The company "Tsantali Vineyards & Wineries" is one of the largest wine producers and wine trading houses in Greece. The headquarters are located in the municipality of Agios Pavlos above Kassandra, the western headland of the Chalkidiki peninsula in the region of Macedonia. The roots date back to 1890, when the grandfather of the current Tsantali generation started producing tsipouro (pomace brandy) in Sidirochori in north-eastern Thrace. In 1922, the founder's five children (four sons, one daughter) emigrated to Serres (Eastern Macedonia). The brothers Theodoros and Evangelos first worked in a beverage company and in 1938 founded a distillery for ouzo. In 1945 Evangelos Tsantalis (1913-1996) emigrated to Thessaloniki (Theodoros stayed in Serres). He began to make red wine in Naoussa. However, there was not yet a winery of his own, but purchased wines were bottled and marketed. Today the company is run by the third generation, President Ioanna Tsantalis and Vice President Dr. Georgios Tsantalis.
There are four wineries today. The first was opened in Naoussa in Macedonia in 1970. Then followed in 1974 the present main winery Agios Pavlos on the three-fingered peninsula of Chalkidike. In the same year, 80 hectares of vineyards were leased, recultivated and planted by the monastery of St. Panteleimon in the monastery-owned domaine Metochi Chromitsa on the Holy Mountain Athos (eastern finger of Chalkidike) (picture). POP wines and various PGE wines in white, red and rosé are produced here, which may call themselves Agioritikos ("Holy Mountain") after their origin. Some of them are marketed in bocksbeutel-like bottles. Rapsani at the foot of the "Mountain of the Gods" in Thessaly followed as the third winery and Maronia in Thrace as the fourth . Other wines are supplied from the islands of Limnos, Rhodes and Santorini by cooperatives there.
The company's own vineyards cover over 200 hectares of vines in Maronia, Metochi Chromitsa on Mount Athos, Agios Pavlos in Chalkifdiki, Naoussa and Dion on Mount Olympus. In addition, grapes are supplied by around 1,000 winegrowers who cultivate a total of around 1,100 hectares according to prescribed methods. The local varieties Agiorgitiko, Assyrtiko, Athiri Aspro, Batiki, Mavroudi, Mavrodaphne, Roditis, Xinomavro and Zoumiatiko (Dimyat) are cultivated, as well as the international varieties Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot, Moscato (Muscat Blanc), Muscat d'Alexandrie, Sauvignon Blanc and Syrah. The vineyards are cultivated using two cultivation systems. In the case of certified integrated cultivation (KIP), this is done according to environmentally friendly criteria with reduced use of pesticides and the best possible quality of the grapes. On the 110 hectares of own vineyards, organic viticulture is practised with complete renunciation of pesticides. If necessary, only copper and sulphur are used. Fertilisation is carried out naturally with organic chicken manure and the estate's own pomace humus.
The vinification from grape reception to bottling is carried out with the most modern technical equipment or methods. This includes pneumatic stainless steel presses, rotofermenters and computer-controlled mantled fermentation tanks, as well as cryoextraction and carbonic maceration. The wines are matured in the underground, fully air-conditioned barrel and bottle cellar in 2,500 new French barriques. Other well-known products are the Tsipouro brands Agiorgitiko, Makedoniko and Kanenas, as well as the Makedoniko Apostagma apo Stafili (grape brandy). The latter is bottled in a jug-like bottle on which the wedding of the wine god Dionysus and Ariadne is depicted in relief. The model for the bottle shape and relief was the 2,300-year-old jug found near the Tsantali winery. Every year, 20 million bottles of wine are produced and exported to 55 countries worldwide. Tsantali is one of the largest wine companies in the world.
