The Manousakis Winter Release

The Manousakis Winter Release is the annual first-allocation release of the Manousakis Winery at Vatolakkos, eight kilometres south-west of Chania on the limestone foothills below the White Mountains (Lefka Ori). The winery was founded in 1993 by Theodore Manousakis, who returned from a career in real estate in New York to family land that had carried vines for generations. The estate is now run by his daughter Alexandra Manousakis, born in New Jersey and design-trained, who returned to Crete in 2011 and oversees the cellar, the visitor programme and the labels.

The Nostos line — the estate’s Mediterranean blends, nostos being the Homeric word for the homecoming — works Mourvèdre, Syrah, Grenache and Roussanne alongside indigenous Cretan varietals. The whites are led by Vidiano, the indigenous Cretan grape that has established itself over the past two decades. The reds include Romeiko, the native variety that was close to extinction in the 1970s and has been revived through measured replanting; the estate’s single-varietal Romeiko is its characteristic expression.

The new vintage completes final tasting at the underground cellar through January. The first allocations are released to wine lists in Greece and London in the second half of February. The visitor cellar opens to the public from April through October.