Viticulture area:8.700 hectares Wine production: 424.000 hectoliters Thessalía is bordered by Makedonía in the north, Epirus in the west, Central Greece in the south and the northern Aegean in the east. In its southern-central area, an important granary since ancient times, the region is dominated by flat plains. Northeastern Thessalía is bisected by a range of peaks, beginning with Mount Olympos, that rise in the north beside the Thermaic Gulf and dissipate towards the southeast, culminating in Mount Pilio in Magnisia. View from above Kraniá Rapsani Much of the region's most important wine production is undertaken in the shadow of one of these peaks, Kato Olympos (lower Olympus) in the Rapsani appellation district of the Larissa area. This appellation is one of the smallest in Greece, geographically, comprised by the villages of Rapsani, Kraniá, Piryetós, and Ambelákia. The appellation is for red wines only, calling for a blend of Xynómavro, Stavrotó and Krasáto with no specified percentages. Vineyards are located at elevations between 400 and 700 meters. Tsantalis, which opened a winery in Rapsani in the early 1990s, has replaced the local cooperative as chief producer in the region. They produce a Rapsani OPAP consisting of 33% of each variety. Their arrival in Rapsani more-or-less coincided with an attempt to reposition themselves in the premium market. As a result, their Olympos Rapsani displays every technical benefit of premium wine production, including eight days of skin contact, one year in 50% new/50% third-use Allier oak and year of bottle aging. They produce a limited-production reserve version made from selected, hand-picked fruit that spends an additional year in bottle. Perhaps the most respected Rapsani producer is Dr. Dimitris Katsarós. He opened his winery just above the village of Kraniá, high on the slopes of Kato Olympos, in 1978 with the ambitious goal of producing first-rate Bordeaux-style reds. His Cabernet and Merlot vines are at high elevation (around 700 meters) and have begun displaying the advantages of age. Dr. Katsarós, a successful ear, nose and throat doctor, is driven not by commercial objectives, but rather by the desire to produce wines that satisfy his personal taste and meet his own high standards. His gradual, but steady, self-edification as a winemaker has been rewarded by Greek consumers willing to pay premium prices for his low-yield, low-production wines. A firm devotee of organic farming, Katsarós believes in the primacy of vineyard management over all else in order to create a solid foundation for vinification. Patiently nudging his wines upward one vintage at a time, Katsarós has now achieved the kind of red wine that transcends its Greek origins. Having reached a level of comfort with his red, he planted Chardonnay in the mid-1990s. The nudging process is in full swing again, but his first attempts have already received critical acclaim in Greece. His immediate preoccupation is to round out the fruit of this already elegantly acidic Chardonnay. Tyrnavos Tyrnavos is just west of Rapsani, occupying moderate topography at 130 meters. This is an area which, in Ottoman times, was favored for grain production over vine cultivation. A dearth of respectable cultivars was exacerbated by the arrival of Phylloxera between the First and Second World Wars. What has survived in the way of tradition is an orientation towards dessert wines, clearly reflected in the preponderance of Moschato Amvourgou (red Muscat of Hamburg) in local vineyards. Batíki, Moschato Aspro, Roditis and post-phylloxera Savatianó comprise the balance of plantings, an aggregation that has not inspired the Greek Wine Institute to issue an appellation of origin. There are two producers of wine from Tyrnavos grapes, one being the local Tyrnavos Cooperative, makers of both dry and sweet Moschato Amvourgo as well as white wines and rosés. The only independent producer is Vasdavanos, near Larissa. Larissa The city of Larissa is just below of Tyrnavos in the northern plain area of Thessalia. Just outside the city, in Gianoúli, is the Vasdavanos Winery. They produce a dry white from Moschato, Batiki Roditis and Savatianó sourced from vineyards in Tyrnavos. Their red, Inothói, is