{"id":6183,"date":"2026-03-18T16:35:57","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T15:35:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vinovonk.com\/?p=6183"},"modified":"2026-03-28T23:25:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T22:25:59","slug":"1979-kalos-stergianos-2022-beoordeling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vinovonk.com\/nl\/1979-kalos-stergianos-2022-review\/","title":{"rendered":"1979 Kalos Stergianos 2022: De Retsina die uit de heuvels komt"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Same grape, same vineyard, but a completely different forest changes everything.<\/p>\n

If the Thalassino is the wine that opens at the sea, the Stergianos opens in the hills. The same base wine,\u00a0 Assyrtik,o from the same harvest, the same vineyard in Gerakon,\u00a0 but this time the resin comes from the Megara plateau in Attica, from pines growing further inland, at higher elevation, in drier, rockier soil. The difference is immediate and unmistakable.<\/p>\n

This is what oenologist Eleni Kechri has been researching for the better part of a decade: the idea that where your resin comes from is as important as where your grapes come from. Tasting the Thalassino and the Stergianos side by side turns that hypothesis into a fact you can verify for yourself, in the glass, without any scientific equipment.<\/p>\n

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The Wine<\/h2>\n

Producer: 1979 Wines Wine: Kalos Stergianos Vintage: 2022 Region: Emathia, Northern Greece Grape Variety: Assyrtiko Vineyard: Gerakona, Kilkis, 350m altitude Resin Source: Pinus halepensis, Megara plateau, Attica Harvesting Method: Sustainable\u00a0 no sulphuric acid Alcohol: ~12.5% Retail Price (Greece): approx. \u20ac16 Availability: Germany, Belgium, UK, Canada; Netherlands distribution coming soon Website: 1979.gr\/en<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Tasting Note<\/h2>\n

Appearance: Pale gold, similar to the Thalassino, with a clean, bright rim. A touch more golden at the centre.<\/p>\n

Nose: More immediately herbal than the Thalassino dried rosemary and white pepper come forward first, followed by lemon thyme and a faint lavender thread that feels distinctly Mediterranean scrubland rather than coastline. There’s still citrus from the Assyrtiko, but here it reads more as dried lemon peel than fresh zest, and the mineral quality is earthier: chalk and dry stone rather than iodine and sea spray. The pine is integrated and resinous in a more traditional sense, a clean, spiced warmth rather than a lifted coastal freshness.<\/p>\n

Palate: The attack is slightly softer than the Thalassino, with acidity still high but warginally less sharp on the front palate. The mid-palate has real presence; there’s grip and structure here that suggest this wine will age well. The texture is rounder, more generous, and the herbal character carries through with consistency to a finish that lingers with dried herb and mineral warmth: no harshness, no astringency, just clean length.<\/p>\n

Quality Assessment: The Stergianos demonstrates the Retsina concept from a different angle than the Thalassino. Where that wine dazzles with coastal freshness, this one persuades through elegance. It’s the more contemplative of the two 2022s, and arguably the one that will develop most interestingly with a few more years in the bottle.<\/p>\n

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Why the Same Base Wine Tastes Different<\/h2>\n

The base wine, Assyrtiko, the fermentation, and the winemaking choices are identical to those of the Thalassino. Eleni harvests both together, begins fermentation in the same tank, and only separates them after the first clarification, when they are transferred to different barrels with their respective resins. From that point, the two wines evolve differently. Not because anything was added beyond the resin itself, but because the resin profiles are genuinely distinct.<\/p>\n

The Megara plateau is further from the sea than Halkidiki’s coastline, not dramatically, given that nowhere in Greece is truly far from the water, but far enough to matter. The pines there grow in rockier, more mineral soil at higher elevations. The resin they produce has a different balance of terpene compounds: less of the light, iodine-forward fraction that gives Thalassino its coastal character, and more of the drier, herbal, phenolic notes that translate into the wine as rosemary and white pepper.<\/p>\n

This is the argument for forest terroir. It’s not that one forest is better than the other; it’s that they produce genuinely different things, and those differences are worth preserving rather than blending away.<\/p>\n

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Food Pairing<\/h2>\n

The Stergianos’s rounder texture and herbal character make it a more versatile food wine than the Thalassino. Eleni describes it as a wine for white meat and butter-based sauces, think roast chicken with tarragon, pork tenderloin with a cream and mustard reduction, veal escalope with sage butter. I’d add: a young, semi-hard sheep’s cheese (aged Manchego or a mild pecorino), rabbit with herbs, or a simple pasta with aged goat’s cheese and lemon.<\/p>\n

The wine’s structure also makes it a candidate for the table throughout a meal, rather than just as an aperitif; it can hold its own alongside a main course in a way that more delicate whites sometimes can’t.<\/p>\n

Serve at: 9\u201311\u00b0C. Like the Thalassino, it rewards time in the glass, so open it 20 minutes before serving or decant briefly.<\/p>\n

The Verdict<\/h2>\n

The Stergianos 2022 is the wine that most fully converted me to the idea of forest terroir. Not because it’s more spectacular than the Thalassi, ohoh, it isn’t, in the way that a dramatic coastal landscape is spectacular, but because it’s more quietly persuasive. It tastes like a specific hillside in Attica. It has a sense of place that comes from a forest rather than a vineyard, and that is genuinely new territory in fine wine.<\/p>\n

At \u20ac16 in Greece, it represents serious value for what is, in both the technical and conceptual sense, a unique wine.<\/p>\n

Part of a three-bottle tasting with Eleni Kechri of 1979 Wines on Sparks by VinoVonk.<\/p>\n

This article is based on a press sample received from 1979 Wines \/ Eleni Kechri. My assessment is entirely independent.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Lees ook<\/h4>\n