Interview with George Salpiggidis, viticultural director of Tsantali Winery. He talks about Tsantali’s wine made on the holy peninsula of Mount Athos.Evangelos Tsantali established the Mount Athos vineyard in the early 70s, with mainly international grape varieties.
Today the vineyards cover around 100 hectares. Much has been replanted more recently, also with traditional Greek grape varieties.
The vineyard is cultivated organically.
One problem is the lack of water, there is only 300 mm rain per year. Today they are considering irrigation – watering the vineyards. Another challenge is to bring the organic manure to the vineyards since they are very remote.
The wine was originally made in collaboration with the monks at the closest monastery. But today Tsantali only provide the wine to the monastery and help maintain the buildings, badly in need of restoration.
By BKWine, https://www.bkwine.com