Those of you following my blog may have noticed that promoting wine ageing and preservation is one of my goals. Accomplishing this has been especially challenging in Distomo--my Greek birthplace--as people aren't used to bottling and preserving their wine, and wine cellars...oh well, they don't exist. My efforts to convince the local winemakers--most of them good friends of mine--to consider having one, were totally unsuccessful. Then, I thought one leads by example and three years ago, our wine cellar was completed with considerable and planned fanfare. My friends came to see it and we ended up hosting several wine tasting events in the past three years. The news spread with the speed of wild fire and soon most of the village was talking about it. I felt I was getting somewhere finally. Two of my close winemaker friends were particularly interested. Kostas Panourgias was one of them.
Kostas, a former contractor, is a man of many skills and interests. Having retired young from a successful construction business, is spending his time working in his vegetable garden, taking care of his olive trees, and, most importantly, tending to his vineyards and making wine. He and Kostas Sfoundouris, owner of Βερβά wines, were two of the first winemakers in Distomo to bottle their wine. Kostas had a casual storage area were he kept some of his bottles, but he was clearly a man searching for some better and more permanent. It was a very pleasant surprise indeed to learn upon my arrival in my village this summer that Kostas had built a beautiful wine cellar; he was proud to pose for me in front of it before I left Greece a couple of weeks ago.
I have a feeling that when I return next Spring I will find another wine cellar. Let's see if my prediction turns out to be correct...
