Hello from the other side: Alpha Estate (Amyndeon, Greece)

I know what you are thinking. Cheap attempt at leveraging Adele's lyrics to get clicks. And you be right. But I thought it was cute.

But it is also directly applicable to Alpha Estate in a number of ways. First, as shown in the below map of our North Greece Wine Trail Press Trip, Amyndeon is on the other side of Mt. Vermio from its fellow Xinomavro haven, Naoussa. The boxes in the figure below detail the diffrences that result. As pointed out in a previous post, this difference results in Kir-Yianni having its Naoussa vineyard (58 ha) focus on Xinomavro and international red varieties while its Amyndeon counterpart (16.5 ha) focuses on Xinomavro and domestic and international white varieties.The difference also results in, according to Angelos Iatridis (co-founder and winemaker), wines wirh more finesse.

But this "other-sidedness" is not restricted to the environment within which the estate operates. No, its practices and operations are on the other side of the "standard" practices and structures that I saw while touring the vineyards of the region. Let me take a step back before expanding on this point.

Our "guide" on the tour of the vineyard and cellar was chemist/enologist Angelos Iatrides, the estate's co-founder (along with noted viticulturist Makis Mavridis) and winemaker. According to Angelos, prior to their arrival, the land was segmented into small properties with separate owners. They located all of these owners and bought up parcels which eventually amounted to 100 ha, 85 ha of which are planted to vine today.

Angelos Iatrides among the vines

The vineyard is surrounded by three mountains and, due to the "rain-shadow" effect, is very dry; annual rainfall averages 300 mm.

One of the mountains surrounding Amyndeon

In order to ensure that the vineyard is not subjected to extreme water stress, a warren of pipes (350 m) have been installed below ground and draw on the estate's wells (as needed) to deliver water down to the level of an individual vine. That is on the other side in relation to the practices that I have observed at the other wineries. No qualitative judgements are being made herein. I am only pointing out that this is very sophisticated and advances the estate's philosophy of being respectful of the environment and minimizing waste.

Angelos indicated that mildew was his biggest concern, a result of hot summers and rain. By being forewarned, they are able to be prepared to respond effectively. Towards that end, the vineyard is connected to a weather station in Austria and so has a 10-day lead time on coming weather. This is an "other-side" practice.

One of the most important decisions that a winemaker has to make is when to harvest. And that decision is complicated in many cases by uneven ripening in a vineyard. Alpha Esate has deployed microcameras to scan the vineyard and monitor the difference in maturity of the grapes within the block. This is an "other-side" practice.

According to Angelos, they are sustainable-viticulture-certified and are almost precision viticulture.

And this type of precision extends into the cellar environment. No chemicals are used in the wood in the ceiling nor paint on the walls. According to the website, all construction material is highly inactive and neutral in order to guarantee "absolute neutral atmospheric conditions inside the winery" and, in so doing, "protect the quality of the grapes, the must, and the wine."

The winery is equipped with a totally integrated building management system which is accessible and controllable from anywhere in the world. In addition, equipment suppliers monitor their equipment online from remote locations.

This is a truly high-tech winery environment where no expense has been spared in order to meet today's needs and to stay ahead of tomorrow's.

Hello!!! Can you hear me?

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Vine training and vineyard management practices in the North Greece wine region

In my most recent post on the North Greece wine region, I reported on the varieties and rootstocks deployed therein. In this post I continue to elaborate the relevant elements of the W-MEA model for the region.

New or replacement rootstock and scion installations are primarily based on clonal, rather than massal, selection. The key objective of any clonal selection program is to improve crop yield and grape quality by providing virus-free rootstocks and scions to the grower. Such material is classified as certified stock and, in all but one case, the North Greece estates indicated their use of such planting material.

The training system most widely utilized in the region is the bilateral cordon, with bush-trained vines at Tsantali Rapsani (depending on the zone) and for some old Xinomavro vines at Alpha Estate. These old Xinomavro vines bring to mind the old Grenache bush-trained vines in sandy soils at Chateau Rayas and Domaine La Barroche in Chateauneuf du Pape.

93-year-old Xinomavro vines at Alpha estate

Angelos Iatridis (winemaker) among the bilateral
cordons at Alpha Estate

The region's commitment to producing high quality fruit from healthy soils, and with minimal impact on the environment, is demonstrated by the high incidence of organic -- or some type of sustainability -- as the vineyard management regime of choice. Alpha Estate, for example, is certified sustainable and is configured to, and utilizes, precision viticulture. As an example, the winery is hooked up to weather stations in Austria and, as a result, gets significant advance notice of weather systems that may be coming its way.

