| Aug 1,
2002 |
Tour de Grece
2002 completed (sort of)
Our annual summer tour of Greek wineries ended on July 11. Due to five-day strike
and a bad injury to my foot three days before we left, it was less productive than
we had hoped. Still, we conducted more than twenty interviews, tasted over two hundred
wines and took over 400 photographs for the site. The first profiles from the visit
will start appearing this month.
New profiles will include Giannikostas and Martine Metaxas, Gentilini
(Marianna Cosmetatos and Petros Markantonatos), Ktima Merkouri, Yiannis Vatistas,
Mary Flerianou and son Yiannis, George and Ann Kokotos, Nostos,
the Peza Cooperative, the Samos Cooperative, Strofilia, Vassiliou,
Yiannis and Katerina Dalamaras, Niko Fountis, Anestis Babatzimopoulos,
Biblia Hora (the new estate of Vangelis Gerovassiliou and Vassilis Tsaktarlis),
the Vasdavanos family, George Manolesakis (and son) and Nikos Lazaridis.
Oinotechniki Nikiforou and Tsolis. Their will be some important updates
of other producers as well.
Apologies go to Oinomessiniaki (for the second year in a row), Creta Olympias
(next visit, definitely), Paris and Antonia Sigalas, Harithimos Hatzidakis,
Santo and Roussos on Santorini (ftai n aperyia). We'll get you in the
winter.
Thanks go to Manoli Giamniadakis as always, Nick and Kathy Karaiskakis (my brother
and sister-in-law who donated their own air-conditioned bedroom for the cause of
Greek wine--not to mention Kathy's skill as a cook and hostess), Dina Finini (another
sister-in-law who sacrificed her own cool bedroom--not to mention her skill
as a cook and hostess), Nancy and Saki jr, Niko and Maria Psilakis (much more on
them later) and countless others who were either understanding, generous, helpful
(or all three).
To all the winemakers we met this year, thank you for the universally warm
receptions. We welcome you to the site and hope to help bring you the respect and
attention you all deserve. |
