Discover the Unparalleled Quality of T-Oinos

The Clos Stegasta plateau sits at roughly 470 metres, high enough that harvest arrives later here than on Santorini and that the nights cool sharply even in August. Sandy topsoil over granite bedrock drains fast and holds little, so the roots go deep. The meltemi, the northerly wind that funnels through the Cyclades all summer, dries the canopy and keeps disease pressure low, but it also has to be farmed around: rows are oriented north to south, and yields stay naturally small.

The estate covers around 13 hectares across several parcels, planted at close to 10,000 vines per hectare. Assyrtiko goes into the granitic sand of Stegasta. Mavrotragano, the dark-skinned Cycladic red that came close to disappearing altogether, is planted where clay and schist give a little more grip, in sites such as Rassonas at around 370 metres and Agios Dimitrios near Falatados at around 360 metres.

What makes T-Oinos special

  • Vineyards set among wind-rounded pink granite boulders, a landscape found in very few winegrowing places anywhere.
  • Clos Stegasta planted at roughly 470 metres, with parcels stepping down to about 350 metres.
  • Indigenous Cycladic varieties: Assyrtiko, Mavrotragano, Malagousia and Avgoustiatis.
  • Organic and biodynamic practice on a site within the European Natura network.
  • Stéphane Derenoncourt, the Bordeaux consultant, working with the estate since 2016.

Tinos is a marble and granite island better known for its sculptors and its pilgrimage church than for vines. That is precisely what makes the site interesting: the geology here belongs to nobody else in Greek wine, and it shows in the glass as a stony, saline edge that runs underneath both the whites and the reds.

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The People Behind T-Oinos

The People Behind T-Oinos

Alexandre Avatangelos had the idea in 1999, walking abandoned terraces on an island where commercial viticulture had all but stopped. Gérard Margeon, who oversees the wine lists across the Alain Ducasse restaurants, joined him, and the two planted the first parcels in 2002. Within two years of the first bottling the wines were on Ducasse tables in Paris.

The winemaking team has been built with the same deliberation. Stéphane Derenoncourt has consulted since 2016, Thanos Georgilas, who worked at Château Latour and Opus One, is the estate winemaker, and Michalis Tzanoulinos, from Falatados itself, runs the vineyard with a settled team of local growers.

How T-Oinos began

Reviving a vineyard on Tinos meant starting from bare rock. Terraces had to be cleared and rebuilt around boulders too large to move, water had to be found on an island with almost none, and varieties had to be chosen for a place where nobody had made fine wine in living memory. The founders went back to the plants that had been in the Cyclades since antiquity rather than importing international varieties.

Fruit was first vinified in 2008 and released in 2009. Since 2016 the estate has worked through a programme of soil structuring and deeper rooting, and a bioclimatic winery, built into the hillside and designed to run on its own energy, has followed as the vineyard has expanded.

Granite, wind and the shape of the wine

Granite, wind and the shape of the wine

Granite gives acidity and a fine-grained, almost powdery texture. On its own that could be austere, so the work in the cellar is aimed at flesh rather than extraction. Grapes are picked by hand in successive passes, fermentation starts spontaneously with yeasts from the vineyard, and the vessels are mixed deliberately: stainless steel, wooden vats, amphorae and oak barrels, each holding a different part of the blend.

The whites then rest on their lees for several months, four to seven depending on the vintage, which builds texture without covering the site. The Mavrotragano is fermented as whole berries in wooden vats, goes through malolactic fermentation, and spends ten to fourteen months in 500 litre oak barrels of which only about a fifth are new.

Why this matters

  • Hand harvesting is the only option on terraces built around immovable granite.
  • Indigenous yeasts, sourced from the estate’s own vines, carry the ferments.
  • Mixed vessels give texture without imposing a heavy oak signature.
  • Mavrotragano, a variety once close to extinction, is grown here at commercial scale.
  • The Clos Stegasta Mavrotragano Rare runs to roughly 1,500 bottles in a vintage.

“T-Oinos reads Tinos through two Cycladic varieties, granite sand at 470 metres, and a cellar that lets the site speak before the winemaking does.”

At the Table: How T-Oinos Is Drunk in the Cyclades

Cycladic eating is built around what the islands actually produce: fish landed that morning, capers and wild greens, hard sheep and goat cheeses, slow-cooked goat and pulses. The wines belong on that table rather than apart from it.

  • Clos Stegasta Assyrtiko served at 10 to 12°C alongside grilled fish and shellfish.
  • Citrus and honeysuckle on the nose, with a crushed-stone note underneath.
  • Saline length that suits lemon and olive oil sauces.
  • Clos Stegasta Mavrotragano at 16 to 18°C with slow-cooked meat and aged yellow cheese.
  • Pepper, spice and dark cherry in the reds, with structure that rewards keeping.

These are wines with a place at a long lunch rather than in a routine. Open one for a table of people and a dish worth the bottle.

T-Oinos: What Sets a Granite Terroir Apart

Everything distinctive about these wines can be traced to a handful of physical facts about the site, and to a cellar approach that tries not to obscure them.

