 |
| Wines |
Article
No. |
Grape
varieties |
Year |
Pack. |
| Katogi |
4871 |
Agiorgitiko,
Cabernet Sauvignon |
on request |
12 |
| In
an old ledger of 1732, Averoff discovered that, in the old days, Metsovo
and the surrounding area used to yield a wine production of about
400,000 litres per year. Yet, at the time when Averoff was beginning
his endeavour, on those same slopes of Mount Pindos, there was nothing
but stones, rocks and very few bushes. "It was as if the earth
had released a poisonous curse… as if it had taken on this appearance
in order to implore us to make it once again such that it might bestow
voluptious embraces…", writes Averoff in his book The Vineyard
of the Humble Saint. |
|
 |
|
 |
|
The
idea had been born. With untiring enthusiasm, Averoff began investigating
the possibilities for cultivation of the area, mobilizing scientists
and specialists from Greece and abroad. And when, finally, he was
convinced that the vision could become reality, he turned to the people
of Metsovo: "I sought creative solutions to achieve the re-cultivation
of the area", he writes in The Vineyard of the Humble Saint,
"I offered to give free vines to those who would replant their
old vineyards and I declared that these vines would be immune to the
vine-pest. I proposed to buy the grapes at twice and, later on, at
three times the price of the grapes brought to Metsovo from other
areas to be pressed, I suggested anything I could possibly think of…" |
|
| Averoff
planned to build a small winery which, after the replanting of the
area, he would hand over to the people of Metsovo to be operated by
them on a co-operative basis. The goal was to achieve a high quality
wine, along the French model. But the Metsovians did not respond,
so Averoff decided to proceed alone. |
|
 |
| "The
project was an ambitious one, extremely ambitious, but it was worth
the effort… Of course, we had no machinery worth mentioning…
All we had was an old wooden vat, which might have taken perhaps 1,000
kilos of grapeberries, we had two or three oak barrels of different
sizes, and a couple of small wooden tubs. All this was piled up in
an unused cellar in the house of "The Lady", daughter of
Kolakis Averoff and niece of the benefactor… Thus was born our
winery, some thirty years ago. It was born "in a manger",
poor of means but rich in vision and hopes". |
|
|
|
|
Antonopoulos
Averoff
Biblia Chora
Creta Olympias
Driopi
Evharis
Gerovassiliou
Harlaftis
Hatzimichalis
Kyr-Yianni
Constantin Lazaridis
Mercouri
Pavlidis
Samos Cooperative
Sigalas
Strofilià
Tselepos
|
