Tasting Metaxa with the Master

Tasting Metaxa with the Master: Travel Distilled enjoys a tutored tasting of Metaxa in Athens with the Metaxa Master, Costas Raptis, only the 5th Metaxa Master since the founding of the company in 1888.

“If you’ve ever done a tasting with the actual creator of a spirit, wine, or beer, than you’ll know what an education it is.”

Costas Raptis, Metaxa Master, sampling Metaxa at the distillery in Athens — Costas Raptis, Metaxa Master
Photo Courtesy of Metaxa

This Metaxa Tasting came at the end of my tour of the Metaxa distillery, which you can read about here.

After the tour we were privileged to enjoy a Metaxa tasting with the Metaxa Master himself, Costas Raptis. If you’ve ever done a tasting with the actual creator of a spirit, wine, or beer, than you’ll know what an education it is.

Costas Raptis and Mike Gerrard of Travel Distilled in front of Metaxa's Number One barrel at their distillery cellar in Athens, Greece — Travel Distilled Meets Costas Raptis

The first thing to know is what the different Metaxa star ratings mean. Whether it’s 5-Star, 7-Star, or 12-Star, the number refers to the minimum years the spirit has spent in the barrel. So, 5-Star Metaxa has been aged for a minimum of five years.

It isn’t necessarily a reflection of quality, though of course the older Metaxas will have more complex flavours. And as Vasilis Kyritsis had told me when I visited his bar The Clumsies, the different types of Metaxa serve different purposes whether used in cocktails or enjoyed neat.

Tasting Metaxa

Metaxa 5-Star

We first taste the Metaxa 5-Star, and Costas guides us through it. On the nose it displays orange, lemon, flowers, honey, oak, and a touch of violette, while on the palate it’s smooth, fruity, floral, and with a taste of honey. It’s followed by an aftertaste of orange, and Costas recommends you enjoy it on its own over ice as an aperitif.

Metaxa 7-Star

The 7-Star, Costas tells us, has some muscat from Lemnos as well as from Samos. On the nose we’re looking for mature fruits, peaches, apricots, raisins, toasted oak, and orange peel. Sipping it, it’s smoother than the 5-Star with flavours such as apricots, the tastes from the oak barrel, prune, and carob. Costas’s recommended serve here is the same as for the 5-Star Metaxa, on the rocks as an aperitif.

Metaxa 12-Star

Costas says that this is his own creation, from 2011. For this one he used more heavily-toasted oak barrels than usual, and used muscat from higher altitudes for a more concentrated flavour. On the nose there are even more complex aromas of candied and dried fruit, fig, honey, chocolate, coffee, and orange peel, while the taste is strongly of orange peel and black raisins. Costas tells us this is a versatile spirit, which can be enjoyed as a digestif, in cocktails, or as a long drink.

Read my review of the latest expression of 12-Star Metaxa here.

Angels’ Treasure

Next we come to Costas’s latest creation, from 2016, Angels’ Treasure.

‘It got its name because here we have the opposite of the angels’ share. In our cellars we find it’s not so humid, it’s dry, even though the cellars are 700 meters [2300 feet] below the ground. Because of this the water tries to go through the staves to replace the humidity, which increases the alcohol and enriches the flavour. So they call this the angels’ treasure. It’s what the angels leave for us to enjoy.’

It is in fact only slightly stronger than regular Metaxa, at 41% ABV compared to 40% for the 7-Star and 39% for the 5-Star. It is, however, wonderfully complex. On the nose Costas tells us to look for ‘orange peel, dried fruits, sweet spices, an explosion of spices, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, and vanilla bean.

‘In the mouth,’ says Costas, waxing lyrical, ‘you feel you are eating all those spices, and wild bee honey, the honey you have to search to find, made in trees by wild bees. This one is only for savouring as a digestif after a very nice meal.’

Metaxa's Number One barrel at their distillery cellar in Athens, Greece — Barrel Number One

AEN

For the finale Costas offers us a taste of a very special Metaxa, AEN.

‘The name means forever,’ Costas explains. ‘And we have no bottles left to sell. It’s not a style, it’s a collector’s bottle. It has Metaxa’s history in this bottle as it comes from Barrel 1, which was from the original Piraeus distillery. It consists of more than 200 blends aged for 80 years and was made to celebrate 120 years of the house of Metaxa. It’s 45.3% alcohol, and I won’t say a thing about the nose or the taste because each person will find his or her history in here. It’s a spirit from another world.’

If Angels’ Treasure was a superb spirit, then AEN is spectacular. It seems to have everything from all the Metaxas we’ve tasted so far, and then some, all contained in one small glass.

Now we’ve finished our tour of the Metaxa distillery, Costas leaves us with one reminder.

‘There’s no such thing as a bad year for Metaxa because we are blending from all the years. Every year is a good year!’