The best Greek white wines for £10 or less

Telegraph

08-05-2025

Exhilarating, pithy, and full of refreshing mineral flavours, yet with a satisfying waxy richness, Santorini assyrtiko has become one of the world's great wines. Greatness, of course, always comes at a price. A few years ago, Santorini assyrtiko was still a supermarket buy. These days, it is so sought-after that, just as those of us on a budget might spend our summer holidays rummaging through Airbnbs in the Peloponnese (or in Wales, unless that's just me?) rather than floating around five-star infinity pools on an Aegean island, we need to hunt elsewhere for our Greek white fix.
The clean, lemony taste of assyrtiko is in huge demand no matter where it's grown in Greece, but it is more affordable if you look beyond the tiny volcanic island of Santorini and across to the mainland. For instance, the grape thrives in the relative cool of the mountains of Macedonia, in northern Greece. This is a different destination, so don't expect a simulacrum of a Santorini assyrtiko: think more of the freshness of a lemon grove at dawn than of flashy intensity with honeyed backnotes.
One very good and extremely well-priced example is Athlon Greek Assyrtiko 2024, Macedonia (12%, Aldi, £8.99). Here, the grape is blended with 15 per cent chardonnay, which calms the vibrant citrus of the assyrtiko and brings a slightly creamy texture. I'm guessing the chardonnay is really there in order to make the wine a bit cheaper, but it doesn't matter what the reason is because it works. I'd grill a piece of white fish and make a lemony new potato and spring onion salad or skordalia (Greek garlicky mashed potatoes with almonds) to eat with this.
Crete is another good place to look, not just for assyrtiko but for a whole array of unusual, herbaceous whites made from indigenous grapes. It is the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean (there's a quiz question right there: Sicily is the biggest, I'll leave you to work out the rest), long (160 miles) and narrow, and the wineries are clustered in the centre, to the south of Knossos, and the north-west.
Lyrarakis Assyrtiko 2024, Crete (13.5%), £13 or £12.50 in a mixed six (down to £10 in a mixed six from 3 to 30 June), Majestic
Seek out the very good wines from Lyrarakis. Majestic has the Lyrarakis Assyrtiko 2024, Crete. I also like the Domaine Lyrarakis Psarades Dafni 2022, Crete, but it does seem to split a room. The grape is dafni and the wine is very herbaceous, with curious notes of bay and galangal.
Domaine Lyrarakis Psarades Dafni 2022, Crete (12.5%), £11.95, The Wine Society
A much easier Greek grape to fall in love with is malagousia, a beautiful white that combines a dewy freshness with fleeting richer notes, such as bergamot and guava, and a tantalising florality. Malagousia had all but died out until it was planted by Vangelis Gerovassiliou on a peninsula vineyard to the south of Thessaloniki, back in the '80s. The Gerovassiliou version is still the most impressive I have tasted, but at more than £20 (you can find it in independent wine merchants), it doesn't qualify for this 'more affordable' column (see Wines of the Week for a sub-£10 bottle).
The final Greek grape to put on your radar is moschofilero, which is found in Mantinia in the Peloponnese. This pink-skinned variety makes dry wine with a heady rose fragrance, balanced by a keen and spicy edge, like lemon rind and pith with white pepper, which keeps the wine crisp.
A last thought: while it may seem counter-intuitive to expect wines from a hot southern European climate to have luminosity and freshness, all these grapes achieve it. Now all we need is some sun, and perhaps a plate of olives, tomato and feta.
Wines of the week