Ktima Biblia Chora

Ktima Biblia Chora is the perfect estate to discuss right after the recently presented Ktima Gerovassiliou. Evangelos Gerovassiliou and Vassilios Tsaktsarlis are childhood friends from Epanomi, where the former still runs his famous winery today. Both studied in Thessaloniki (Gerovassiliou agricultural sciences, Tsaktsarlis chemistry) and then specialised in viticulture at the University of Bordeaux. While Gerovassiliou afterwards signed on as oenologist at the Porto Carras winery, Tsaktsarlis likewise joined another great Greek house in 1992, the newly founded Domaine Costa Lazaridi. There, right at the start, he created the Amethystos, which - especially in its red version - remains very popular to this day. He pioneered new methods back then - cold maceration and the like - in Greek wine production. Around the turn of the millennium, the two childhood friends then fulfilled a dream and founded a top estate together - "Biblia Chora" (pronounced "Vivlía Chóra").

For it they chose a spot at the foot of Mount Pangeon - hence also the name of the small PGI - about 100 km east of Thessaloniki (some 50 km further west lies the smaller Kavala, which provides the larger PGI Kavala) near a small village called Kokkinochori. The first 7 ha were planted in 1998; in 2001 the winery itself was built and the first vintage produced.

Of the two owners, Tsaktsarlis is responsible for all decisions concerning wine production, even if there is of course very close coordination on markets and similar matters. What has been produced in what are now exactly 20 years under Tsaktsarlis' direction will occupy us shortly - but first we must briefly turn to the locality itself, and to the name the estate bears. And for that, one has to reach back a little ...

On the estate's website it says:

The Phoenicians, esteemed navigators and merchants, came to the Pangeon area in search of precious metals and first introduced a special grape variety known as 'Biblia". The same variety continued to be cultivated for centuries and the wine made from it was called "Bilinos Oenos '' (which means wine in ancient Greek). The whole area was named "Biblia Chora" – land of Biblia after it, as appears in historical writings of Isiodos, Theoktitos and Michail Psellos.

As far as the history of the word is concerned, we do indeed have to look back to the Phoenicians. They were a Semitic people who settled the Levant in the 1st millennium BC and were famed for seafaring. One of their key sites was present-day "Byblos", which the Greeks of antiquity called Βύβλος (pronounced "vívlos"). (How exactly the Greeks arrived at this name - originally made up of the Semitic consonants "Gbl" - is unclear. It takes some rather serious mishearing ...) Since papyrus from Egypt - the most important writing material of the age - had its main trading hub there, the papyrus scroll itself soon came to be called βυβλίον or βιβλίον (both pronounced "vivlíon"). To this day, "book" in Greek is βιβλίο ("vivlío"). And in German, too, a weighty book (really a small library) takes its name from here: "Bibel" - the Bible. Incidentally, the only reason we do not pronounce it "Vivel" is that the development was mediated through the church Latin of the Middle Ages (the plural for "writings", βιβλία, becomes Latin "biblia", from which Middle High German "biblie" and "bibel" developed). This intermediate step, by the way, also explains why modern transcriptions of the Greek letter beta (Β,β) still often use "B,b", even though this has not matched the actual sound for more than two thousand years (the pronunciation of Ancient Greek followed its own development in antiquity, but was largely complete around the turn of the millennium). To be patriotic about it, one would really have to use "V,v" - and print "Vivlia Chora" on the bottles.

But how do we get from this excursion into antiquity back to our winery? A brief look at the sources shows that the area was indeed known in antiquity as Βιβλία χώρα ("vivlía chóra") or, for short, Βιβλίνη ("vivlíni"). It was indeed famous for its wine, too, the Βίβλινος οἶνος ("vívlinos ínos"). The poet Theocritus, for one, has a "Bibline" wine poured on Sicily - a wine that, despite longer ageing, evidently still impressed:

Two young chickens I slaughtered, And a suckling piglet; and I broached Bibline wine, Lovely of scent, nearly four years old, yet as if fresh from the press. Onions I served, and snails; a splendid drink it was. Later they poured it unmixed, to drink to the health Of whomever one wished, only the names had to be spoken; And we called them out loud and drank, as each one pleased.

Ancient etymologists, however, were apparently divided on whether this wine was simply named after the region - or after a grape variety found there by the name of Βιβλία ("vivlía"). This variety is also said to have occurred on Naxos. A river on that island named Βίβλος ("vívlos"), unknown today, is accordingly cited as a namesake. As far as I can see, however, scholarship today does indeed tend to trace the wine's name back to the region between Pangeon and the sea (some 10 km), while the Naxos trail could be explained by the presence of Thracians on that island - a secondary export, as it were.

Where the Biblia Chora winery stands today, a very famous "Bibline wine" was thus probably indeed grown in antiquity. Whether we really need the Phoenicians as prehistory, however, is not quite clear to me. Or rather: after a brief review of the sources, it seems to me unresolved what kind of "cause" the Phoenicians are supposed to be. In Heraclea Lyncestis - in present-day North Macedonia - an inscription of the 4th century BC does indeed speak of a "Bibline" vine planting (βυβλίνα μασχάλα), and there, at least, a planting based on material from the city of Byblos is what is meant. But as far as I can see, the presence of the Phoenicians in Thrace is not archaeologically established at all. Could it not be, then - I ask without any expertise in this field - that the Phoenicians merely played the part of prompters, but not that of a physical cause, i.e. of winegrowers? In other words: could Βιβλία χώρα ("vivlía chóra") not simply be the "papyrus country"? According to Pliny the Elder (Natural History 13,12), papyrus grows not only in Egypt but further north as well.

