Discover the Unparalleled Quality of La Tour Melas

The site is the argument. Roughly ten to eleven hectares of terraced slopes lie on alluvial gravels over clay and limestone, with schist and marly limestone in the subsoil, planted at high density (around 10,000 vines per hectare) so that each plant carries a small crop. The vineyard faces away from the drying westerly winds, sea air cools the rows through the day, and the stony ground holds warmth into the night. Fruit is picked by hand and sorted twice.

What follows in the cellar is deliberately unhurried. The grand vin ferments in open-top barrels on wild yeasts and spends 22 months in French oak, 70 per cent of it new. It is bottled without fining or filtration, with total sulphites kept below 100mg/L. Production is counted in thousands rather than tens of thousands: 4,800 bottles of the 2020 in standard format and 180 magnums.

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Discover the Unparalleled Quality of La Tour Melas

What makes La Tour Melas special

  • A single estate of roughly ten hectares at Achinos, Fthiotida, farmed organically and biodynamically.
  • Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Agiorgitiko on alluvial gravel over clay and limestone.
  • A gravity-fed winery of four levels, built into the hillside in 2006.
  • The grand vin bottled unfined and unfiltered, with total sulphites below 100mg/L.
  • Palies Rizes, made from ungrafted Agiorgitiko vines more than a century old, in runs of roughly 1,800 bottles.

Fthiotida is not one of the Greek names that travels. It is farming country between Mount Parnassos and the sea, better known for Thermopylae than for fine wine, and that obscurity is part of what makes the estate interesting: nobody planted here because it was expected.

Sustainable and Ethical Practices at La Tour Melas

The People Behind La Tour Melas

Kyros Melas, a businessman with a long interest in Bordeaux, founded the estate after a dinner conversation turned into a challenge: could Greece produce a red to stand alongside Château Lafleur of Pomerol? He bought the land at Achinos, imported French plant material, and set about answering the question in the only way that counts, by making the wine.

The technical team is small and largely French-trained. Elsa Piccard, an oenologist from southern France, leads the winemaking. Panos Zoumboulis, a Bordeaux graduate with three decades in organic and biodynamic viticulture and experience across Greece, France and Argentina, consults on both vineyard and cellar, and Eric Moro advises in the vines.

How La Tour Melas began

The first plantings date from around 2000, on a property of some 27 acres that had no winemaking history to inherit. A stone cistern was built to water the young vines. The tower that later rose on the same spot gave the estate its name and its label.

Winemaking proper began a few years after planting, and the purpose-built cellar followed in 2006. The public test came in 2015, when a blind tasting in Athens set the estate’s wine against Pomerol and Saint-Emilion, including Lafleur. The 2011 La Tour Melas came out first in its flight, judged by a room of sommeliers and Masters of Wine.

La Tour Melas vineyard and estate tower in Achinos

Farming the estate as one organism

The vineyard is worked biodynamically, which here means treating soil, vines and animals as a single system rather than a set of separate inputs. Sheep and geese graze the rows through winter and keep the weeds down. Bees are kept for pollination. Vineyard and cellar operations are timed to the astronomical calendar.

Pruning is done by hand in winter and spring, harvest is entirely manual, and only clean, fully ripe fruit is kept. The gravity-fed winery exists to carry that intact fruit through vinification without pumping, which is the practical reason for building four levels into a hillside rather than one shed on flat ground.

Why this matters

  • High-density planting keeps yields per vine low and concentration high.
  • Wild-yeast fermentation in open-top barrels gives each parcel its own trajectory.
  • Gravity flow means the fruit and the young wine are handled gently.
  • Grazing animals and bees do work that would otherwise fall to sprays and machines.
  • Bottling without fining or filtration leaves texture and aromatic detail intact.

“La Tour Melas is a single Greek hillside, farmed as one organism and vinified by gravity, bottled in numbers small enough to count.”

At the Table: How La Tour Melas Is Drunk in Fthiotida

Central Greece eats simply and seasonally: lamb and kid from the hills, wild greens, pulses, sheep’s cheese, fish from the gulf. These are wines built for that table, poured with food rather than before it, and opened for a gathering rather than a glass.

  • Cabernet Franc and Merlot from a single estate at Achinos
  • Organic and biodynamic farming, hand harvest, gravity-fed vinification
  • French oak ageing of 12 to 22 months depending on the cuvée
  • The grand vin bottled under PGI Fthiotida
  • Small runs, from around 1,800 bottles for the old-vine cuvée

The estate also runs La Tour Melas Lodges, fourteen rooms completed in 2014, so visitors can eat and taste on the property itself rather than at a distance from it.

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La Tour Melas: What Sets These Wines Apart

Four elements do most of the work: the ground, the plant material, the way the fruit is farmed, and a cellar designed around gravity. Everything else follows from those.

QualityDescription
TerroirSloping terraces of alluvial gravel over clay and limestone, with schist and marly limestone below, at roughly 150 to 200 metres, cooled by sea air and sheltered from westerly winds.
VarietiesCabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot brought from France at planting, alongside Agiorgitiko, Syrah and Grenache Rouge for the rosé and the old-vine cuvée.
VinificationHand harvest, double sorting, wild-yeast fermentation in open-top barrels for the grand vin, and gravity flow through a four-level cellar.
AgeingFrench oak throughout: 22 months at 70 per cent new for the grand vin, and 12 to 22 months by variety at 50 per cent new for Cyrus One.
AppellationThe estate wine is bottled as PGI Fthiotida. Several cuvées, including Palies Rizes and recent Cyrus One releases, appear under the broader Wine of Greece designation.

