Alpha Estate, Florina (Greece) Merlot 2008

Who expects a Merlot to be the best wine at a Greek winery? But everything broke right for these grapes in 2008. Beware vintage variation: Alpha One is a brand that owner/winemaker Angelos Iatridis uses to spotlight whatever grapes he likes best each vintage. The 2007, a blend of Montepulciano and Negroamaro, was interesting, but very different and not at this level. And who knows what the 2009 will be: Iatridis was talking about Barbera. Perhaps in the future the Merlot will get its own brand; this bottling shows its potential. It’s most like a great Tuscan Merlot, with good freshness, dark red fruit, and none of the strong tannins you’d expect from similar taste characteristics in Bordeaux. It’s approachable, food-friendly, lipsmacking, yummy, and at a lunch with a lot of very good bottles open, I kept coming back to this one, which is really the highest praise I can give. 14.5% alcohol.