Thymiopoulos Vrana Petra 2019

Vrana Petra is a red wine made by Apostolos Thymiopoulos with the Xinomavro variety in the region of Macedonia, Greece. It is a farm wine, perhaps the top of the winery and comes from a single vineyard planted 20 years ago south of the town of Trilofos. This farm is located 200 meters above sea level, its soil is calcareous with an abundance of quartz and schists, and its microclimate is that of a Mediterranean influence with air currents that come from the Vermio mountains, which implies a great thermal variation between The day and the night.

The wine is grown organically and the grapes are 50% destemmed, fermented with native yeasts and macerated with the skins for 30 days. After fermentation, the wine is refined for a year in 500-liter barrels of used French oak.

Xinomavro is a native variety that is usually planted in the North of Greece. This is the case in the Naoussa area, where it is the only accepted red variety. It is a productive variety whose yield must be controlled since, when the yield is controlled, it produces wines that are not black, acidic and bitter (that is what Xinomavro literally means), but at times they remind us of a Nebbiolo for its low layer and its very floral and fragrant aroma, being its mouth texturally similar to our tempranillo. In addition to floral and spicy reds, Apostolos Thymiopoulos produces a very fine rosé that is all flowers and has an incredible sapidity on the palate.

When left unchecked, Xinomavro produces very tannic wines and that is where Apostolos Thymiopoulos has made a difference. Organic viticulture, yield control, indigenous yeasts, winemaking and aging in large tanks… and we would already have it. A great Greek wine that is now part of this exclusive Coalla direct import club.

The farm where Thymiopoulos produces is a balanced farm that does not focus on monoculture and in which vines coexist with animals such as goats, chickens ... Not far from the Japanese idea of ??natural balance and non-interventionism.

Apostolos first owned a wine shop before returning to family ownership (he lost his parents more than a decade ago) and was a frequent traveler in Europe together with his good friend and mentor Haridimos Hatzidakis (the master of the Assyrtiko in Santorini), sadly disappeared in 2017. Those trips, in which he visited some organic and biodynamic winegrowers, together with that contact with the final customer of the store opened him to a world of possibilities and he understood that wine should be easy to drink, light, enjoy. That is the wines of Thymiopoulos, the apostle of the Xinomavro.