Samartzis Estate Wines

The Samartzis winery is situated in the village of Askri in the Valley of the Muses, about 1.5 hours north-west of Athens on the way to Delphi. Proven to have great terroir for vines, with its altitude of over 400 metres above sea level, cooling winds that come down from 1,749 metres-high Mt Helicon and great exposure to sunshine, which aids the grapes to reach optimal ripeness.

The vineyards have been in the family for almost 300 years, but the wines really took off when Panos Samartzis left his career as a pharmacist in 2008 to concentrate on the winery. Working with his brother Spiros, their mission is to champion the character of the land and local grapes, so their 10 ha are dominated by Kontoura (a clone of Salvatiano), Malagousia and Mouhtaro, a late-ripening, low-yielding, local black grape that almost died out in the 1970s. They do however have small amounts of rather good Merlot, Syrah and Grenache too!

They follow sustainable practises, only using limited treatments to help against downy mildew, which most years are not needed. Panos states: “Our primary goal is to produce terroir wines from Greek grape varieties, with a strong focus on the ‘one vineyard, one wine’ philosophy.” They certainly succeed, with their top wines being sold on allocation in Greece. All Samartzis wines have poise and elegance: the products of a thinking wine producer. With Panos’s pharmacist training, one could say it is the mind of an alchemist at work.