The Beautiful World of Wine at Ktima Gerovassiliou

We're gazing out over part of the sixty-three hectares of vineyard at Ktima Gerovassiliou. The sea lies beyond them, just out of sight. 

But it plays its role, in the mildness of the winters and in the temperate summers cooled by its breezes. The soil is sandy, rich in sea fossils. The vineyards teem with life- 28 species of birds thrive among the vines. Come mid-August, these vines will all be harvested by hand. Good wine needs good grapes, and harvesters with a careful hand and skilled eye. 

Suggestion of a vine by Kostas Tsoklis

Moon by Kostas Varotsos

We, too, are in good hands- with our guide Dimitra Bazaka, whose degree in fine arts enriches the narrative. Wine and Art are both creative expressions of truth, and Art is integral to the experience of Ktima Gerovassiliou- throughout the vineyard and grounds are contemporary sculptures from Greek artists of note, commissioned for the site by Mr. Gerovassiliou. This beautiful expanse stared out as a family vineyard of 2.5 hectares. Vangelis Gerovassiliou, after working as an oenologist at Domaine Porto Carras, returned to the family vineyard with his wife Sonia Tziola Gerovassiliou and in 1981, started to renovate, his first production of a grape close to his heart.

Of the varieties in Greece, Malagousia- making a white wine full of ripe fruits and fragrance and flowers- is special. Well, this delicious grape was nearly lost to time(!). A professor at the Aristotle University rescued it, and Vangelis Gerouvasileiou was the first to vinify it- an important contribution to the world of wine. The vineyard's first production, in 1986, was a blend of Malagousia and the Greek varietal Asyrtiko.


More grapes were added over time- both Greek and international- to the whites Malagousia and Asyrtiko (a varietal of Santorni) were added Viognier, Chardonnay, and Sauvignon Blanc. The reds are the Greek Mavroudi, Mavrotragano, and Limnio (a grape with a pedigree, referred to even by Aristophanes in the 5th C BC), joined by Syrah and Merlot. 

We visit the wine making facilities, marveling at the industrial beauty of the vats, the extra layers of riveted stainless steel providing added insulation-

The juice becomes wine here in these tanks with automatic cooling systems, before (in the case of the Reds) being transferred to wooden barrels for aging. We also see crushers, separators (to separate out the grape skins), a pneumatic press that pumps out the juice, a bottling machine- modern perfections in the making of an ancient thing.

Speaking of ancient things, we now visit the museum- a wonderful introduction to the history and role of wine in life: you can come away from a visit to the vineyard with a deepened appreciation for the role of wine in life without drinking a sip. I first heard about the corkscrew collection from my daughters, who came here on school trips. They were dazzled. 

In fact, this collection of corkscrews (although, at 2,600 examples, this is one of the worlds' largest collections) is but one aspect of the greater vision of celebrating the tradition of wine growing. Mr. Gerovassiliou started collecting the tools of viticulture, bottling, and barrel making 40 years ago. Next to the wine aging in barrels in the quiet (wine is alive, and it hates noise) semi-darkness is a splendid collection of history of wine in our lives.

It starts with the beauty of bottles and vessels, including amphorae such as were used to transport wine in ancient times. These were found by divers off the coast near the vineyard(!)

We also see the development of the shape of the wine bottle, from the "onion" style of the 17th and 18th centuries on beautiful opalescent glass-

to the bottles we know today.

Then we see the history of wine in ancient Greece- vessels used to blend the wine with water (these were called Krater- necessary as the wine was much more potent than our wine today), to serve the wine, and the cups from which it was drunk. We also learn who was drinking it (men only), and where (at symposia- social gatherings where men drank together, socialized, enjoyed music, and explored specific topics).

The displays have been organized by museologists. The fabled corkscrews line two walls, divided by mechanical and non-mechanical. Additionally, and fascinatingly, they are displayed in glass cases in socio-cultural groupings exploring consumer habits, trends in leisure and luxury, and artists movements of the 19th and 20th centuries.

"The Corkscrew of Consumerism"- promotional corkscrews 

In the Style of the Post War World

The next room has the tools of wine making- shears,

grape crushers, barrels, bottle racks-

Lastly, we see delightful homages of the role of wine in our lives through beautiful moments in film:

Now we return to the tasting room and visitors center, a contemporary structure with sides open to the vineyards. There is a shop filled with books on wine, many sponsored or published by the winery including a fairy tale for children to be introduced to the story of wine from vineyard to bottle. There are also recipe collections, poetry and verse inspired by wine and events at the winery.

Next, we will actually taste everything we have seen and thought and felt. The wines themselves will have a post of their own.

Ktima Gerovassiliou is very close to Thessaloniki- check their website for visiting hours, tastings, tours, and special events.

A Tasting Room among the vines

More fabulous experiences of Wine in Greece:

Eumelia: The most delightful wine tasting ever.

Wine tasting in the land of the Divine at Ktima Kourtis.

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Animal Farm!

A thing that I love- probably the main thing I love- about life in Greece is how psychologically close I am to the food supply. Of course, there's freshness and a sense of season and terrain, but there's more than that. There is a layer of gritty reality that connects you with life- yours and... theirs. I eat meat differently than I did when it was easy to suppose it just sprang into existence as a fillet in a styrovac package. Meat and poultry here- clean and safe- are none the less a lot more real than the meat I grew up with. Animals are less plucked, less tweezed, more whole: more animal than dish. Meat comes in abstract shapes and sensible portions in the local markets' refrigerated cases but in the central market it hangs large- half carcasses- from giant hooks that I grew up associating with deep frozen mafiosi stored in the back of a meat truck on the Goodfella's set rather than... dinner. It's a little vivid at first, but it's nice to know how everything fits together. (And about that- have you seen this 2009 advertisement for the Los Angeles County Fair?) 

