Agiorgitiko
Also known as Saint George, Mavro Nemeas
Nemea, Peloponnese, Greece
One of Greece's best-known red grapes, from Nemea in the Peloponnese: plum and spice, soft and fruity when young, more structured from high vineyards.
Sensory profile
Characteristics
Flavor & aroma
At a glance
Production facts
Prevalence
Niche
Climate
Warm climate
Ripening
Mid season
Wine styles
Still, Dessert
Where it's grown
Geography
Shaded areas are the state, province or département(s) containing each region, so they run wider than the appellations themselves.
Greece
Nemea (Peloponnese)
The only grape of the Nemea PDO, from soft, fruity reds on the valley floor to structured, age-worthy wines from vineyards at up to 800 metres.
Background
Origin & History
The name means 'St George's grape' and is thought to refer to a local chapel or the saint's day around harvest. Stories place the grape in ancient Greece, and the local wine is sometimes called the blood of Heracles, after the myth of the Nemean lion, but there is no historical or genetic evidence that today's grape was grown in antiquity, so it is best read as legend. No DNA parentage has been published for it.
Nemea is the grape's home, and the only place where it is the sole variety of a designation: the Nemea PDO covers red wine from Agiorgitiko alone. The vineyards run from about 250 to over 800 metres, and altitude decides the style: soft, fruity reds from the valley floor, firmer and longer-lived wines from the heights. The grape is also made as rosé and, in Nemea, sometimes as a sweet wine, and it is one of Greece's most widely planted red varieties.
Lineage
Family tree
Parentage not recorded — Agiorgitiko is an old variety of unknown origin.
No crossings involving Agiorgitiko are documented in the collection yet.