Giannikos Winery

The Giannikos family planted their first vines in 1896, the year Greece hosted the first Olympic Games of the modern era. The place: Mycenae, where Greek viticulture was born more than 4000 years ago. The ravages of World War II and Civil War combined with an epidemic of phylloxera prompted Nikolaos to abandon the family estate and emigrate to California in the Napa Valley.... Read more

The Giannikos family planted their first vines in 1896, the year Greece hosted the first Olympic Games of the modern era. The place: Mycenae, where Greek viticulture was born more than 4000 years ago. The ravages of World War II and Civil War combined with an epidemic of phylloxera prompted Nikolaos to abandon the family estate and emigrate to California in the Napa Valley. But nostalgia and motivation to rebuild the family estate with his son Michalis led him to return to Greece in 1970. In 1996, exactly 100 years after its founding, the estate was devastated by a destructive fire. Armed with courage and full of enthusiasm, Michalis decided to put the estate back on its feet but had to, for legislative reasons (ban on building on an archaeological site) abandon the family stronghold of Mycenae to settle in Corinth. Preserving the traditional Greek varieties (Roditis, Agiorgitiko, Malagouzia), Michalis enriches the estate with French varieties. In order to produce the best wines, he quickly made the choice of organic farming and kept the tradition of manual harvesting.