Farming : Certified Organic

Winemaking : Hand-Picked Grapes | Skin-Contact | Native Yeast Fermentation | Unfined | Unfiltered | Vegan

Region : Thessaly, Greece

Grape : Roditis

Alcohol by Volume : 13%

Woman Winemaker: Aphrodite Kontozisis

Notes:

An intense and piercing expression of the Roditis grape, with concentrated yellow fruit and hibiscus aromas, with persistency and a sharp structure. 

Vineyards is an organic grower in Karditsa, a rural town in the region of Thessaly. This vineyard has been practicing certified organic agriculture and organic vinification since 1991, one of the first to get such a certification in Greece. 

The Agrafa (uncharted) Mountain Range is in southwest corner of Thessaly. During the 400 years of Ottoman Empire rule, this region was the only that remained autonomous; its harrowing landscape and fiercely independent spirit of locals, rendered it unnavigable. The rough landscape preserved that free and natural spirit, along with a unique character of endemic vines. 

Generations later, winemaker Andreas Kontozisis and his partner Aphrodite Tousia work is defined by the mountains terrain and expressive candor of the area's ancestors. 

Andreas and Aphrodite are working passionately with the area’s indigenous red grape, Limniona, among others, for which they have developed proprietary vineyard techniques to get as much concentration as possible from the variety’s large grapes. All grapes are hand harvested and pruned from the estate-owned vineyards. The winemakers use no press and no commercial yeasts.

A-Grafo Roditis is made from the gray-skinned Roditis grape in a Ramato style, with extensive skin contact of one month, made naturally with zero added sulfites. Fermented with wild yeasts in stainless steel and aged on the lees for 8 months before bottling unfined, unfiltered.