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.
Other Crete pages
Greece Travel Secrets recommends where to eat in Western Crete with tavernas and restaurants in Chania, Rethymnon, and Paleochora.
Driving central Crete in three days gives you time to see the highlights including the Minoan palaces at Knossos and Phaistos, the beaches and the Diktean Cave.
Greece Travel Secrets discovers Sitia, the main town in eastern Crete, with its relaxing waterfront, inexpensive hotels, good food, and nearby ancient sites.
Corfu’s special cuisine includes dishes like sofrito and pastitsade and the chance to try ginger beer and kumquats.
Crete festivals and events include Carnival Easter, Whitsun, Christmas, many other religious feast days and public holidays.
Greek feta cheese is the most popular cheese in Greece, usually made from sheep’s milk, with a soft texture and salty taste and used to top off a Greek salad.
Elounda on Crete's north coast is a popular holiday town with a pretty harbour, from where you can take day trips by boat to see the island of Spinalonga.
This Athens dining guide doesn't list restaurants but gives practical advice on types of eating places, tipping, hotel breakfasts and picnics.
Greece Travel Secrets explains the long history of the Greek dish of dolmades, or stuffed vine leaves, which goes back to ancient Greece, and provides a recipe.
Raki is an alcoholic drink made with distilled grapes and anise, and popular in Greece and other Mediterranean countries, including Greece’s neighbour Turkey.
Greece Travel Secrets suggests where to stay in Eastern Crete with our favourite hotels in Zakros, Elounds, Sitia, Agios Nikolaos, Istron Bay, Myrtos, Neapolis.
Visiting Knossos near Iraklion is one of the best things to do on Crete, and this page has a history of the site with visitor information.
Is someone from Crete a Greek or a Cretan? They are both, of course, but most will tell you that they are Cretan first and Greek second.
Greece Travel Secrets recommends where to stay in western Crete, including both luxury and inexpensive hotels in Chania, Rethymnon, and Paleochora.
How to see eastern Crete in five days, with its beaches, Minoan palaces, timeless villages, unique churches and mountain and coastal scenery.
The Byzantine Church of Panagía Kerá near Kritsa and not far from Ayios Nikolaos is one of the most famous in Crete, and close by is the site of Ancient Lato.
These shopping tips for Crete include advice on buying souvenirs like ceramics, icons, jewellery, leather, weavings, wood carvings, and food and drink.
Antonis Maroudas is a Zakynthos winemaker who lives on the 'wine road' and is one of the people who make Zakynthos.
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.
The Snails House in Plouti near Phaistos in southern Crete serves the Cretan delicacy of snails, cooked in several different ways.
Greece Travel Secrets visits the Cretan Botano herbs and spices shop near Matala in southern Crete in search of the herb man of Kouses.
The Diktean or Diktaean Cave, also known as the Psychro Cave, near the village of Psychro in eastern Crete, is said to be the birthplace of Zeus.
Greece Travel Secrets page on Phaistos or Faistos, the site of one of the finest Minoan palaces on Crete and is where the mysterious Phaistos Disc was found.
Ancient Gournia is a Minoan archaeological site between Agios Nikolaos and Sitia in Eastern Crete where the visitor can see evidence of a maze of back streets.
Greece Travel Secrets reveals the history of the classic Greek dish, moussaka, as well as providing a recipe for you to make your own.
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