Comments on: The Greek Le Pin – Harvest and winemaking at the Kokkalis Estate

By: Cleaning Oven

Cleaning Oven — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 20:41:24 +0000

There is nothing like going to learn how to make wine. A friend of mine bought a small winery in Napa a couple of years ago and I have had the great pleasure of being able to spend a week up there learning the trade. There is really nothing like it. Whether you are a fan of French, Italian, California….it doesn’t matter in my opinion. The process is magical and one of the best things I have ever done. And just think, when I go back next year I am going to have a bottle of wine that i get to drink that I hand my hands on.

By: Networking at ProWein | ELLOINOS

Networking at ProWein | ELLOINOS — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 16:28:23 +0000

[...] Monday I met with my good friend, the Greek winemaker Christos Kokkalis. Although he had not visited ProWein in seven years, his popularity in Germany continues unabated. [...]

By: antonios askitis

antonios askitis — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 03:20:39 +0000

i just want to say, that sure there were many good wines made from international grapes in greece. but the important thing is to place domestik grapes in the wine markets of the world. i think that this is the real strength of a wineproducing country. you can find f.ex. syrah in almost all qualities and almost to every pricen in the world,,,,,but xinomavro is only to find in the northan part of GREECE. it is very good that in almost all OPAP-areas are only 100% domestic grapes aloud, not yet but in the future,when greek wine enter the europe market as deserved.
p.s. i like the wines from christos very much. he produce wine in a very high european level….

By: Open letter to Greek wineries | ELLOINOS

Open letter to Greek wineries | ELLOINOS — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:47:31 +0000

[...] dear friend, the winemaker Christos Kokkalis took another, more radical approach: He lives in a small village and was obviously fed up with the [...]

By: Markus Stolz live on Greek radio | ELLOINOS

Markus Stolz live on Greek radio | ELLOINOS — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:42:33 +0000

[...] wine cellar that I received from Christos earlier in the year as a thank you for helping out at the harvest. He sells pretty much all of his production abroad, and I knew that the Syrah was not available in [...]

By: Yiannis Papadakis

Yiannis Papadakis — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:39:47 +0000

Thanks for your reply. I red the full article and watched the video, so do not feel sorry, I was not destracted from the essence of the story. I share your opinion that C. Kokkalis is among the very best Greek producers, one of the very few who excell with international red grape varieties. More than this I appreciate his low profile and dedication to what he does. These attributes are, I believe, rare among Greek wine-makers.
As a wine lover I would also like to congratulate you for your blog.
If you wish to read my wine-tasting notes, please visit cellartracker.com: my user name is Yiannis.

By: elloinos

elloinos — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:37:14 +0000

Yianni, thanks for your comment. I agree with you that French wines are top notch quality at the high end, although prices certainly also reflect this. I did not want to make this a story about French wines, the quotation you refer to was only meant as an introduction to Kokkalis for those that are not familiar with him. I am sorry if this destracted from the real story about helping there at the harvest.

By: Yiannis Papadakis

Yiannis Papadakis — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:41:54 +0000

While I have no doubt that Christos Kokkalis is a great producer, I get sick everytime I read here and there that producer X’s or region Y’s wines “beat the French Grand Cru in blind tastings”. The reason is simple: French wines have supposedly been beaten by Californians in the Judgment of Paris, by Chileans in the Tokyo tasting and by I don’t no whom in I don’t no which tasting, yet they still remain the reference point by which everybody wishes (or hopes) to compare his own wines. This fact, declares by itself that, for the true wine lover, they still remain unbeatable.
Don’t misunderstand me: I have no prejudice against wines from anywhere in the world, and more than 60% of my bottles are non-French. I have often disagreed with fanatic Francophiles when they reject a wine simply because it is originated from the new world for example. However, at the high-end of the quality spectrum, the wines from France are still one (or several?) step(s) ahead, and this is proven by the fact that as I mentioned before, they are the ones by which most (if not all) ambitious winemakers wish to compare their wines.