wein.plus
Attention
You are using an old browser that may not function as expected.
For a better, safer browsing experience, please upgrade your browser.

Log in Become a Member

The Greek winery "Mercouri Estate", with its headquarters near the city of Olympia in the western Peloponnese, was founded in 1860 by Theodore Mercouri from Alexandria (Egypt). In 1870 he imported the Italian variety Refosco from Friuli and planted his first vineyard. At that time wine was exported to Trieste in barrels. But olive oil and currants (raisins) were also produced (even today). The son of the founder, Leonidas Mercouri, built the first modern winery in this area in the 1930's and ran the estate until 1955, when grapes were produced but no wine was made. In 1990, the estate was reactivated by brothers Vassilis and Christos Kanellakopoulos, who are Mercouri's fourth generation descendants. They introduced a new Refosco clone, whereby the vine is traditionally called Mercouri here. There is a lot of experimentation with autochthonous and foreign grape varieties.

The vineyards are planted with the red wine varieties Avgoustiatis, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Grenache Noir, Mavrodaphne, Merlot, Mourvèdre, Refosco, Sangiovese and Syrah, and the white wine varieties Malvasia Aromatica, Ribolla Gialla, Roditis, Sauvignon Blanc, Tourkopoula and Viognier. The flagship wines are the red wine Ktima Mercouri from the Refosco (85%) and Mavrodaphne (15%) varieties, and the white wine Foloi from the Roditis variety. A speciality is the Hortes, produced only in small quantities, which is made from dried Mavrodaphne and Korinthiaki grapes, matured for five years in oak barrels and is blended to 18% alcohol content. Furthermore, the red wine Antaris (Avgoustiatis, Mourvèdre), the Rosé Orion (Grenache Noir) and the white wines Kallisto (Tourkopoula, Ribolla Giala) and Coma Berenices (Viognier) are produced.

Voices of our members

Hans-Georg Schwarz

As honorary chairman of the Domäne Wachau, it is the easiest and quickest way for me to access the wein.plus encyclopaedia when I have questions. The certainty of receiving well-founded and up-to-date information here makes it an indispensable guide.

Hans-Georg Schwarz
Ehrenobmann der Domäne Wachau (Wachau)

The world's largest Lexicon of wine terms.

26,367 Keywords · 46,924 Synonyms · 5,323 Translations · 31,701 Pronunciations · 201,864 Cross-references
made with by our author Norbert F. J. Tischelmayer. About the Lexicon

EVENTS NEAR YOU