Why it matters
The producer
Moschopolis is a family winery in northern Greece founded by Dr. Giorgos Germanis, a soil chemist with more than 30 years in viticulture and winemaking. Before starting the estate, Germanis spent 15 years as scientific adviser to a large Greek winery and then worked with selected wineries around the country. That background shows in wines built from named grape varieties and deliberate cellar choices rather than from a single formula: Assyrtiko meets Xinomavro in the white, while red bottlings bring Xinomavro, Mavrotragano and Syrah together.
Theodoros Germanis is named as owner, and the winery describes three generations of family winegrowing. Its starting point was not an empty building but an organic family vineyard already in production, so the 2016 winery could work with fruit from a site the family had farmed since 2001.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Monopigado lies in the Thessaloniki district of Makedonien, with the family vineyard at roughly 500 metres and facing Mount Olympus across the Thermaic Gulf. That elevated setting matters most in the glass through freshness: Moschópolis 6 retains citrus-led acidity despite its lees and barrel ageing, while the red blends can carry ripe cherry and plum fruit without becoming heavy.
The estate works mainly with privately owned vineyards and also manages collaborations closely. This allows Moschopolis to use local grapes such as Assyrtiko, Xinomavro, Mavrotragano and Malagousia alongside Syrah and Pinot Noir, giving the range both northern Greek character and several different bottle shapes.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
Organic regenerative farming, manual vineyard work and sheep grazing are part of Moschopolis’s stated approach. In practical wine terms, the aim is healthy fruit picked with enough freshness to support low-intervention handling. Native or wild yeasts ferment several wines, bottling is often unfiltered, and additions are kept low; these choices retain texture and aromatic detail but can leave the wines less smoothed by processing.
The cellar changes its vessels to suit the bottle. Moschópolis 6 spends six months on fine lees in new and second-use oak barriques, which adds body, a lightly smoky note and an oily feel to Assyrtiko’s citrus core. Aióra Red avoids barrique character by spending more than four months in clay amphorae from Crete, keeping its cherry fruit and silky tannin in the foreground. Moschópolis 18 matures in used oak, where the wood supports Mavrotragano and Syrah without dominating their fruit.
Wines to know
The range in view
The Moschopolis range is arranged by colour, grape mix and vessel rather than by a simple ladder of labels. Moschópolis 6 is the white: 90% Assyrtiko with 10% Xinomavro, using oak and lees to give a dry, full-bodied texture. Moschópolis 8 takes Xinomavro and Syrah into rosé territory, while the Aióra wines explore amphora maturation.
Aióra Red is a blend of 40% Xinomavro, 35% Mavrotragano and 25% Syrah. Its clay-amphora ageing leaves it fruity and moderate in body, with balanced acidity and soft, silky tannin rather than an oak-driven profile. Moschópolis 18 is a Mavrotragano-Syrah red from dry-farmed private vineyards, fermented with spontaneous yeast and raised for 18 months in used oak. Its published variety percentages conflict on the producer’s page, so the blend is best understood without a numerical split.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Start with Moschópolis 6 Assyrtiko-Xinomavro. It brings together a northern Greek site, a native-white-led blend and the cellar’s use of wild yeast, fine lees, oak and unfiltered bottling. The wine is dry and full in texture, with citrus, pear, melon and lemon flower before honey and smoke appear. Its refreshing acidity carries the oily mid-palate into a long, stony finish, showing how a white can take barrel ageing without losing its fruit or lift.