Pest control practices follow the dictates of integrated pest management (graphically illustrated below). For those practicing organic farming, sulphur and copper are used as disease control tools.

Source: http://www.pestmanagement.rutgers.edu/

Grass is used as a cover crop to contribute towards healthy soils by providing a habitat for beneficial flora and fauna as well as providing mild stress to the vines through competition for available water resources.

The estates engage in active canopy management in order to ensure balanced vine growth and provide sunlight access to the fruiting zone. Shoot thinning is practiced by all respondents and leaf culling is specifically mentioned by Domaine Porto Carras, Wine Art Estate, and Tsantali Rapsani.

Irrigation is allowed to offset the limited rainfall in the region. Kir-Yianni induces moderate water stress for its red grapes through controlled irrigation and a similar strategy is followed by the other estates. Alpha Estate practices precision viticulture and its manifestation in this area is an underground irrigation system which monitors soil conditions and delivers the precise amount of water to the specific vine when needed.


©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Variety and Rootstock choices in the North Greece wine region

The delivery of high-quality fruit to the cellar door is a critical success factor in the production of quality wines. Key to the realization of such fruits is excellence in all aspects of the model depicted in the graphic below. In my ongoing review of the North Greece wine region, I have previously described the elements covered in the component titled Site Selection. In this post I cover the variety and roostock elements of the area circled in red, a component referred to in the figure as Vineyard Establishment but which is interchangeably called the Built Environment. The information provided has been collected during winery visits, as responses to a questionnaire, and through perusal of winery websites.

Estate vineyards in North Greece range from the 4500 ha of Domaine Porto Carras to the 16 ha of Wine Art Estate. These estate vineyards may surround the winery or may be multiple vineyards, some of which are geographically removed. In the case of Kir-Yianni, the Naoussa vineyard (58 ha) focuses on Xinomavro and international red varieties while its Amyndeon counterpart (16.5 ha) focuses on Xinomavro and domestic and international white varieties. The Naoussa vineyard itself is divided into 40 parcels based on soil diversity.

Slopes of Meliton, Domaine Porto Carras

In addition to estate-sourced fruit, some wineries exercise contractual control over additional vineyard hectarage. Kir-Yianni has an additional 30 ha of land under agricultural contract in Amyndeon while Alpha Estates sources fruit from 750 ha of grower-owned vineyards to supplement its 100-ha (80 ha farmed) property. All of the Tsantali-Rapsani fruit is sourced from local growers. It bears pointing out that the wineries exercise significant control over the practices employed in these grower-owned vineyards.

The table below shows the grape varieties planted at the wineries visited on our North Greece Press Trip. The bracketed numbers indicate the number of wineries planting a specific variety (No bracketed number indicates a frequency of one.). While the frequency should not be interpreted as relative importance (we do not have data at this point on the amount of hectares planted by variety), it is interesting to note that the international red varieties Merlot and Syrah are planted in more vineyards than the indigenous red Xinomavro and the indigenous white Assyrtiko. I will pursue additional information re the relative plantings of the leading grape varieties in order to cast greater light on the topic. Suffice it to say that North Greece viticulturists have significant experience (or practice) with (especially) French varieties.

Indigenous White	Indigenous Red	International White	International Red
Assyrtiko (6)	Xinomavro (6)	Chardonnay (6)	Merlot (9)
Malagouzia (5)	Limnio (3)	Sauvignon Blanc (6)	Syrah (8)
Roditis (3)	Agiorgitiko (3)	Gewurtztraminer (3)	Cabernet Sauvignon (5)
Malvasia aromatico	Mavroudi	Viognier	Pinot Noir (2)
Athirii	Mavrotragona	Semillon	Petit Verdot
Preknadi	Krassato	Traminer	Sangiovese
Debina	Stavrato		Nebbiolo
	Moschomavro		Touriga Nacional
	Negoska		Cabernet Franc
	Mavrodaphne		Tempranillo
	Vlachiko		Tannat
			Montepulciano
			Negro Amaro
			Barbera

According to data provided by the survey respondents, all of the varieties are: allowed by regulation; highly adapted, or med-high adapted, to the climate and soils; and medium disease-resistant. All varieties are reported as having balanced, or low-to-balanced, yield potential (which is good for the production of quality fruit). I was a little confused by this though as there is a lot of Merlot grown in the environment and Merlot is a pretty vigorous cultivar whose tendencies have to be countered by rootstock selection, planting in less fertile soils, and canopy management practices in order to yield the best results.

