Achaea Clauss

H Achaea Clauss is the first Greek Winery (1861), volthe most visited winery in Greece, and definitely an international reference point, a popular destination for lovers of the history of wine, and Wine Tourism. This is the winery founded by the Bavarian Gustav Klaus and has been operating continuously since 1861 until today.

It is no coincidence that despite all the adventures of the last 100 years, from 1916 when Gustav Klaus left and in 1920 when he came to the Patras family Vlassi Antonopoulos - adventures recorded in the novel by Athanasiadis “Her guards Achaia”- to this day the company has not stopped enjoying glories and awards.

The culmination of the wine-making process came in 1955 when the company was taken over by Konstantinos Antonopoulos, who supplied the winery with new machinery while also taking care of the recruitment of specialist scientists. So to this day, despite losing the business momentum of the past, it remains one unrepeatable attraction and arrive daily for guided tours, tastings and educational tours, schools and universities as well as industry experts and many travelers

Cobbled streets between stone towers, historic buildings, cellars full of oversized barrels, each with its own story as they are dedicated to personalities who have visited the famous cellars - among them Bismarck, the musician Franz Liszt, Empress Sissy of Austria, General Montgomery, Alexander Fleming and many other politicians and personalities - churches, busts, traditional tools, awards from around the world and books.

Mavrodafni is the most famous wine produced by Achaia Clauss. According to tradition, Klaus named this variety of wine after the fiancée of Daphne, a beautiful brunette Greek woman with black eyes, who died at a young age. The wine is produced from a variety of red grapes and at the end of their maturation they acquire special aromas of cherry, vanilla and dried fruits (mainly raisins and chocolate) and are ideal dessert wines.

Achaia Clauss's most famous wine is Demestiha wine which was named after the village of Demestiha located near Kalavrita. The wine "Demestiha" is produced by the company from 1881 until today, completing more than 130 years of life.

Among the great exhibits, the new one steals the impression "Barrel" exhibition on the barrels of the winery where the technique of making a barrel small or large is represented, in an interactive way. The coop factory was one of the first buildings of the complex and Greek and foreign coopers worked here, mainly Italians. Achaia Clauss bought the materials of the barrel factory from Greece and abroad and the quality, the taste of the wine and, consequently, the reputation of the winery for this reason depended on the good construction of the barrels. .