QualityDescription
TerroirSandy topsoil over granite bedrock on the Stegasta plateau, with clay and schist in the lower Rassonas and Agios Dimitrios parcels.
Altitude and climateParcels between roughly 350 and 470 metres below Mount Tsiknias, cooled by the summer meltemi and by sharp diurnal swings.
VarietiesAssyrtiko and Malagousia for the whites, Mavrotragano and Avgoustiatis for the reds, all indigenous to the Cyclades.
VinificationHand-picked fruit, spontaneous fermentation with vineyard yeasts, and a mix of stainless steel, wooden vats, amphorae and oak.
AgeingWhites on lees for four to seven months; Mavrotragano for ten to fourteen months in 500 litre barrels, around 20% new.
AppellationPGI Cyclades, the regional designation covering the island vineyards of the archipelago.

The consistent thread is tension. Assyrtiko here is vertical and stony rather than tropical, and Mavrotragano is dense but lifted, closing on salt rather than sweetness.

Serving, Pairing and Cellaring T-Oinos

Both colours reward a little care in the glass. The whites are not aperitif wines in the light sense, and the reds carry enough structure to be worth some patience.

PairingWhy it works
Grilled fish and raw shellfishThe salinity and firm acidity of Clos Stegasta Assyrtiko sit directly alongside sea flavours without needing a sauce to bridge them.
Lemon and olive oil saucesGreek ladolemono and avgolemono dishes match the wine's citrus register instead of fighting it.
Aged sheep and goat cheesesThe mineral cut of the white and the tannic grip of the red both handle salt and fat in hard island cheeses.
Game, goat and slow-braised beefMavrotragano's pepper, spice and dark cherry fruit meet roasted and braised meat at 16 to 18°C.
CellaringThe Rare bottlings are built for keeping. Store on their side, in the dark, at a steady cool temperature, and decant the reds an hour ahead.

Serve the whites cool but not cold: below about 8°C the aromatics close down and the texture that the lees ageing built is lost.

Sustainable and Ethical Practices at T-Oinos

Sustainable and Ethical Practices at T-Oinos

At T-Oinos the farming is organic and biodynamic, which on a windswept granite plateau is less a marketing position than a practical one. The meltemi keeps the canopy dry, the poor soils keep vigour low, and the site sits within the European Natura network, so the constraints of the place and the demands of the certification point the same way.

The estate has run a long programme of soil structuring aimed at deeper rooting and stronger vines, working with a botanist on massale selection so that future plantings come from the estate’s own best material rather than from a nursery catalogue. Water is scarce on Tinos, and the vineyard is farmed accordingly.

Their approach

What began as an attempt to restore an abandoned Cycladic vineyard has become a fully worked estate of around 13 hectares planted at close to 10,000 vines per hectare, farmed organically and biodynamically by a stable local team under Michalis Tzanoulinos, vinified with indigenous yeasts under Thanos Georgilas with Stéphane Derenoncourt consulting since 2016, and housed in a bioclimatic winery built into the hillside and designed for energy autonomy. The varieties are the ones that were already here, Assyrtiko, Mavrotragano, Malagousia and Avgoustiatis, and the ambition has been the same since 1999: to prove that granite, altitude and wind on Tinos can produce wine of the first rank.

Learn more about T-Oinos

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Award-Winning Wines from a Cycladic Vineyard

T-Oinos has been reviewed at the top of the Greek field. James Suckling scored the Clos Stegasta Mavrotragano Rare 2022 at 99 points and the Clos Stegasta Assyrtiko Rare 2023 at 98 points in February 2025, having previously rated the Mavrotragano Rare 2019 at 98 points. Julia Harding MW gave both the Assyrtiko Rare 2018 and the Mavrotragano Rare 2018 a score of 18.5 on jancisrobinson.com, and Yiannis Karakasis MW rated the Mavrotragano 2017 at 97 points. For an estate whose first bottling was released in 2009, that is a short road to the front rank.

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Frequently Asked Questions About T-Oinos

  • What is T-Oinos?

    T-Oinos is a wine estate on the Cycladic island of Tinos, near the village of Falatados, founded by Alexandre Avatangelos and Gérard Margeon. The idea took shape in 1999, the first vines were planted in 2002, and the first wines were bottled in 2009.

  • Where exactly are the vineyards?

    On the slopes below Mount Tsiknias, in parcels between roughly 350 and 470 metres. The best known is Clos Stegasta, a plateau at around 470 metres scattered with large rounded granite boulders.

  • Which grape varieties are grown?

    Assyrtiko and Malagousia for the whites, and Mavrotragano and Avgoustiatis for the reds. All are indigenous Greek varieties, and Mavrotragano in particular was close to disappearing before growers in the Cyclades revived it.

  • What appellation are the wines?

    PGI Cyclades, the protected geographical indication covering vineyards across the Cycladic islands.

  • How should they be served?

    The Assyrtiko at 10 to 12°C with fish, shellfish, lemony sauces and ripe cheeses. The Mavrotragano at 16 to 18°C with game, goat, braised beef and aged yellow cheeses, decanted an hour before pouring.

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JOURNAL

Explore the T-Oinos Collection

The Journal is where we go deeper into the stories and knowledge behind the collection, so you can understand what makes a product distinctive before it ever reaches the table.

It is a place to understand the details that matter, and the reasons a product earns its place with us.

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