The rootstocks deployed in the North Greece environment are 1103P, 110R, 41B, 5BB, SO4, and 140RUG, with 1103P, 110R, and 41B the most utilized. The characteristics of these rootstocks can be found here and here. Kir-Yianni employs 110R and 41 B in its Amyndeon vineyard but adds 1103P and 5BB to the mix for Xinomavro in Naoussa and SO4 for Syrah in the same vineyard.

I will cover training systems and cultural practices in a subsequent post.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

North Greece wine region physical environment vis a vis the W-MEA Model

I recently toured the North Greece wine region at the invitation of Wines of North Greece as part of a 2015 Digital Wine Communications Conference Pre-Conference Press Trip. An overview of the trip itinerary and some aspects of the environment were reported on previously.

Subsequent to the trip I submitted a comprehensive questionnaire to the wineries (through North Greece Wines) in order to collect data that would allow me to assess the wine environment against the Wine -- Mise en abyme (W-MEA) model. I developed this model as part of my assessment of grapevine needs and the best practices for effectively meeting those needs. The model is depicted below.

When complete, the assessment of the North Greece environment will have covered all three of the major components captured in the picture above. Today's post covers the physical (site) environment.

Of the 13 questionnaires submitted, six responses have been received. This is a fairly high rate of response (especially given the level of detail required in the responses) and is, no doubt, a reflection of the great working relationship between Wines of North Greece and its member wineries. I fully expect to continue receiving responses post-publication and will modify the reporting to reflect any new data so gained.

I have aggregated the responses into a regional composite in order to simplify the assessment as well as to protect any data that may be confidential to the responding wineries. The assessment follows with the leftmost column showing the elements, the second column showing the "best-practice" metric, the third column showing the composite North Greece metric, and the final column providing comments where I feel they are merited.

Model Element	“Optimal”  Metric	North Greece Wines Metric	Comments
Climate	Marine west coast; Mediterranean	Mediteranean; Continental;  Continental-Mediterranean	Variety of climate modifiers to include lakes, mountains, and seas
Average Temp (℃)	15 - 19	12.4 - 21.33
Degree days	> 1750	2114 (average)
Rainfall	500 m/yr for cool region; 750 m/yr for hotter region	519 m	Deficits made up by irrigation
Elevation	At or near  highest feasible point; within thermal belt	90 - 720 m
Slope	Slight-to -moderate incline	0 - 70%
Aspect	Southern for cool regions; north, east, northeastern for continental climes	South; north; southeast
Shape	Convex	Convex; concave	Concave slopes can become cold pools with potential negative effects for fruit and vine
Soils	> 5.08 cm/hr drainage;  0 - 25.4 cm/cm of soil of water-holding capacity	Well-drained; medium water-holding capability
Soil texture	Loam;  sandy loam	Sandy clay loam, sandy loam, loam, sandy, sandy clay, limestone
Soil color	Depends	Primarily red-brown; some limited white
Soil effective rooting depth	> 1 m	< 2m; one case of 3 - 4 m
Nutrient availability	Adequate	Medium; monitor with soil and leaf analysis
Soil pH	6 - 6.8	5 - 8
Soil organic matter	1 - 3%	0.8 - 2.5%
Soil toxic material	None	None
Pests/ Diseases	Phylloxera and nematodes  assumed in  most soils	Plasmopara viticola, downy mildew, powdery mildew, botrytis cinera, Esca syndrome, lobesia botrana, Grapevine fanleaf virus, leafroll, flavescence doree (Chardonnay)

There are no "show-stoppers" in the siting of the North Greece vineyards. As a matter of fact, all the base ingredients are present for the production of high-quality fruit.

Soil pH below 6 and above 7 is not preferred as those soils tend to have less-than-optimal levels of nutrients and micro-organisms. Soils falling outside of those ranges will require treatment to rectify shortcomings.

Elevation and slope are both important for air and water drainage with the potential for cold air pockets to develop during late spring in concave-shaped vineyards.

Subsequent posts will cover the built environment and vineyard management practices.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme