Iliana Malihin Lefkos - White Blend 2022

Iliana Malíhin was an oenology student at university in Athens, researching vidiano, the white-wine grape of her ancestral home island of Crete. By isolating and demonstrating the potential of vidiano’s native yeasts, she is now turning out some of the island’s best examples. She works in the southern hills of Rethymno, a rugged, windy area halfway between Iraklion and Chania that once boasted 170 acres of vines, but has since retreated to 25. She’s gained access to nearly half of those remaining parcels, some more than a century old, and farms everything organically.

Starting with an original group of five, Iliana now oversees more than thirty local growers across 10ha who work organically and to her exact specifications. At her  cellar in Melambes, established in 2019, Iliana draws on techniques such as skin contact, extended lees ageing, and elevage using different vessels to craft distinct expressions of Vidiano that crackle with energy and tension. Working with stainless steel and ambient yeasts, she’s producing wines that feel as wild as the land they come from, with notes of fennel and sea salt, sun-baked fruit and stone.

Malíhin and her vineyard collaborators went through a living nightmare, when 300 acres of old pre-phylloxera Vidiano vineyards in Melampes, went up in flames in July of 2022, due to an uncontrollable 4-day-long ravaging wildfire. The consequence of the vast damage of the fire are endless and still being assessed. For 2022 there are three wines produced from vidiano, thrapsathiri and liatiko. We look forward to a ‘rebirth from the ashes’ and the results of the wider influence of Malihín on the vineyards of Crete.