Greece part 3: griechischer Wein

The main building of Domaine Skouras

We are no wine experts but we like to visit wine farms and drink good wine, well wine that we think is good ;) I actually didn't drink any alcohol and thus also no wine until I met my Hubby. He kind of teached me that alcohol doesn't have to mean drinking until you drop but can also be a nice occasion with good food and company. For me the wine world has always seemed too big to get hold of. I'm not that interested that I would sit home und study the wines but on the other hand I love to visit the producers and get the first hand  information and experience.

So far I have mostly concentrated my efforts on South African wines because that was the first country where I visited a wine warm and really drank wine. Since we live in Switzerland I have been into Swiss and German wines as well...you know, we find it important to support the local producers so when we eat out in Switzerland we usually go for a Swiss wine. I'm also a big fan of fortified wines, specially sherry. That's since our holiday in the southern Spain and visit to Jerez de la Frontera two years ago.

The Greek wines were a totally new experience for me. About the only thing I knew about them was Retsina and the song Griechischer Wein from Udo Jürgens :D Already at the first hotel we learned some rudimentary things about the Greek wines and grape sorts and even more information we got at Domaine Skouras wine farm.

The entrance hall

A visit to Domaine Skouras was recommended by our host in Koita. He told us that it's one of the few nice wine farms in the Peloponnese to visit which has a nice "visitor center". All those who have visited South Africa and the wine farms there know that the wine tourism in there is very developed. Well, even though Greece is one of the oldest  wine producing countries in Europ it's not like that there. We did see some Wine Route signs but it all seemed a bit incomplete to us. As we were recommeded to visit the Domaine Skouras and because it was on our way from Olympia to Nafplio we of course wanted to pay it a visit.

 

A short tour through the production areas

The production tanks

The wine barrels

In the cellar

In the cellar

Tasting

Window view

Wine and art go good together

We happened to be the only visitors at the time so we got a short private tour and visited the production room and the wine cellar. Afterwards we tasted five different wines. Our guide was absolutely great and we spent quite some time at the farm talking about wine, the wine in Greece, Greek politics, Swiss politics, our visit to South African wine farms and so on. The tasting didn't cost us anything but we also bought 8 bottles of wine and one Grappa so I wouldn't know if it cost something if one doesn't buy their products. Absolutely a worth of a visit!  The wines we bought there:

Cuveé Prestige Rosé 2012 (30% Moscofilero, 70 % Aghiorghitiko, altitude 700m)
Grand Cuveé Nemea 2008( 100 % Aghiorghitiko, altitude 1040m)
Fleva 2011 (100% Syrah, altitude 600m, 1st price in Syrah du Monde^® 2013)
Viognier Eclectique "Spilitsa" 2012 (100% Viognier, altitude 300m)

We also bought some wine at the air port which is not from Skouras:

Santorini Argyros, Assyrtiko 2012 (100% Assyrtiko)
We are both huge fans of South African Sauvignon blanc and the grape Assyrtiko and some wines produced from it seem to have some similar qualities.

I'm not gonna write more about the grape varieties etc. but here are some very informative links, if you are interested in finding our yourself:
All about Greek wine
The Greek wine
Wikipedia: Greek wine
Weinversand aus Griechenland (in GermanI

Wine show

Greece part 2: Olympia

Coffee stop in Kardamili

Our next stop was Olympia. On the way there we stopped at the town of Kardamili to have a cup of coffee. For a small town like that it had many appealing looking Cafes. I also wanted to stop at the sea and make walk on the beach close to the city of Pirgos.

