SAMOS 2026 VINTAGE THE YEAR OF THE WIND

Technical & Viticultural Vintage Report from Samos

THE CLIMATIC IDENTITY

The 2026 vintage in Samos will be remembered as the Year of Aeolus.

If 2025 was the year of water, held deep within the rock, 2026 was the year of the wind that never stopped blowing. An unusually warm winter marked by torrential rainfall, a cold and unsettled spring, and a summer in which the meltemi winds took the place of the heatwaves that had dominated previous years. The quality of the wines was not determined by heat. It was shaped by the balance between the water stored in February and the wind that swept through, dried and cooled the vineyards from June until harvest.

This was not a year of exuberant fruit. Rather, it was a year of clarity and tension.

Without doubt, it was the Year of the Wind.

WINTER: THE DELUGE

November 2025 – February 2026

As in the previous year, 2026 began below the surface — but with considerably greater intensity. My records show 18 successive weather systems bringing unsettled conditions from early November 2025 through to late February 2026. This was one of the wettest winters in Greece in recent decades, while unusually high temperatures persisted throughout. February, in particular, was warmer than average, dominated by powerful southerly winds, very low atmospheric pressure and torrential rainfall events.

For the schist and granite bedrock of Mount Karvounis, this meant a second consecutive year of deep replenishment. The fractures and veins within the rock filled with water once again, this time almost to capacity.

This year, the question was no longer whether the vines would have access to water, but how they would manage such abundance after a winter that had never turned cold.

SPRING: THE COLD BRAKE

March – May

Spring interrupted the winter warmth. March proved colder than average, with cold air masses moving south toward the Aegean mid-month.

April followed a similar pattern, bringing an extreme rainfall event and an exceptionally stormy first week. What followed was a period of very low temperatures and dry air, giving us the time and the ideal conditions to carry out pruning.

Two consecutive cold months, after an unusually warm winter, slowed the vine's early awakening. African dust returned in successive waves while we were pruning, between 14 and 17 April. However, strong north-easterly winds and rainfall soon cleared the atmosphere.

The same pattern continued into May, when cold northerly winds pushed temperatures down to around 18°C.

SUMMER: THE MELTEMI AND MODERATE HEAT

June – August

Although the summer of 2026 was recorded as one of the hottest in Greece, with August ranking as the third warmest month in the past 65 years, the defining characteristic of the vintage in Samos was not temperature. It was the wind.

The Delayed Heat

June remained close to seasonal averages in Greece, while Western Europe experienced its hottest June on record. The first 40°C reading in Greece was not recorded until 18 July. The brief heatwave of 18–22 July pushed temperatures above 43°C on the mainland. In our vineyards in Samos, however, I recorded the highest temperature of the entire growing season at just 30.7°C on 20 July—significantly lower than in 2025.

The Meltemi

During the summer of 2026, I recorded 56 days of strong meltemi winds across the Aegean. The wind blew with considerable intensity for 18 consecutive days, marking one of the most notable episodes of recent years.

For the vineyards, this had two opposing effects.

The wind cooled the nights and the foliage, kept the grape clusters dry and limited the development of powdery mildew.

At the same time, it increased transpiration and water loss. Here, the reserves accumulated in the bedrock during February became the counterbalance.

Viticultural Intervention

This year, the challenge was not to protect the vines from excessive heat, but to maintain healthy, active foliage throughout a summer when persistent wind was already slowing photosynthesis and damaging shoots and leaves.

We applied zeolite and horsetail extract (Equisetum), with the goal to strengthen the cellular structure of the vine's epidermal tissues and create a fine mineral coating over the leaves and grape clusters. The treatment and the wind worked remarkably well together, bringing the powdery mildew pressure under control. As in 2025, yarrow played a role in regulating potassium and sulphur uptake and helped the vines maintain a balanced sap flow, preserving the grapes' natural acidity.

Harvest

Harvest ended under the influence of the same protagonist, the wind!

On 5 September, the meltemi strengthened once again, temperatures dropped, and sugar accumulation almost came to a standstill. We began harvesting in the lower-altitude vineyards and finished at 1,000 metres on 16 September, with rain threatening us; hopefully, we completed the harvest just one day before it arrived.

Rainfall resumed after harvest and continued into November.

On 2 November 2026, the Samos weather station recorded 133.2 mm of rainfall in a single day, placing the island among the areas with the highest rainfall totals in Greece.

The replenishment of water reserves for 2027 has already begun.

THE 2026 VINTAGE PROFILE

Summer 2026 kept sugar levels relatively low.

At altitudes of 550–1,000 metres, where our vineyards are located, moderate temperatures, cool nights and the almost continuous presence of the meltemi slowed sugar accumulation.

Phenolic ripeness, however, was fully achieved. The skins and aromatic compounds were given the time they needed to develop.

The wind slowed sugar accumulation, not the passage of time.

In warmer vintages, sugar accumulation tends to run ahead of phenolic maturity. In 2026, the opposite occurred.

These grapes carry within them the water of a winter of deluge, the intensity of a cold spring and the clarity of a summer constantly swept by the meltemi.

I expect the wines to be open and precise, with a linear structure, vibrant acidity and an unmistakable sense of freshness.

This is the Year of the Wind.