made from locally-grown, low-elevation Agiorgitiko, Cabernet and Moschato Amvourgou. Lazaros and Pantelis Karipidis began making wine on a lark in Vounena, just a few kilometers west of Larissa, in 1985. Their orientation has been towards Western varieties such as Cabernet, Merlot, Syrah, Primitivo, Nebbiolo, Sangiovese and Sauvignon Blanc. Their winemaking has increased in sophistication over the years and they are now poised to enter the ranks of Greece's leading premium wine producers. Karditsa At the time Lambert-Gocs wrote The Wines of Greece, the Karditsa area, home to a wide constellation of grape-growing villages climbing from the plains at the town Karditsa itself upwards into Agrafa at the Pindos mountains, appeared to him a place of great—but unrealized—potential. The most important wine villages of Agrafa are Mesenikola, Moskhato, Morfovouni and Mitropoli...Their vineyards are primarily planted with wine grape varieties, including Savatianó in post-phylloxera times, but featuring the mavro mesenikóla (Mesenikola black), which will probably gain Karditsa—not Agrafa—an appellation of origin entitlement within a few years' time.[p. 153] Later, referring to the shortcomings of the local cooperative's 100% Mavro Mesenikóla wine, he writes, Plans call for deepening the color and raising extract content by deriving 10-12% of the must from either petite syrah or cabernet sauvignon, while also gaining an appellation of origin entitlement based on a like varietal formula[p.154]. The solution, implemented, finally, in 1994, did not likely surprise Mr. Lambert-Gocs. Even the failure of his prediction of a general Karditsa appellation was the result of policy better than he had been led to expect, reflecting a general commitment to quality in Greece that had only accelerated after his book was published. The appellation zone is small, comprising only the key villages of Mesenikola, Moskhato and Morfovouni. The ultimate varietal formula became 70% Mavro Mesenikóla and 30% Carignane and Syrah. The red varietal mix in the Karditsa-Agrafa area also includes Moschato Amvourgou, Senzó (Cinsault), and the traditional Balkan Sefka. Other mixed-use grapes include Batíki, Rozáki and Fráoula. The Karditsa Cooperative is still the only producer of wines in in the district. Anhialos The third of three Thessalian appellation zones, Anhialos occupies an area just west of Volos in Magnisia, the southernmost sub-region that practically surrounds the Pagasitikos Gulf. Due to the low elevation of its vineyards and their proximity to the ocean, Anhialos would seem an unlikely candidate for an OPAP appellation. Indeed, the designation comes with three unique restrictions designed to make the best of a potentially uninspiring situation. The appellation, which is for white wines only, stipulates a 50/50 mixture of Savatianó and Roditis, in a sense revealing the location of Magnisía below an imaginary line that bisects northern and southern Greece. Because elevation in the zone does not exceed 200 meters, and because soil is moisture-laden, cordon-trained vines produce overabundant fruit. Therefore must of grapes from cordon-trained vines is not allowed. Because the coastal vineyards necessitate cordoning, this rule effectively inhibits the use of low-elevation fruit. In order to prevent the extraction of color and tannins from the pink skin of the Roditis, skin contact is prohibited. Lastly, it is assumed, because of the low alcohol and acidity of the grapes, there are more potential losses than gains in exposing the wine to oak. The local Dimitra Cooperative produces both Anhialos OPAP wines and a red wine from the Sykiotis variety. An independant producer, Asterios Lellis, also works within the zone. The only reference to his wines we could find is a 1991 Cabernet/Mavro Mesenikolas blend called Pithíyia.		producers: Anchialos Co-op Karditsa Co-op Kraniá Katsaros Larisa Karipidis Vasdavanos Rapsani Tsantalis Tyrnavos Co-op Sort Apostolakis Cotoulas Dougos Lellis Appelations: OPAP Anhialos Messenikola Rapsani OPE none Common Varieties Xynómavro Stavrotó Krasáto Moschato Amvourgou Batíki Moschato Aspro Savatianó Roditis Sefka Sykiotis

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