Petrakis Winery
▾ Winemaking
Year after year, yield after yield, we have started creating our own little secrets and bottling them.
Our family tradition has always been more closely connected to consumption rather than production, so, for that part at least, we were equipped well enough to be on the safe side. For the other part, the art of winemaking, which was not handed down to us and whose secrets remained safely locked in the still and silent cellars of specialists, we needed some kind of revelation. Investing time, resources and means, but mainly with our antennas activated and questions constantly popping up, we finally hit the road and, well, here we are!!
Year after year, yield after yield, we have started creating our own little secrets and bottling them. The experimental winemaking of newly imported varieties has proven highly demanding and hard for our meager experience but also an interesting challenge with loads of satisfaction at the end of each cycle. The local varieties, on the other hand, are embedded in our genetic material and were awakened at the age when we secretly dipped our finger in the wine glass of adults.
Winemaking is done separately for every variety, at optimum maturity for each, and sometimes yeast strains are used that will enhance its particular characteristics. Strict hygiene conditions and the relevant protocols and HACCP systems at every stage of the production and processing are fundamental prerequisites for the operation of our winemaking unit. The samples and results of the tests go back and forth, hand in hand with the conclusions, which will be assimilated in the following year’s wine.
▾ The Vineyards
Our vineyards are spread out around the wider grapevine area of Agrilos (P.D.O. Sitia) and from the very beginning to this day they have welcomed the toil required to maximize the quality traits of their yield.
These vineyards include one of the very few cultivations of the Tempranillo variety on the island and the one and only, so far, cultivation of the Aglianico variety. Illegally. It wasn’t some kind of festering xenophilia that led to this, nor disrespect or vanity. It is an ongoing experiment, turning out to be truly very interesting. Our vineyards now includes local varieties, like Liatiko, and aspires to keep growing and expanding.
Numerical data and other info:
Vineyard altitude: 600-650m
Orientation: W-SW
Planting density: 300 vines/1000 sq.m
Average yield: 250-300lt/1000 sq.m
Soil Texture: loam (USDA Classification)
Average annual rainfall: 550mm
Prevailing winds: NW
Devastating winds: S
▾ The Area
In a parallel universe, Mesa Mouliana is Southeastern Europe’s Bordeaux, in miniature of course.
Its fame has spread to the four corners of the earth, from where wine connoisseurs, reporters, celebrities and various oinophiles (wine lovers) surge with boisterous enthusiasm, while the locals gesture soothingly, so that they do not disturb the wines resting in the cellars. Awe-struck, they turn their gaze towards the sacred vineland of Agrilos and let it roam ecstatically around the seas of vines, the wine-colored seas of the poets and the oceans of promises. They depart with unparalleled memories, unforgettable experiences and super expensive bottles of Agrilos wine in their luggage.
In this universe, Mesa Mouliana is a village with its shutters shut. Generously blessed by nature, it could have acquired such fame for its wine, at least, to match the quality of the raw material of its vineyards. And that always remains the PS in every New Year’s wishing card. Still, no world has ever advanced on prayers alone. Neither in this nor in any parallel universe.
▾ The Premises
More than a century after its foundation was laid, the great farm house of our grandparents is reborn, bursting with life and beautiful once again.
In the area “Katsabas” (from the Arabic qaşabä, which means “water well”) sitting on top of the village of Mesa Mouliana, at the foothill of Agrilos, the great house now welcomes the fifth generation in the wide open, welcoming arms of its courtyards. Its deep wrinkles speak of the incorporated time and toil, while making it more beautiful and emotive. With the sizzling spirit of its prime, it tells impressive tales of old about life in the village and sharply portrays the characters of the ancestors. Its terraced gardens know how to grow trees, and its moist cellars how to age the wine. Here, in this corner of the world, with the sea opening up to your gaze, down, far away.
Nemo Saltat Sobrius (“Nobody Jumps Sober”) jeeringly declares the carved lintel above the main entrance to the winery area. In its interior unfolds the magical world of wine at every stage of the process, from the stainless steel tanks and the state-of-the-art equipment of winemaking to the oak barrels and the previous bottled years. The heavy, bulky walls induce calmness, while the low, hidden lighting evokes a mystical feeling. The cool, wet environment paired with the original bedrock walls confirm that a large part of the winery was, in fact, carved into the ground. In this place, the primordial and the contemporary are learning to coexist.
The upper floor serves all other purposes and functions. The old domicile, with the aged look and the battered stone walls, was refurbished, maintained and became the outline for what turned out to be, after precise structural interventions and extended make-over, a multi-purpose place, whose capacities range from accommodation and hospitability to wine tasting in the spacious sitting room or the courtyard, with a view to the present and the past of agricultural life in the country and the natural beauties of the Eastern Crete landscape.
▾ The Cellar
Temperature and humidity regulators, ventilation and control systems, applications and detailed management programs do not exist, and perhaps it would be wiser not to reveal any more about our cellar.
However, we do have long tested and guaranteed natural advantages and unique privileges, such as spiders and their delicately woven yarns, bedrock-walls and their lofty gaze, masonry walls and their watery nature and the old but ageless soil. Here time becomes a tamer, placating the wild, softening the hard, smoothing and soothing the rough. In here, the wine comes of age, matures and builds its character. Its alma mater and walking stick—the voice of silence.
▾ The Wine
Do not consume it.
Enjoy it.
Besides the data on the label, every bottle of wine you may choose to accompany you also contains the faraway vineyard, the colors of its sunset, its soil and solitude, the rains, winds and suns of an entire year, countless uncertain battles with its enemies, the secrets of the bee and the small talk of the butterfly, the smells and teachings of its earth, the producer’s care, his troubles and sweat but also his expectations, his art and his passion. Every bottle of wine that will accompany you contains the caress of time at the winery, the barrel and the cellar, its childhood, its raising and its often difficult adolescence, its mature and adult life. Every bottle of wine that will accompany you contains scattered fragments of your expectations and needs, your memories and dreams, it contains your life. Do not consume it. Enjoy it.
Wine is bottled poetry
Sarakino
