Maltby & Greek launches first own-label range

Maltby & Greek is about to release its first own-label range “to address a gap in the market for entry-level, quality Greek wines”. Sarah Neish find out why the launch is a brave move, but one that might just pay off.

“In general, Greece isn’t suited to making entry-level wines because the topography of the landscape means growers can’t use machinery, making it virtually impossible to have industrial-level production,” Stef Kokotos, co-founder of specialist wine importer Maltby & Greek told the drinks business in an exclusive interview yesterday.

If anyone is capable of cracking the entry-level conundrum, it’s Kokotos and his business partner Yannos Hadjiioannou, who have made it their mission to bring the wines of more than 30 producers spanning every inch of Greece’s territory to the UK. Crucially, the pair also worked with supermarket Aldi during the Covid-19 pandemic to launch its successful Assyrtiko, which at one point was priced at £9.99, meaning the duo has some experience with sourcing highly drinkable Greek wine, even at the lower end of the price spectrum.

In part, the new range is an education piece, a bid to introduce more consumers to the extraordinary varieties and terroir of one of the world’s most ancient winemaking countries. The idea, explained Kokotos, is to offer “affordable, approachable, classic expressions of the three best-known Greek varieties.”

Three Bowls

Intriguingly called ‘Three Bowls’, the range includes a white (Assyrtiko), a red (Xinomavro) and a rosé (Assyrtiko/Xinomavro blend), sporting retail prices of £15, £16 and £14, respectively. The Assyrtiko hails from PGI Peloponnese, while the latter two are from Naoussa.

And the range is about as new as it gets. “The whites arrived last week, and the reds are still in transit!” revealed Kokotos.

Now, back to that name. It transpires that it nods to an ancient Greek poem, which waxes lyrical about the progressive effects of drinking ‘three bowls’ of wine on the human psyche, through “health, love and pleasure, and finally, to sleep”. In actual fact, the poem’s protagonist impressively works their way through a whopping ten bowls of wine but it’s perhaps sensible to avoid suggesting such excesses in the current climate. However, it does leave the door open to expanding the range in the future. Laughing, Kokotos said: “You never know.”

Maltby & Greek have managed the entire process of their own-label range. “We’ve done the bottling, the wholesaling the distribution, the whole shebang.”

Naturally lower in alcohol

A further string to the range’s bouzouki is that the ABV of the three wines ranges from just 12.5% to 13.5%, with each bottle ticking the holy grail of offering freshness, naturally moderate alcohol and affordability.

“The two biggest things that set Greece apart from other winemaking regions is its enormous number of indigenous varieties, and the fact that its wines are naturally lower in alcohol,” Willie Lebus, former director of Bibendum Wine, who now consults for Maltby & Greek, told db.

The Assyrtiko vines used for the Three Bowls white are both high-altitude and north-facing, which, says Kokotos, contributes “some minerality and salinity from the sea breeze blowing in from the Gulf of Corinth.” Indeed, altitude is a common factor in today’s Greek wines generally, with producers increasingly making use of the Alps, which run right down the middle of mainland Greece, with peaks reaching up to 1000 metres.

As for the Xinomavro, Kokotos pins the red as being “like a Pinot Noir/Nebbiolo cross” from its light colour and angular tannins to its “red-fruited aromas and classic notes of olive and sun-dried tomato alongside gentle spice.”

Finally, the rosé is a far paler version than traditional Greek pinks in a bid to attract, says Lebus, the “Mykonos-loving set”, and boasts bright herbal and floral nuances, a pronounced raspberry character and a dry, refreshing finish, showing the interplay of two of the country’s flagship varieties.

Own-label bright spot

As db reported, own-label wines were a bright spot in the recent US-focused Silicon Valley Bank’s annual wine report, with author Rob McMillan maintaining that private label “is a positive form of discounting that attracts new value-seeking consumers, and protects existing brand value.”

And it’s a trend that extends across the pond, with UK retailers increasingly upping their focus on own-label, and refreshing their ranges in a bid to satisfy consumers with lower budgets. Waitrose, for example, decided to beef up its own-label range last year after seeing a 71% uplift in just three months, with trading manager Nicola Jones telling db that getting behind its own wine brand had been “a priority for the total business”, as the retailer wants to be known for having the best own-label range across food and drink.

“We want it to be the best in terms of grocery retail, or in terms of specialist retail in the UK,” she said.

Champagne, too, has seen an own-label resurgence in the UK market. In the 2024 calendar year, own-label Champagne held a 26% share of the UK off-trade by volume and 19.2% by value, with volume growth in that year of 26.6%, and value growth up 11.4%. Recent Nielsen figures for the off-trade (MAT to 6 September 2025) show own-label volume share has grown to 32.6%, while it has a 22% value share.

Nielsen valued the total off-trade Champagne market at £342 million.

Entry-level Greek wine may well be a mythical creature, but Maltby & Greek could be the importer to tame it.