On Saturday, 28th March, I drove to Christos Kokkalis on a mission: He wants to plant new vines at two new plots at his vineyard. I arrived in the evening and we went out for a good meal, we brought along a bottle of his 2006 Syrah. We had a nice medium rare fillet – [...]
The 25th March is a public holiday in Greece, and I was very pleased to welcome Antonis Papantonis from the boutique winery Papantonis at my house. The estate’s red wine is made from 100% Agiorgitiko and is not easy to find, as a large percentage of the production is sold to private clients. The wine [...]
Apostolos Thimiopoulos was in Athens on the 20th March. He flew in from Thessaloniki and had a meeting with US wine importers at the Grande Bretagne Hotel in Athens. I picked him up later in the day in Kifissia and we drove to my home. I prepared some stuffed lemons and we also enjoyed some [...]
On the 7th March I visited the Oenos exhibition, part of the Detrop 2009 in Thessaloniki. About 20 wineries showed their wines to the public. The event was very well organised, and the hall was very spacious. Every winery had large stands, and there were also a number of wine book and wine magazine publishers. [...]
On the 6th March I met Christos Kokkalis first for a coffee, then for a 5 hour lunch at the Grada Nuevo restaurant in Thessaloniki. The restaurant has its own wine cellar and the wine list has a great selection. The owner brought us small plates of different food, everything was extremly delicious. We did [...]
On the evening of 5th of March I had the pleasure of attending a wine dinner at the ArtO2 Ristorarte Teloglion in Thessaloniki. I was very much looking forward to this occasion, as Christos Kokkalis and Apostolos Thimiopoulos were organising the event. In total we were 10 people. Christos had some Greek friends visiting from [...]
On the 5th March I visited Claudia Papayianni and her father at her estate in Arnea, Chalkidiki. Claudia’s mother is German, her father is Greek. She started to create a 25-hectare vineyard at an altitude of 650 m in 2003. She organically grows Malagousia, Assyrtico, Xinomavro and other regional varieties. At the end of 2006 [...]
On the 4th March I had an appointment to meet Apostolis Thimiopoulos at his family’s estate in Trilofo, about 15km south of Naoussa. I arrived a bit early and was greeted by his father, who took me straight into the family’s house where his wife prepared home made food. While we dipped our forks into [...]
Apostolos Thimiopoulos arranged for a visit at his friend Yiannis Dalamara in Naoussa. The Dalamara family has been involved in wine production since the 1840s. The winery today is still family-run and the production is totally organic. Yiannis and his wife Katerina, together with their son, live and breath their work in the vineyards. They [...]
