Wine & Spirits - Winter 2020 - 57

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Top 100 Wineries

Domaine Sigalas

Disznókó

GREECE | SANTORINI
Paris Sigalas takes a terroir-driven approach to Santorini,
bottling village wines that pair power with personality.

HUNGARY | TOKAJ
Disznókó's long-lived wines strike a balance between sweetness
and elegance that makes them especially enjoyable.

PARIS
SIGALAS

A FEW YEARS AGO, PARIS SIGALAS added a chic
wine bar to his cellars on the quiet northeastern
end of the island. Here he shows off Santorini's
specialties, like fava, a silky dip made of an indigenous legume he grows nearby, and fritters made
of the sort of tomatoes that once supported
an industry on the island. There are tannic red
wines made from mavrotragano, a grape Sigalas has brought back from near extinction, and
sweet wine made from sun-dried grapes, a nearforgotten island tradition. Sigalas takes even
common things and reveals new facets, as in 7
Villages, a series of assyrtiko wines from seven
villages, each treated identically (neutral yeasts,
stainless steel tanks, 12 months on lees). For the
second year running, these bottlings have stolen
the show in our tastings-not because they are
showy, but because they are so clear and compelling in their unique personalities. If you can't
locate them, look for his basic Santorini: The
2019 gives a composite view of the island, the
sand, sun and salt carried on a smooth, round
texture that's a Sigalas hallmark. -T.Q.T.

LÁSZLÓ
MÉSZÁROS

LÁSZLÓ MÉSZÁROS JOINED DISZNÓKÓ IN 1995, just
a few years after AXA Millésimes purchased the
estate. Since then, he's been working to rejuvenate the vineyards, moving them from the Communist-era high trellises and wide rows to dense
plantings based on massal selections from old
parcels. The effort is not so much about gaining
concentration in the wines as it is about growing wines that better express the complex terroir
of Tokaj, a region shaped by hundreds of extinct
volcanoes. Mészáros pursues the clarity of that
expression in wines such as his Late Harvest, a
stainless-steel fermented wine he created as an
alternative to an Edes Szamarodnyi, a traditional
style made with extensive barrel aging. It's also
captured in Kapi, his only single-parcel wine. He
isolated it not because it makes the ripest wine
on the 284-acre estate but because it has such
a distinct personality. "It may be less aromatic,
less concentrated [than wine from other parcels]," he says, "but it has elegance." -T.Q.T.

2015 Tokaji Aszú 6 Puttonyos Kapi ($160/500ml,
95 points) A warm, sunny patch of light clay soils
studded with small volcanic pebbles and some limestone, this parcel stands out to Mészáros for its balance. "It usually gets botrytis later than other parcels," he says, "and the pH (of the wine) is always
low, maybe due to the higher magnesium content
of the soils." In 2015, the hot summer followed by a
long, warm autumn produced a gorgeous wine, more
intense than directly sweet. The acidity seems to render the sugar content weightless, the wine lasting
with notes of honey, candied citrus and complex minerality. (4,991 bottles produced.)

2018 Santorini 7 Villages Ia ($80, 95 points)
This comes from Ia (often spelled Oia), the windwhipped village at the top end of the crescent-shaped
island. In the warm, dry 2018 vintage, it's an intense
mouthful of sun and stone at ﬁrst, but then savory,
citrusy ﬂavors take over, light and as mouthﬁlling as
lemon meringue. The ripeness of the fruit reads in
the wine's steadfast presence rather than in overt
power, its restraint bordering on delicacy.
FOUNDED:

1991
OWNERS:

Kir-Yianni Estate,
Paris Sigalas,
Stratos Xiraﬁs,
Kostas Telis
WINEMAKER/
VITICULTURIST:

Paris Sigalas

2018 Santorini 7 Villages Megalochori ($80, 94
points) From warm, low-lying vineyards at the southern end of the island, Megalochori gives one of the
meatiest, darkest-toned wines in the 7 Villages collection. This vintage is smoky and earthy, with a scent
that recalls sun on black sand; the fruit ﬂavors are
quiet and intriguing, like salted plums. If you open
this now, give it a decant and serve it with something
grilled, whether ﬁsh or meat.

ANNUAL
PRODUCTION:

20,000 cases
ESTATE GROWN:

40%
IMPORTER:

Diamond
Importers,
Chicago, IL

1992
OWNER:

AXA Millésimes
WINEMAKER:

László Mészáros
VITICULTURIST:

Péter Vajda

ACRES OWNED:

FOUNDED:

2018 Santorini 7 Villages Vourvoulos ($80, 94
points) Vourvoulos, a warm spot north and inland
from the port town of Fira, often produces one of
Sigalas's most powerful Santorinis, and the 2018
is no exception. Hidden behind a screen of smoky
reduction, the wine opens to blue-sky ﬂavors of sunny
lemon and blinding chalk. It settles into a salty Meyer
lemon succor-bright but not screaming, almost elegant for Santorini, and it should become even more
so with more time in the bottle.

ACRES OWNED:

284

2017 Tokaji Late Harvest ($20/500ml, 94 points)
"2017 was one of best vintages in Tokaj, for sweet
and dry wines," Mészáros says. After a moderate summer and light September rains, the grapes
reached impressive levels of ripeness and clean
botrytis while retaining acidity. A blend of fruit from
across the estate, fermented almost entirely in stainless steel ("maybe ﬁve percent barrel fermented
because it was slightly richer than usual," Mészáros
says), the 2017 Late Harvest is particularly spectacular at the price, smoky and spicy, with golden-fruit ﬂavors and a velvety, mouthﬁlling texture.

ANNUAL
PRODUCTION:

25,000 cases
ESTATE GROWN:

100%
IMPORTER:

Monsieur Touton
Selection, NY

2013 Tokaji Aszú 5 Puttonyos ($50/500ml, 93
points) A long, warm autumn produced this spicy,
concentrated aszú. The wine has aged into a warm
wash of golden-honey ﬂavor, with notes of spice cookies and lavender that deepen into butterscotch and
toasted bread. It's dessert in itself, or a pairing for a
pound cake.
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