Babatzimopoulos Estate

Ο Anestis Babatzimopoulos he is a legend of Macedonia, a daring viticulturist, an excellent winemaker, a unique distiller, a diligent cook - for his friends only - and of course a charming interlocutor. We met him in his paradise, at Babatzimopoulos estate, on the slopes of Mount Vertiskos, an estate of 550 acres, with a vineyard surrounded by oaks, beeches and chestnuts, near Lagadas, 30 km from Thessaloniki, Greece.

There is no greater pleasure than listening to Mr. Anestis narrate stories. Stories of his family -who from Silivria in Istanbul, where he made famous raki, was found in Thessaloniki-, about his childhood in his mother's distillery (he lost his father at the age of 7), about his adolescence, but and his own personal path, his passions, his joys and his philosophy.

One has to undertake his cinematic biography, which has images that would surely be envied by important directors. We quote two characteristic points of the description of his life:

"In Thessaloniki in the 50's there were 167 registered distillers. Each distillery was also a small tavern, with the mezetzi frying sardines, peppers and offering ouza with olives, tomatoes, cucumbers. From a young age in the world of adults, I used to sell ouzo glass by glass, around 70 kilos a day! And when I was a little older, I used to distribute demijohns by bicycle to customers' homes! At that time, shortly after the war, there was great poverty and bulk ouzo was Kosmakis' only joy.

Later, I remember like now, a teenager with shorts still, towards a man. I secretly took the alcohol we used for ouzo and put scents, mastic, rose, cinnamon, that is, I made essences and offered them to the "pastries" of the neighborhood, with which I had opened lots, and they happily put them instead of glue at the time - they were smearing their huge breasts (Fellini is blind) they kissed me and left happy for Aristotle ".

For hours Mr. Anestis talked to us about how from Ouzo, passed to wine and in viticulture, and how since 1974 he left the carefree and reverent life of Thessaloniki and found himself digging and planting vines on his first 27 acres of land on the slopes of Mount Vertiskos.

Many years have passed since then, it is close to fifty. At first he was a winemaker in Anchialos, in 2000 he established his winery in "Ktima Babatzimopoulou", and a little later he created an open-air museum of oenology-winery, with the construction of 5 sheds, area 450 meters, tasting areas, which were the basis for its development. wine tourism - Mr. Anestis was one of the first to promote him. At the same time, since 1988, immediately after the state license that allowed the production tsipouro, was the first to take her and then Tsantalis and the others followed.

He remembers the people who stood against him as teachers, such as Stylianos Boutaris who at the age of 18 made him a member of the Thessaloniki distillers' union, Stelios Dislis from Anchialos who introduced him to the art of wine, Vassilis Kaliouris from Anchialos where he first introduced the his wines and of course the lady of Greek wine Stavroula Kourakou who guided him in both winemaking and distillery.

And it is no coincidence that today his greatest concern is education of young people, who come to learn about nature, but also to get a taste of inspired and charismatic people who finally dedicated themselves to it.