Tselepos Wines - Tselepos Estate in Mantineia

Giannis Tselepos is one of the most emblematic figures of Greek wine. He graduated from the Department of Oenology at the University of Dijon, France, and after wandering oenologically for two years in wineries in Burgundy, he settled in 1981 in Mantineia, whose wines he has been making uninterrupted wine ever since. In 1989, together with his wife Amalia, in search of a suitable location, they chose the hills on the slopes of the historic Mount Parnon to plant the vineyards and establish the Tselepou Estate.

The first label, Mantineia OPAP, was released in 1991 and a few years later the wines of the estate followed based on cosmopolitan vine varieties. The winery's output has gradually increased, currently producing 450.000 bottles per year, now allowing 40% of production to be exported, mainly to the USA, Canada, China, Germany, Cyprus, Belgium and Great Britain. The winery of Ktima Tselepos has been architecturally designed based on the traditional industrial buildings of the 19th century in the Peloponnese such as the old raisin warehouses and in addition to the wine production facilities it has facilities for the production of sparkling wines with the traditional method of Campania.

Wandering in the estate of Tselepos is a beautiful experience, and this is because like Mantineia with the 5.000 acres of Moschofilero, it is not a single area of ​​monoculture, but a vineyard that coexists with other crops, so the Tselepou estate is located among estates with cherries, pears, but also pines, and all this mixed on hills and slopes, so as to create small vineyards, with different soils, orientations and in each of which the favored varieties have been planted. And all this has been recorded on a map with all the relevant details:

• Melissopetra vineyard, slate soils, altitude 750m, variety Gewurztraminer,
• Kokkinomylos vineyard, clay-stony soils, altitude 750m, Merlot variety,
• vineyard Avlotope, clayey soils, altitude. 750m, Cabernet Sauvignon variety,
• Marble vineyard, clayey soils, altitude. 750m, Chardonnay variety,
• Perpatiara vineyard, clayey soils, altitude. 680m, Moschofilero variety,

Starting the tour of the vineyard with the help of the estate guides, you first visit the only renovated watermill of the pre-revolutionary period on the river Dolianitis (which originates from Doliana) that crosses the estate and at the end of the route you end up high on the hill where the church is of Saint Tryphon, the holy patron saint of vine growers, who is honored on February 1 to protect the vineyards from winds, frosts, hail and diseases. From there the view of the estate and Mantineia is fascinating. The tasting of the wines of the estate in the spacious tasting areas of the estate confirms the rule that beautiful people, in beautiful places, make beautiful wines.

I was lucky enough to have the tour of the estate done by Giannis Tselepos himself and so I had the opportunity to see the passion he has for Moschofilero but mainly for Mantineia. We talked about a lot.

«My relationship with the vineyard and wine is experiential, complete and I believe that it has made me wiser and better as a person. From the first moment I came from my studies in France and got a job in a winery in Mantineia in 1981, I was fascinated by the ecosystem of Arcadia. I dealt systematically with the Moschofilero variety that I consider to have emerged from the quagmire of invisibility, vinifying it in a single variety and highlighting all its dimensions. With the experience I gained while dealing with Moschofilero, I decided to continue my wine explorations with two varieties that I love equally, the Agiorgitiko and Assyrtiko, in their pre-eminent places of origin, creating two other wineries, the Dryopi Estate in Koutsi Nemeas with a privately owned vineyard of 100 acres and Hemp of Gold-Tselepos in Santorini in collaboration with the homonymous family, with a privately owned vineyard of 120 acres.

The main philosophy of our estate in Mantineia is the study and promotion of all the possibilities of the Moschofilero variety, as well as its promotion both in Greece and abroad. Today, the Tselepou Estate is being developed into 450 acres of privately owned vineyards and 200 acres of cooperating producers. Great importance is given to the detail of the crop and the management of the terroir so that the variety gives its best expression. The excellent soil-climatic conditions of the region, with the main feature of the continental climate, the poor clayey soils and the great sunshine, produce wines with a strong personality, with strong aromas reminiscent of Gewurztraminer and Moschato varieties and acids ideal for the production of sparkling wines. And all this in parallel with the effort to highlight Mantineia as a wine and gastronomic destination. In this context, in collaboration with the Spyropoulos estate, we created the film "Arcadia1900, champagne d'Orient", which chronicles the effort of the family winery of the Papanikolaou Brothers to produce sparkling wine in Arcadia - in Mantineia - since the 19th century. Because the history of each place must become a component of the modern narrative and myth».