Beach some where close to Pirgos

Hotel Pelops in Olympia

In Olympia we spent two nights in the hotel Pelops. The hotel itself is nothing special but the staff was super friendly and the room was very clean. Double room was 40 euros/night which we find to be a really good price. The hotel staff gave us a good tip where to have dinner and they also suggested us some places to visit. The main attraction in the area is of course the Ancient Olympia which is very conveniently only about ten minutes walk from the hotel. By the way, we had booked our room without breakfast. There are enough Cafes around to have one's breakfast so no need to book one with the hotel

Our dinner we had at a small taverna quite close to the hotel. Unfortunately I can't remember the name of the place but it was recommended to us by our hotel. They said that it's the place where the locals go to. We actually had dinner there during the both evenings we stayed in Olympia...I know, I know: I just mentioned in the last post that we usually eat in different places. But this taverna was quite sympatic and they had really good food. Both evenings there we some locals having dinner and they also seemed to have a quite busy take delivery service so I guess that people at the hotel new what the locals like.

Pastitsio - Greek pasta casserole

Baked feta at the front and  grilled lamd with french fries at the back

The Stadium in the Ancient Olympia

Temple of Zeus in the Ancient Olympia

A tiny botanical garden next to the acheological museum. A really interesting place to visit because all the plants are good named and the mythological story of the plant is also explaned. Unfortunately most of the tourists probably pass it as uninteresting without entering.

Greek beer

Tzatziki (we were surprised about the carrots in it) at the front and Greek salad at the back.

Pork souvlakia with pita, tomato and onions

Moussaka 

On our third morning we checked out and and grabbed a bite to go from a small bakery shop. We had about four hour drive to Nafplio ahead of us. The people at the hotel suggested us some places to stop on the way. The nicest stop we made was in the village of Langadia: a totally lovely and cute small town with stone houses and on the mountain slope. There were couple nice looking stores selling traditional food items and handcrafts. We bought two handmade rugs and also sat down to coffe in one of the cafes with a superb view

Different kind of puff pastries filled with things like ham, cheese, feta cheese, spinach etc.

Different kinds of small and extremely sweet baklavas.

On the way over the mountains to Nafplio

A shop with so many different food items in Langadia

Grandpa meeting an a local Cafe

Coffee break

The town of Langadia

The town of Langadia

Greece part 1: Koita

It has been quiet here in the blog for the last week or so. That's because we are enjoying our holiday. Last week we spent in Greece and thus we had the change to escape the cold weather in Switzerland. Well, it wasn't hot in Greece either but definitive better than back home :) In the next posts I'll write about our experience. Maybe somebody else is planning a holiday in Greece as well?

We spent all the eight nights in the Peloponnese in three different hotels in Koita, Olympia and Nafplio. Car and the hotels I had booked advanced but otherwise we hadn't made any big plans what to visit but rather let the days take their own course.

We flew direct from Zürich to Athens with Swiss. Return tickets for two cost about 410 euros altogether. There would have been also cheaper flights availabe but they were all indirect and we didn't feel like flying to north (Amsterdam, Frankfurt or München) first and heading back to south ;D Car we rented from Europcar with costed 310 euros/9 days. It might have been cheaper to take it from some other company but I have Europcar privilege card and it's a kind of a habit that every time we rent a car we use Europcar. By the way, my Greek friend told me beforehand that driving in Greece is quite okay but in the bigger cites it can be pretty chaotic. The main important thing according to him was that one should always rent the car from a reputable, preferably international car renting company and so if somethimg happens you are more or less secured. And he was right about driving in the city :D

Our first destination was Koita in the Mani peninsula. The drive down to the "middle finger" of the Peloponnese from the Athens airport would have taken us about 4 hours but we did a short stop on the way to check out the Corinth kanal and so it took us a bit longer. Our first hotel was Citta dei Nicliani. This hotel is absolutely lovely. It's a small (only six rooms) family run hotel and the people really did their best to guarantee us a great stay. The hotel is in a old, stylishly renovated typical Manian building. The view from the hotel's terrace is absolutely fantastic. The room prices differ depending on the season and the room size. We paid 72 euros/night but we were actually upgraded to a bigger room because there was only one of the other rooms reserved at the time.

