My first major task as a budding wine consultant in Chicago, at the tender age of 24, was to order and stock the store’s section that happened to include the wines of Greece. It was a slow-moving section as wines with names like Alexakis, Kir-Yianni and Douloufakis and wines made from names like Kotsifali, Xinomavro and Vidiano were pretty intimidating. Thirsty to know more about these intriguing curiosities I could not yet properly pronounce, I grabbed one of every Greek wine we had, not so hard even on a young’un’s budget because, as I would come to learn and appreciate, Greece generally offers exceptional value. As soon as I got home—after nearly dropping all the wine while skidding over a patch of black ice—I opened the first white I grabbed, the Skouras Moscofilero. No sooner had I removed the cork than a heady whiff of jasmine, orange blossom, rose petal and cardamom shot out of the bottle. The initial taste sent a wave of white peach, crunchy melon rind and tangerine crashing over my palate, leaving floral essences and sultry spices lingering in its wake. Further sips brought forth herbal nuances and streams of salinity punctuated by zaps of electric acidity. My eyes widened. My nostrils flared. What. Is. This. MAGIC???
Although I have uncovered many of its mysteries over more than a decade, I remain enchanted, as Skouras’ Moscofilero has proven to be stellar every vintage. The wonderful wizard behind this is George Skouras, an intense yet cheerful and charming gentleman who returned to his home country in the early 1980s armed with an oenology degree from Dijon, France and a steadfast passion for revitalizing Greek winemaking. Centuries of heavily restrictive Ottoman governance flattened the landscape of a wine culture that had enjoyed prestige since the ages of antiquity. Even after independence in the early 1800s, Greece struggled like vines in a draught to rebuild its wine industry, eventually conceding most of it to bulk production. Only after Skouras and fellow celebrated pioneers like Yiannis Tselepos and Evangelos Gerovassiliou came home from France with fresh knowledge and visions did real buds finally start to break. Skouras’ own big break came in 1986 with Megas Oenos, his estate’s first wine and still its reference red, a powerful blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and native Agiorgitiko that helped redefine what the Peloponnese could be in the modern era.
Moscofilero (mos-koh-FEE-leh-ro) is the white Skouras is most known and respected for, firmly rooted in the cool, sandy plateau of Mantinia that rises over 2,000 feet above sea level in Arcadia, roughly two hours southwest of Athens. The vividly pink-purple skins of the grape are a sight to behold and also where the strongest fragrance and flavor lie; Skouras cool-ferments his in stainless steel with four hours of skin contact, just long enough to delicately coax out the phenolics without tipping into bitterness. You may well know by now that we at PRIMA love our crisp, high-altitude whites, and this is a truly lovely expression of Mantinia’s signature variety: sweetly floral but bone-dry and incredibly refreshing, clean and precise—and a quaffable 12% to boot!
At the table, treat this as you would a great Albariño or Kerner. Moscofilero loves simply prepared seafood like grilled shrimp with olive oil and lemon, cod roasted with fennel and lemon or crispy calamari finished with fresh lemon (sensing a theme here …), but also raw and cured preps such as scallop crudo, shiso-laced hamachi sashimi and snapper ceviche. It works beautifully with bright herbs and green vegetables—think zucchini-dill fritters or a spring pea and asparagus salad with shreds of mint. Or watch it vanish served solo, even if you’re going solo.
– Tadd Tanji, Co-Coordinator, Il Consorzio di PRIMA (2/16/2026)
