Lyrarakis Wines Liatiko Red 2022 Crete

Lyrarakis Wines established by Manolis Lyrarakis and his brother Sotiris in 1962, they are widely acclaimed to have spearheaded the modern Cretan wine industry. Championing the old Cretan varietals which had been all but wiped out by Phylloxera, which struck here in the 1970’s, like Dafni, sample of which have been found in Minoan wine vessels. The Lyrarakis winery is now in the hands of brothers Manolis and Sotiris Lyrarakis, with 15 hectares of vineyards on limestone/gravel in the mountainous region to the south of Heraklion also working closely with several growers to produce a fascinating range of wines.

Lyrarakis’ vibrant fresh, herbal, red and blackberry fruited, dry red Liatiko, this grape is often used for dessert wine production too, comes from north facing wines planted at altitude, 580-800m, in Rethymno, central Crete and Sitia in the east. With a maceration of just three days for colour extraction, never a deep coloured grape in the glass its pale garnet but offering a lovely fresh fruited soft tannin-ed mouthful, serve room temperature or chilled.