Wine Tourism in Greece

[Jenise]

Anyone done it? Anyone have any suggestions for a single woman (not me) with a serious wine passion who wants to taste wine while visiting there? She's been writing to a few wineries, but few respond.

Does she want to take a serious look, visit vineyards, watch cellar practices etc, or just taste something nice and perhaps buy a couple of bottles? Does she speak Greek? What areas will she visit?

Greetings from Sweden / Fredrik L

When I am in Greece..3/4 times I just show up and hope for the best!! Pray no big dogs too.

[Jenise]

Does she want to take a serious look, visit vineyards, watch cellar practices etc, or just taste something nice and perhaps buy a couple of bottles? Does she speak Greek? What areas will she visit?

Greetings from Sweden / Fredrik L

She's a serious wine aficionado who loves visiting wineries and vineyards. She'll be in Athens and is visiting Kalamata where the allies surrendered in WWII and her father was made a POW, but she can tailor her trip to go where the wines are. She just isn't having any luck at all getting responses from Greek wineries to help with planning where to be/go to assure value.

[Jenise]

Oh, and perhaps a complication, but she'll be there during Greek Orthodox Easter.

Easter might cause serious trouble, yes. She must anyhow be prepared to travel to see anything interesting, take a plane to Thessaloniki and rent a car. If you are willing to do that there are many interesting producers, Ktima Gerovassiliou to name but one. (Rather big producer with English speaking staff, should have a nice website, too.)

Greetings from Sweden / Fredrik L

Does she know any distributors who can introduce her to the winemakers?

[Jenise]

Seems not--she lives in New Zealand, not exactly a big market for Greek wines.

My knowledge of Greek wines is minimal (the only thing I drink semi-regularly is Assyrtiko from varied wineries Santorini) but a few years ago I went to a dinner with the wines from the Gerovassiliou estate in Macedonia. High quality, though range varied for me in how the style appealed. But thought I'd mention because very friendly people, both Evangelos and his daughters spoke excellent English.

OK, how about travel assistance from wine travel planners?:
http://www.winetoursgreece.com/
http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/greece-europes-newest-wine-country (names at the end)
http://www.viator.com/Greece-tours/Wine-Tasting-and-Winery-Tours/d53-g6-c21