Touring the Lyrarakis
Winery on Crete
Greece Travel Secrets tours the Lyrarakis Winery on Crete and learns about Crete grape varieties such as plyto, dafni, vidiano, vilana, mandilari, and kotsifali.
The View from the Lyrarakis Winery
The Cretan wine business is booming, a fact that was
recognised a few years ago by Wine Enthusiast magazine. It nominated Crete on its
shortlist for Wine Region of the Year, along with Champagne, Provence, Sonoma
County and the eventual winner, Oregon's Willamette Valley. Illustrious company
indeed.
On a tour of one of the island's biggest wineries,
Lyrarakis, we learn one of the reasons why from our guide, Eva Gouvianaki.
'There are lots of parents who started wineries,' she says, 'and now their
children are the second generation. They are educated as oenologists, whereas
the parents learned simply by doing it. Right now we have specialists, and the
wine is better. The parents started and the children took it further. But here
we believe in meraki – it means if
you're going to do something, you want to do it with passion.'
Lyrarakis Vines
Lyrarakis was founded by brothers Manolis and Sotiris Lyrarakis
in 1966 and they made an unusual decision which turned out to be farsighted,
and another reason for the current success of Cretan wines. They concentrated
on growing two local grape varieties, plyto and dafni, which no-one else was
using to make wine and which might well now be extinct if not for the Lyrarakis
brothers.
Bottles at the Lyrarakis Winery on Crete
Today there are over 50 wineries on Crete, many of them
growing familiar imported grape varieties like syrah and merlot, but Lyrarakis
and others prefer their native varieties like plyto, dafni, vidiano, vilana,
mandilari and kotsifali. They make distinctive wines that are part of the terroir of Crete, the largest and most
southerly of the Greek islands.
Bottles at the Lyrarakis Winery on Crete
Before we tour the winery and taste the wines, Eva drives
us out to see another of the Lyrarakis brothers' legacies, the Karoula wine
press. Crete is home to many ancient wine presses, including the oldest known
press in the world, some 3500 years old. The Karoula press dates from the 14th
century and is carved out of the area's natural rock.
The Karoula Wine Press
'It was a communal press,' Eva explains, 'where everyone
would bring their grapes to tread them, and the juice would flow down the
slope. There was a second pressing nearby. Everyone knew that the press was
here, but one of the founding brothers thought it was important to protect it
so he reported it to the authorities to help preserve it for future
generations. Those are our vines behind the press, the plyto grapes. At one
time this whole valley would have been filled with vines.'
Barrels at the Lyrarakis Winery on Crete
Cretan wines have a distinguished history. Homer reported
that they were loved throughout the known world. The Minoans exported
wine to Egypt, which is about 400 miles away across the Libyan Sea. In the 15th
and 16th centuries, Cretan wines were exported to Venice, where they were rated
very highly indeed.
Today Lyrarakis, the biggest and oldest winery in the
Iraklion region, produces a million litres of wine a year, half of which is
exported to the USA, Japan, China and several other countries. In the UK the
importers are Berry Brothers and Rudd, who have supplied wine to the royal
family since the reign of King George III.
Lyrarakis is now run by the second generation, the five
children of Manolis and Sotiris Lyrarakis. As we enter the tasting room and
impressive restaurant, a young girl enters and skips through the room.
'And here comes the third generation,' Eva laughs, as we sit
down to taste the wines, and pair them with cheese and other Cretan delicacies.
We try the dafni, which has hints of rosemary and lavender - and which you can
buy in M&S. Their Legacy rosé is unusually dark for a rosé, almost a plum
colour, while the intensely delicious Malvasia of Crete dessert wine uses a
blend of plyto, dafni, vidiano and vilana grapes which are dried in the sun for
nine days to concentrate the sugars.
We also try their Symbolo wine, a complex and fruity wine,
heavy on the tannin. It's a flagship wine, only made when the grapes are
excellent, and last produced in 2012. The good news is… 2016 was an excellent
vintage on Crete, making 2017 the perfect year for wine-lovers to visit.
All Photos (c) Mike Gerrard
See our YouTube video about another aspect of our visit to the Lyrarakis Winery:
Visiting Lyrarakis
The author visited the Lyrarakis Winery as part of a special
food and wine tour organised by www.GoCrete.net.
See also the Lyrarakis Winery website, and Wines of Crete.
Staying Nearby
Greece Travel Secrets stayed in Apostoli at the Organic Orgon Farm, in one of their beautifully renovated traditional guesthouses, about 8 miles from the Lyrarakis Winery.
The Kalimera Archanes renovated stone houses are in the
village of Archanes, about 7 miles from the Lyrarakis Winery, and a similar
distance from Iraklion Airport. They can be booked through Sunvil Holidays.
Where to Stay on Crete
Other Crete pages
Greece Travel Secrets recommends where to eat in Eastern Crete including restaurants and tavernas in Elounda, Agios Nikolaos, Sitia, and Kato Zakros.
