Vaeni Winery

The Vaeni Cooperative winery is just outside Naoussa and is one of the most active and powerful cooperatives in the country. It produces over 16 wine labels with an average production of 2.500.000 liters, tsipouro and grappa and of course he is the custodian of xinomavro, the most promising red variety and one of the 4 ambassadors of Greek wines (including agiorgitiko, moschofilero and assyrtiko ).

The Vaeni winery was built in 1984 with the establishment of the cooperative and is located at the 22nd kilometer of the National Road Veria - Edessa. In its current form it consists of the areas of winemaking, maturation and aging (cellars), located in the basement of the building, bottling and storage of the finished product. He has joined Wine streets of Macedonia and all its places are visitable.

With facilities and stainless steel tanks of 5.000.000 liters, it vinifies 50% of the production in the area of ​​Naoussa and represents the composition of the experience and the taste of the 200 winegrowers - members Vaeni-Naoussa, with the most advanced technology of the winery, a fact that guarantees the quality of its wines that come mainly from the predominantly Greek variety of the Northern Helladic area, the «Xinomavro»

Today Vaeni-Naoussa wines are exported to China, Russia, America, Canada, Kazakhstan, Australia, Dubai, New Zealand, Japan, Ukraine, Belarus, Germany, Holland, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Poland, and Cyprus.

We spoke with the president for 20 years of the cooperative, who of course has been credited with most of the successes of the 35-year course of the cooperative and president of the Naoussa wineries association George Foundoulis.

«The role of healthy cooperatives is to be able to be successful businesses and at the same time to support the prices of grapes, so that the growers have the necessary income to continue their activity. We are glad to absorb the production of 200 vine growers, and depending on the soils, the microclimates and the quality of the grapes received we have the opportunity to differentiate our products. We have award-winning PDO wines of Naoussa and other labels and even bags. We have a sense of responsibility towards PDO Naoussa, and that is why we are happy for the success of all Naoussa producers. We were just as happy for the success of Ramnista by Kyr-Giannis as the first Greek red wine at the Thessaloniki exhibition, as well as for our two gold medals at Grand Reserve Naoussa and Damascene. I seek to apply the mentality of cooperation and common interest for the place as president of the Naoussa wineries association, especially with the new winemakers, because we have to face the old problems of the misunderstood competitive mentality».

We visited the impressive cellar area in Vaeni. This space is located in the basement of the winery, where all the fine red wines spend an important period of their lives. In wine cellar (baskets), where there is a special air conditioning system, constant temperature and humidity conditions are maintained. There are hundreds of French oak barrels with a capacity of 225 and 500 liters, where the wines suffer the beneficial effect of the barrel.

The three "heavyweights" of the Vaeni cooperative are the red wines that represent it PDO Naoussa, Damaskinos (12-28 months old barrel with plum aromas), Naoussa (18 months barrel and 6 months in new French oak barrels, with a typical bouquet of aromas of dried fruit, cinnamon and a sense of wood) and the Grand Reserve Naoussa (The Aging of wine lasts 2 years in French oak barrels, while the aging of wine continues in the bottle for at least 2 years. A balanced wine with a round full flavor and velvety mouthfeel).

Leaving Vaeni, we were very happy for the progress of the unit, but we felt a bitterness for the downfall of so many other cooperative units that in the way they worked, were led to tragic impasses!