Greek Wine Tourism
Interest in Greek wine is definitely on the increase!
I’ve been going to Greece long enough to remember when the only Greek wine you could get in a taverna or restaurant was a brand called Demestica. It wasn’t awful but many British visitors referred to it as Domestos, the name of a UK household cleaner! It came in red or white, and your only other choice would be a bottle of retsina.
Retsina’s an acquired taste, which many people never acquire, but we love it! Our first meal when we get to Greece and settle into a taverna is usually calamari, a Greek salad, and a bottle of retsina. Ah… that’s the taste of Greece!
Boom in Wine Tourism
How times have changed. Who on earth would have guessed back then that Greece would become a producer of excellent wines, and a wine destination in its own right, to rival France, Spain and Italy? But it has, and a survey published this week indicates that the boom shows no signs of slowing down.
A Greek digital tourism marketing company called Tourix has been analysing Google searches, which is certainly one way of measuring people’s interest in something. It showed that searches for wine tours and wine tasting in Greece was up by 41 percent in 2022 compared to 2021.
And for the first quarter of 2023 there was a 42 percent increase compared to the first quarter of 2021.
Popular Greece Wine Regions
Tourix also listed the most popular wine regions in Greece, according to the numbers of Google searches. These were:
Santorini
Crete
Athens
Nemea
Santorini Wine
Wines from Santorini have a distinctive crisp, mineral-like taste, thanks to the volcanic nature of the island. It’s all about terroir, remember. If you fancy visiting Santorini and you like your wine, read our page about Santorini Wineries.
Crete
We’ve already covered Cretan Wine in one of our earlier ezine mailings, so click here if you want to read that. It will give you links to pages about the several winery tours we’ve done on Crete.
Athens
Not many people would associate Athens with wineries, but there are several you can visit in the Attica region, surrounding Athens. Athens is also the best place in the country to sample a wide range of Greek wines, as even fairly modest restaurants and tavernas now offer more than a carafe of the house red or white.
One winery near Athens that we can recommend is easy if you’re also wanting to see the site of Marathon, as you’ll pass the family-run Kokotos Estate on the way. You can visit them and do a wine tasting every afternoon, but it’s best to book first on their website. It’s worth it, because as well as a wide range of wines you can enjoy lovely mountain views.
The Markou Winery is only a 15-minute drive north of Athens International Airport. As well as offering wine tastings there’s a wine museum here as well. It’s so idyllic you won’t believe you’re only a 25-minute drive from central Athens.
One of the oldest Attica vineyards is the Domaine Papagiannakos, where they’ve been making wine for over a century. It’s a few miles outside Porto Rafti, on the east coast of Attica. They offer vineyard tours every day except Sunday, when you would have to make an appointment.
And those are just three of the wineries that are within easy reach of Athens!
Nemea
The next most-popular wine region of Greece, according to this survey, is Nemea. This is in the north-east corner of the Peloponnese, and close to popular holiday spots like Nafplion and Tolon.
Nemea is a long-established and important wine region in Greece. Indeed, it may be the most important of all. It specialises in the Greek grape variety, Agiorgitiko, and you’ll find lots of excellent red wines in this region. There are too many vineyards to even begin listing them, but if you’re staying in somewhere like Nafplion you’ll have no trouble finding out about the vineyards, and how to visit them.
The area has lots of other major attractions too, like the ancient theatre of Epidavros, and the archaeological sites of Mycenae and Tiryns - a good place for a holiday.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this quick dip into the most popular Greek wine regions, and if you know someone else who might appreciate getting this weekly Greece travel ezine, share it using the Share button below.
Till next time
Yammas
Mike and Donna