The poultry and livestock fair is truly about dinner. Not so much our dinner as their dinner. Livestock health and nutrition dominated the fair, from yummy-looking fortified salt licks:

to apparently miraculously effective cattle feed:

Veterinary supplies glinted in their display cases:

Nest to these, a portable milking machine for mid-sized dairies who do not have a separate milking barn (many goats here are still milked by hand):

You can wheel this anywhere and milk 2 goats at once.

Some of the pavilions housed the stars themselves. In a word, they were majestic:

These beauties here, I mistook them for buffalo (we have a petite type buffalo here), on account of their being only about 2/3 the size of this milk cow:

But they are actually baby steer. (Maybe I am not so different from the ladies of LA?)

Poultry- what I had considered the light-weight meat, psychologically speaking, was actually the more hair raising pavillion. It starts out cute. Incubators:

Hatcheries:

and their products- baby chicks-

Juxtaposed unhappily with this:

What is this rubber finger-lined drum that's a little less than a meter across? Luckily there was no live demonstration, but a video showed that 2 slaughtered chicken get tossed in and emerge 90 seconds later as smooth as billiard balls.

Better news for our friends the chickens and their fabulous eggs- from 2016, all EU chickens will be free range. Maybe this is why goat and lamb are always s much tastier and more interesting- all that time with their thoughts, wandering around out doors. I know it is my favorite thing too.

When I wrote about the month of January having a distinctly Green Acres cast to it, I included a picture of these fabulous fashionable dogs who were waiting their turn in the ring at the fair. Let me end with them again because they were delightful:

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The Boy Scouts' Guide to Holiday Entertaining.

Katouni Street,
Anoladadika ("the upper oil warehouse district"),
in beautiful Thessaloniki.

How the Boy Scouts managed to corner the motto "be prepared" is anyone's guess. I had a friend who was from the UK and she once used the expression "a dirty stop out." This apparently is a person, not an activity, and, although once you clear that up it seems pretty obvious, she illustrated it with the example of a woman who never went out for the evening without bringing change of fresh panties and a toothbrush. Well- although perhaps not exactly what the Boy Scouts had in mind- this is nothing if not preparedness.

Why stop there? It's a good motto for the kitchen too, especially during the holidays. It is natural to interpret this as having everything on hand you might need- extra butter (every time I open the freezer those 20 packs of butter fill me with calm), chocolate, flour. Cheeses, wines for drop in guests and for taking to parties. Food stuffs. But actually, the thing that throws everything else into upheaval when it is missing is not food, but all the infrastructure items- pans, dishes, and most of all packaging materials. How many times have you made a beautiful and laborious dessert and sent your guests off with a piece for breakfast in an unceremonious mangle of foil? Better the glorious memory to linger than the misshapen lump. Or you have treats in abundance on your counter- having tried every tempting thing from the New York Times and holiday issues of Saveur and Bon Appetit- but still end up in your party dress on your knees in front of the deep corner cupboard, ransacking it for an old cake box you think you might have folded up after wiping the frosting from the inside of the lid. 

Since I do some catering, I have fresh cake boxes in several sizes in my cupboard, and their impact on day-to-day domestic life has been dramatic. Seriously, you can almost put cat food in a cake box. The high expectations the box invites make whatever is inside feel like a present, a treat, something special. Cookies stay whole and fresh. Nothing looks suspicious to the squeamish (I am squeamish. I do not like to take a fingerful of crumbled cake from a wad of tinfoil. I always imagine the worst- grubby food handling. Cats. Enthusiastic children). Tidy boxes? People receive them with happiness and eat from them in confidence. 

And when you are in post cognac happy drowsy hostess mode, that stack of small boxes you put out on the counter before your dinner party guests arrived hours ago, makes the end of the night easy and graceful. Instead of a mess of foil and used grocery bags and light panic, you send your guests off with a sweet farewell, in a perfect little box in its perfect little bag

I would not go into the Christmas and New Year's weeks without 2 sizes of boxes, and handsome cellophane bags in a couple of sizes- these make everything shimmer and glitter- and plain clear plastic bags or paper bags with handles to put them in. Also, a couple types of ribbon. As I was preparing a special package this week, I went not once but actually three times to our Agro-Industrial neighborhood- a cobblestone maze of warehouses specializing in supplies for small scale agricultural production- wine jugs, oil cans and barrels, feta cheese tins, curing tubs, mammoth canning jars, twine, etc. 

This neighborhood also has wholesalers of conventional commercial packaging materials- coffee cups, bread bags, deli paper, and so on. 

Warehouse shelves are laden with unexpected
glimpses of nostalgia.

For me, packaging should be either beautiful and useful, or beautiful and not wasteful. This precious craft-store packing makes an impression, but I hate to throw it out when I get it, and I hate to keep it around, looking all pricey and precious and not very useful. Packaging from sources who have the same mindset- industrial wholesalers- is functional, and practical, and definitely not twee. 

In a new context, the ubiquitous takes on fresh interest.

So were my three outings in a time-crunched week well spent? Oh, my yes. First, there is the  beauty of useful things. Also. I have, for a price not really even worth mentioning, an abundance of purpose specific packing and wrapping stuffs- various bags both chic (cellophane) and industrial (coffee bags with graphics from the sixties), various paper food wrappings, glass jars, metal tins, white paper boxes, and pretty bits of string and ribbon and twine. Putting together the packages is a delight. 

Infrastructure firmly in place, I can focus on what I really enjoy this time of year- baking, and sharing everything that comes out of the oven. Happy holidays!

Scoops and strainers, shining like silver.

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