usual (20 September: Malagouzia, Assyrtiko, Athiri and Mavrodaphne, 3-10 October: Xinomavro, Moschomavro and Negoska).
The slow maturity process resulted in well balanced white wines, rich in alcohol, with good acidity, very aromatic, while red wines seems to have extremely pleasant aromas, deep color, medium alcohol content and very soft tannins.