The grand vin is 60 per cent Cabernet Franc to 40 per cent Merlot, dark-berried and floral, with lavender and spice over fine tannin and clear acidity. Cyrus One reverses the emphasis at 60 per cent Merlot, 25 per cent Cabernet Franc and 15 per cent Agiorgitiko, and drinks with more immediate generosity.

Serving and Pairing La Tour Melas

These are structured reds and a serious dry rosé, and both reward a little attention to temperature and timing.

PairingWhy it works
Roast lamb or slow-cooked kidThe grand vin's Cabernet Franc backbone and firm tannin handle fat and char, while its acidity keeps a rich dish moving.
Grilled beef and gameCyrus One shows blueberry, raspberry and grilled meat notes with a toasted-oak edge that sits naturally alongside anything from the coals.
Charcuterie, prawns, spiced Asian dishesIdylle d'Achinos, a pale Provençal-style rosé of Syrah, Grenache Rouge and Agiorgitiko at 12.5 per cent, has the acidity for chilli, ginger and shellfish alike.
Aged sheep's cheese and mushroomsPalies Rizes, from ungrafted century-old Agiorgitiko, brings red fruit with spice and earth and a velvety weight that suits savoury, earthy plates.
Serving and cellaringReds at 16 to 18°C, decanted an hour ahead for young vintages of the grand vin. The rosé at 9 to 12°C, best drunk within one to three years. Magnums of Cyrus One suit longer keeping and larger tables.

Store bottles on their side, away from light and temperature swings. Unfined, unfiltered wines may throw a light deposit with age, which is a sign of minimal handling rather than a fault.

The People Behind La Tour Melas

Sustainable and Ethical Practices at La Tour Melas

At La Tour Melas, organic and biodynamic farming was the founding method rather than a later conversion. The vineyard is managed as one living system, with animals, insects and cover doing work that would otherwise require intervention, and the surrounding oak forest left untouched.

The cellar carries the same logic. Gravity replaces pumping, fermentation runs on the yeasts that arrive with the fruit, and the grand vin goes into bottle without fining, without filtration and with total sulphites held below 100mg/L.

Their approach

An estate of roughly ten hectares at Achinos in Fthiotida, planted at around 10,000 vines per hectare on gravel over clay and limestone, farmed organically and biodynamically with sheep and geese grazing the rows in winter and bees kept for pollination, harvested entirely by hand and double sorted, then vinified in a four-level gravity-fed cellar built into the hillside in 2006 by a team led by oenologist Elsa Piccard with Panos Zoumboulis consulting and Eric Moro in the vines. Founder Kyros Melas set out to prove a point about what Greek soil could do, and the estate has kept the scale small enough that the point remains checkable bottle by bottle.

Learn more about La Tour Melas

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Award-Winning Wines from Achinos

The 2015 blind tasting in Athens, where the 2011 La Tour Melas placed first in a flight that included Lafleur, remains the estate’s best-known result, but the record has continued. At the 2026 London Wine Competition, Nautilus Drink Pink 2025 took Gold with 93 points and Idylle d’Achinos 2025 took Gold with 91 points, while Cyrus One 2023 took Silver with 88 points. James Suckling has scored Cyrus One 2019 at 94 points and Idylle d’Achinos 2021 at 91, and the wines are reviewed regularly by Jancis Robinson’s team, with recent Greek tastings placing the top cuvées in the mid-nineties.

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Frequently Asked Questions About La Tour Melas

  • What is La Tour Melas?

    A single-estate Greek winery near the village of Achinos in Fthiotida, central Greece, founded by Kyros Melas with vines first planted around 2000 and a purpose-built gravity-fed cellar completed in 2006. It produces red and rosé wines from roughly ten hectares.

  • Which grape varieties does the estate grow?

    Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot, brought from France when the vineyard was planted, alongside Agiorgitiko. Syrah and Grenache Rouge appear in the rosés. The grand vin is 60 per cent Cabernet Franc and 40 per cent Merlot.

  • What appellation are the wines bottled under?

    The estate wine carries PGI Fthiotida. Several cuvées, including Palies Rizes and some recent Cyrus One and rosé releases, are labelled under the broader Wine of Greece designation.

  • Is the vineyard organic?

    The estate farms organically and biodynamically, treating the vineyard as a single organism. Sheep and geese graze the rows in winter, bees are kept for pollination, and vineyard and cellar work follows the astronomical calendar.

  • What is Palies Rizes?

    The estate’s old-vine cuvée, made from ungrafted Agiorgitiko vines more than a century old, first released from the 2013 vintage and produced in runs of roughly 1,800 bottles. Its name means old roots, and it also appears as Vieilles Vignes or Franc de Pieds.

  • How should the wines be served?

    The reds at 16 to 18°C, with an hour of air for young vintages of the grand vin. Idylle d’Achinos at 9 to 12°C, best within one to three years of the vintage.

  • Why are quantities so small?

    The estate covers around ten hectares planted at high density, and the wines are made parcel by parcel. The 2020 grand vin ran to 4,800 bottles and 180 magnums, and the old-vine cuvée to roughly 1,800 bottles.

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