Doric Kokkineli

Doric kokkineli - Doric wines - Giorgos Balatsouras - Kosmas - Natural Wine - Delphi, Greece - Organic wine - Eklektikon

The “kokkineli” style of vinification (light red) on the rare Kosmas variety, a grape local to the small Koniakos village and saved from extinction by Giorgos Balatsouras of Doric Wines.

  • Grower: Doric Wines
  • Vintage: 2022
  • Type: Light Red Dry Wine
  • Grapes: Kosmas 100%
  • Appellation: –
  • Alcohol: 12.50%
  • Bottle: 750ml
  • Viticulture: Certified Organic
  • Vinification: Skin contact in open wooden tanks for 15 days and fermentation with native yeast in stainless steel tanks for 30-40 days. Bottled infiltered with zero added sulfites.
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Viticulture

  • Certified Organic
  • Climate: Cold winter, wet spring until the beginning of May, cool summer, mild autumn.
  • Soil: Limestone
  • Vine age: Planted in 2000
  • Altitude: 800m
  • Slope: 8-10%
  • Planting density: 2m between the rows; 1.2m between the vines
  • Yield: 1 – 1.3 kg
  • Irrigation: None
  • Spraying: 2-3 applications of copper in solid form and 3-4 applications of natural sulfur, depending on the moisture levels each year
  • Harvesting: Manually, using slatted plastic crates and typical osier baskets

Vinification

  • Maceration: Skin contact in open wooden tanks for 15 days
  • Pressing: None
  • Temperature Control: None (low natural temperatures of up to 15 Celsius)
  • Fermentation: 30-40 days with native yeast in stainless steel tanks
  • Malolactic: Naturally completed
  • Maturation: In stainless steel tanks
  • Clarification: None
  • Filtration: None
  • Production: 1,400 lt
  • Alcohol: 12.50%
  • Acidity: 7.50 gr/l
  • Volatile Acidity: 0.56 gr/l
  • RS: 0 gr/l
  • Total sulfites: 4 mg/l
  • Certification: Organic Grapes
  • Bottle: 750ml

Giorgos Balatsouras has been farming and vinifying rare local grapes, with organic certification, since 1998. His love for his birthplace, the village of Koniakos, which is very close to the ancient site of Delphi and the lake Mornou, shows in the honesty of the wines, which are made with the same methods that his family used for generations. This gives his wines a clearly traditional character.

Giorgos started making wine to preserve those family traditions, which were starting to disappear with the demise of many remote Greek villages and their vineyards, such as Koniakos. Koniakos sits in a fir forest, at an altitude of 800 meters, and is itself an alpine and pristine environment, far away from any human intervention. It is also here, where the bucolic “Kosmas” red grape was born, which is locally also known as “Gousmadia”. Giorgos single-handedly saved the variety from extinction, by having it officially recognized by the Greek authorities, and devoting all his red wine production to the tiny vineyard that he inherited from his family.

The area around Koniakos has been inhabited since ancient times, and considered the hub of the Dorians, one of the four main ancient Greek tribes. The continental / alpine micro-climate, creates favorable conditions for slow spontaneous fermentations. Farming is almost archaic, with no irrigation anywhere close by. Vinification adheres to the traditions, which are perfectly adapted to the local resources; open wood fermenters are covered with fir branches for cap management, with river stones keeping the skins submerged in their must. The fir secretes its flavorless resin, which adds texture to the wine, but also protects it thanks to its antiseptic properties. Giorgos does not add anything to the wine and does not interfere any further, with the objective of preserving the pristine and virgin nature of the local environment, which has always been clean of human intervention and pollution.

Delphi is the famous ancient site of the homonymous oracle, the center of “Pythia”, the high priestess that gave advice and influences some of the most important decisions of the ancient world. Visitors can explore the ruins of the Apollo temple, and the oracle itself.

Not far from Delphi is the picturesque port of Galaxidi.