Greece Travel Secrets visits the Crete Botanical Gardens near Chania and finds a wonderland of colourful plants, trees, and flowers filling a lovely valley.
Greece Travel Secrets recommends where to stay in Irakleio, the capital of Crete, including nearby beach resort hotels and accommodation in the city centre.
Cretan music is part of the island’s soul and visitors will hear live music wherever they go, with several distinctive Cretan musical instruments and songs.
Information for travelers on Corfu Food and Drink including restaurants and tavernas, Corfiot specialties, desserts, wine and other Greek drinks like ouzo.
The Dalabelos Estate offers luxury eco-tourism accommodation on Crete in the hills near Rethymnon with its own farm, vineyard and olive groves.
The Greece Travel Secrets guide to Greek grape varieties to help you know which wines to choose when dining in restaurants or buying wine in Greece.
The Stilianou Winery near Knossos on Crete uses only Cretan grape varieties, with every bottle numbered, and aims for quality rather than quantity.
Agios Nikolaos is a pretty and popular town on the north coast of Crete and this page on Greece Travel Secrets covers its history, museums and beaches.
The Goules Taverna in Goulediana, south of Rethymnon, has been called one of the best tavernas on Crete and Greece Travel Secrets recently visited them.
Western Crete has some wonderful golden sand beaches as well as mountain villages, monasteries, caves, and archaeological sites to discover.
Greek retsina is a dry white wine made and drunk all over Greece with a distinctive pine and resin flavour that people usually either love or hate.
Margarites is known on Crete for its pottery, with ceramics shops and workshops lining the streets of this charming small town not far from Rethymnon.
Maleme near Chania is where the people who died during the battle of Crete are buried, in the German War Cemetery with the Commonwealth War Cemetery nearby.
The best Crete hotels include 5-star luxury hotels, historic and romantic Venetian palaces, and several hotels in Hania and Iraklion.
Athens, an Eater's Guide to the City, is published by Culinary Backstreets, who do walking food tours in Athens and the book recommends the best places to eat.
Crete’s wildlife and landscape are two of the island’s attractions, including gorges for hiking, rare raptors like the lammergeier, wildcats and ancient trees.
A visit to the Museum of Samos Wine to learn about the muscat grapes that produce the best dessert wines in the world and also the Greek spirit, Metaxa.
The Samaria Gorge is one the longest gorges in Europe and doing the hike is one of the best and most popular things to do on Crete.
This Lasithi Plateau drive on Crete starts in Neapoli and ends in Malia, covering a distance of 80 km (50 miles) and taking two to three hours.
Athens Food Tours are being introduced by new company The Greek Fork, and will include tours of the Central Market, and the best street food.
This drive along the west coast of Crete and inland from there will take a whole day and starts and ends in Kastélli Kissámou, west of Chania.
Studies have shown the Cretan Diet as one of the healthiest in the world, involving lots of fresh fruit, vegetables, fresh fish, and moderate amounts of wine.
Greece Travel Secrets chooses ten of the best beaches on Crete including the beautiful beaches at Vai and Elafonisi.
The Greece Travel Secrets guide to tipping in Greece from two Greece travel experts, including when to tip, what to tip and when not to tip.
Enjoy this page? Please pay it forward. Here's how...
Would you prefer to share this page with others by linking to it?
- Click on the HTML link code below.
- Copy and paste it, adding a note of your own, into your blog, a Web page, forums, a blog comment,
your Facebook account, or anywhere that someone would find this page valuable.
-
Tourist traffic from the US is expected to pick up in the coming months thanks to the launch of 56 direct flights a week to Athens, set to bring more than 1 million travelers to Greece and generate 1…
Read More
-
Works on the highly anticipated Kastelli Airport to handle initially 15 million passengers a year and create hundreds of jobs are moving ahead as scheduled, said Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotak…
Read More
-
A number of Greek island and mainland destinations are among the travel hotspots that The Telegraph suggests on its “50 fabulous family holidays for 2023” list.
Read More
-
The European Film Commission Network (EUFCN) has included Chiliadou Beach on the island of Evia among the five finalists for the 6th edition of the Best Filming Location competition.
Read More
-
We head to the “residence of the gods” with a team of scientists seeking to unravel the secrets of past climate change hidden in the mountain’s ice deposits and alpine soils.
Read More
-
A winery and hotel, a traditional taverna, and a shop selling fine local products of Metsovo, in the Pindus mountains.
Read More
-
7 great beaches where you can throw off your coat and join Athens’ winter swimmers
Read More
-
Ruben Östlund's film, “Triangle of Sadness,” shot on the Greek island of Evia, receives three nominations for this year’s Academy Awards.
Read More
-
Before looking online for something engaging to read, stroll over to one of these places and check out what's on their shelves.
Read More
-
Athens, Rhodes and Milos are the three Greek destinations competing with popular cities in Europe for the title of “European Best Destination 2023”. The competition is being held for the 14th consecut…
Read More