Manolesakis Estate

Stavros Manolesakis and his father George began planting their own vineyards near Drama in 1989 and founded the estate in 1999. Drama sits in eastern Macedonia in northern Greece, close to the Bulgarian border.

It is one of the coolest and most promising wine areas in the country. The vineyards sit on the plain and lower slopes beneath the Falakro mountain, and the combination of northern latitude, altitude and mountain air gives a growing season considerably longer than most of Greece manages. Both native and international varieties do well.

Exis is the estate's range, and the red is the interesting one: it pairs Limnio, which Aristotle mentions in his writings and which may be the oldest named grape variety still in cultivation, with Moschomavro, a rare northern Greek native. Few producers work either seriously.