Kompsos Liatiko, Karavitakis 2021

The Karavitakis family have owned land and vineyard at Kolymbari near Chania for four generations and have been bottling their own wines for 20 years. They are part of a movement called Wines of Crete, including many other young independent growers, which has challenged the view of some of the older-generation that the old oxidative wines were best. Since 1998 the vineyards have been refurbished, a new winery built and equipped and new varieties planted, and everything is farmed sustainably without the use of chemicals.

As well as owning their own vineyards the family also obtain grapes from small estates with which they work closely, sending their own agriculturalist to assure themselves of the quality vineyard management and of the fruit. Nikos Karavitakis is the new generation making wine here and like his father he champions local varieties such as the white, apricot-scented vidiano and red kotsifali and mandilaria varieties. This attention to detail and the forward thinking go arm in arm with the traditional values of the family which means that we are likely to hear more of them.