Finally: even if the Phoenician influence in the region did lend it its name, that need not mean the Phoenician seafarers also brought the grape variety along on their ships. The following sequence seems conceivable too: the area is named after the Phoenicians from Byblos > the wine of the area is named after the Bibline area. The latter option is not entirely irrelevant, for a few years ago Tsaktsarlis discovered a grape variety on Mount Pangeon which, according to DNA analysis, is an old Greek variety. The wine is sold under the name "Biblinos" (pronounced "Vívlinos"; Βίβλινος), which, given the historical sidelights offered here, naturally allows for fascinating speculation ... at least if the world-famous ancient wine does not go back to vines from the Levant. So one may well keep speculating with relish ...

With the mention of the modern "Biblinos", the arc now swings back to the estate's products. These come from grapes grown on 48 ha of the estate's own vineyards and 30 ha under contract. All cultivation is organic. (The wines themselves have so far also been produced to organic standards but - with two exceptions - not yet certified. This is currently being changed for the entire range.) The terroir is shaped by the interplay of sea breeze and cool mountain air, which greatly benefits the gentle ripening of the grapes.

Although the estate began with a very concentrated range, it now employs more than 70 people and already sells 16 different products. The Etos series - one Merlot, one Cabernet Sauvignon - is only produced in exceptional vintages, though. The estate wine "Ktima Biblia Chora" comes in red, rosé and white, with Agiorgitiko (in the red) and Assyrtiko (in the white) entering as indigenous blending partners. The role distribution in the Plagios series is similar. In the Areti series, the two indigenous varieties mentioned take the stage alone. With the Ovilos it is mixed: the white is a blend of Assyrtiko and Sémillon, the red is made from Cabernet Sauvignon. In the Sole line, finally, Sémillon, Vidiano and Pinot Noir each appear "solo". (Well, the first has a little Traminer blended in.) And yes, then there is the mysterious "Biblinos" as a red and a rosé ... The entry-level wines (red, white, rosé), by the way, account for the lion's share of production with a good 520 thousand bottles combined. The Ovilos and Plagios labels each sit at roughly 25 to 15 thousand bottles. That order of magnitude still holds for the Areti White, while the Areti Red then stands at only about 7000 bottles. The Sole series ranges from 10 thousand bottles (Pinot Noir) down to just 4000 (Vidiano).

With these wines, Ktima Biblia Chora competes in international competitions and tastings like hardly any other Greek winery. The white Ovilos in particular seems to have won over many jurors. The 2018, for instance, received 95 Robert Parker points from Mark Squires. The same score went to the Sole Sémillon 2017 at the "Decanter World Wine Awards" in the last two tasting years (2019 and 2020). The 2018 and 2019 vintages of the white Ovilos even reached 97 points there! (Apart from three exceptions from Santorini, no Greek wine has ever scored better there.) Even if one harbours certain doubts about the value of such ratings (see here), in this consistency they do indicate the estate's high quality.

Especially relevant is also the "50 Great Greek Wines" tasting, which was conducted in a highly qualified manner. It is remarkable there that Ktima Biblia Chora appears three times in the list of the top 50 wines. Once again - of course - with the "Ovilos White", at number 21. Worth mentioning, too, that with the white "Areti" they managed to place an Assyrtiko not from Santorini in the top 10 (number 6). And one more thing should not be overlooked: at number 39 stands the "Ktima Biblia Chora" white - quite a success story for an entry-level wine that you may well be served in better Greek country tavernas ...

Behind these sustained successes lies a great passion for Greek viticulture (there is, accordingly, an experimental vineyard with 36 varieties) and an uncompromising attitude where quality is concerned. Yields are restricted not only for the top wines, at 35-40 hl/ha, but a range of 48-50 hl/ha is also maintained for the Biblia Chora wines.

We will soon report on the estate's individual wines here on the website. And you will be hearing about Ktima Biblia Chora more often anyway, for it is currently founding or acquiring small colony wineries in other places with unique terroir. These include Titos Efichidis in Goumenissa and Mikra Thira on Therasia. Especially exciting for friends of Greek wine from Germany: the revival of the estate of Christos Kokkalis from the inconspicuous PGI Ilia. His wines - above all the Trilogia - first put Greek wine on the table for many people there. The success story is now to be continued as Ktima Dyo Ypsi.

Finally, good to know for German wine lovers: the German-born chemist Annegret Stamos works at the estate (a.stamos@bibliachora.gr; +306948240360; her daughter will be taking over more and more this year). She has been Tsaktsarlis' right hand for almost three decades now, knows modern Greek viticulture like the back of her hand and can speak on it as competently as almost no one else.

The winery's website: here.

Instagram: here.

Facebook: here.