The entrance of Citta dei Nicliani

Our room

The bath

If you are a party person, Koita might not be the best choice for you. The village itself is very small and the next bigger town Areopoli, the capital of Mani Peninsula, is about 20 minutes drive away. The hotel was not right on the main road and because it was already dark we needed a short moment to locate it. We were warmly welcomed by a father and a son. Because it was already dark and we had a long travel behind us we decided to have our dinner at the hotel. The son gave us some suggestion what they could prepare for us. We opted for orange salad and beef with pastarice (kritharáki/orzo/risoni) and it all tasted good. 

And when in Greece we wanted to have some Greek wine. This hotel is a good place for a wine lover. They have a very extensive wine cellar...I think they mentioned they have over hundred different wines in stock and this is all due to the wine hobby of the son. He was able to recommend us some good wines and he was also able to tell a lot about the Greek wines in geneal.

Orange salad

Beef with pastarice and cheese

The hotel terrace

The view from the hotel terrace

Breakfast was included to the room price and it was really delicious: coffee, fresh orange juice, fried pita, omelette, pork, homemade marmelade, goat cream cheese, yoghurt with honey and feta. Some of the components like the marmelade varied every morning. The first mornining after the breakfast our host sat down with us to look through a map and give us some suggestions what to visit and where to eat. We also visited and olive oil press with him and I think I will make a one post only about that.

Breakfast

Fried pita

One of the hotel's cats

The same cat again

Another of the hotel's cats

Church of the Panayia Agitria which you can only reach by foot. To visit the church was suggested from our host because the place where it is is really beautiful.

The coast of Mani

Gerolimenas a small fishing village with couple of tavernas and hotels

Small lunch in Gerolimenas. Can't remember the name of the place.

A mountain village

Up in the mountains

A fig tree

Because the first evening we had dinner at the hotel for the remaining two evenings we drove to Areopoli to eat there. On our holidays we usually always prefer to eat in different places to see and taste as much as possible. Our host had suggested us some places for good dining and also for some coffee or drinks. Unfortunately his suggestion Bukka cafe/bar was closed so we went to Aula cafe/bar instead. The place is nicely decorated and it has a nice atmosphere but the cocktails had a bit too much alcohol for our taste. This was, by the way, pretty much the case everywhere in Greece where we ordered cocktails. Yeah, I know, now most of the Finns will shake their heads and wonder how can one complain about getting too much alcohol :D Well, when I order a cocktail I want it to taste good and alcohol shouldn't stand out too much. Otherwise I could just buy me a shot. The normal cocktails were priced somewhere between 7 and 10 euros.

First evening we had dinner at the Barba-Petros taverna. It was also recommended by our host. We were happy with the place. The food tasted good and the service was smiling which was not the case in all the places we ate. A little bit after us a small group of Dutch arrived into the restaurant and they wanted to have four greek salads as a starter. But they got told that four salads for four people would be too much. I think that that is a good sign as well. They could have just sold "those stupid tourists" four salads and the guest would have found out by themselves that it's too much but they didn't. All in all in Greece the portions were pretty big. In many places we would have liked to taste more different things but due to the big portions and because we were only two people could not do that. We were told that when Greeks eat out, they eat with a bigger group and so they can order many things which they share with each other.

The second evening we had some pita willed with kebab and pork. It was a small take away place in Areopoli which wasn't recommended by anybody but we saw lots of locals buying there so we thoght it has to be good. One filled pita costed 2 euros and they had a real charcoal grill where they prepared it. That seemed to be a normal pactice in most of the take away places which we of course found great.

Areopoli: those flowers are just to love

Areopoli

Bukka cafe/bar was recommended for us but unfortunately it was closed.

Instead of Bukka we had drinks at Aula cafe/bar.

Bildunterschrift hinzufügen

Tzatziki. We actually managed to throw away all our receipts so I can't check the exact prices but I think it cost 2,5 euros

Lamb in lemon sauce and rice. Something around 9 euros like the pork portion as well.

Pork in plum sauce and rice

Pigs walking around along the street

All in all our stay in Koita was great. The landscape is beautiful and quite different and to explore it one definitive needs a car down there. We were satisfied with the hotel and would for sure stay there again would we one day head back to that area.

Village of Vathia

The beautiful landscape in Mani