According to the Office International du Vin Greeces ranking in the volume of wine produced 14 in the top 20 countries has lost a place Hungary has taken the slot previously held by Greece The level of foreign investment in Hungary is an admirably cosmopolitan mix French Spanish and American are just a few ventures that spring to mind The fluctuating fortunes of the fragmented Greek vineyard are far more complex than a lack of a highprofile foreigninvestment stamp of approval The grubbing up of vineyards some merited others not has set off an alarm bell
On my rounds I see within historic regions lazy farming practices On Crete a veteran told me how lifelong overcropping Mandilari with unripe green vegetal notes had run its course No quality boutique address of which there are now dozens would touch grapes like these Elsewhere in the Peloponnese there is an eerie silence in the increasing areas of unpruned vines Further distressing signals come from terroirstar Santorini The ongoing loss of vines is not only down to touristfueled realestate demand for a place in the sun with a view The advanced farmers age average 63 cannot be overlooked Some just sell up Only a few have resorted to longterm leasing to professional farmers like Christoforos Hryssou or Nikos Pelekanos With 19 million visitors expected in 2014 local population 13200 it is not pragmatic to advocate a construction moratorium A touchdown at the airport eventually results in some m2 of concrete pour There is a way forward to increase the value of land on which current housing lies Land zoning is now of the upmost urgency No vineyard is uniform in soil type Vlichada with high sand content is not ideal for farming the muchindemand Assyrtiko It makes sense to designate that area for building rather than farming Sea views come as a bonus The cementing over of Imerovigli a Grand Cru had it been in Chablis is just too awful to ponder on For such a wine brimming with a sense of place Santorinis parttime or fulltime farmers command higher prices The incentive of a higher revenue towards better farming increases land value it is a winwin situation
If there is a will for farreaching change of which I remain skeptical other solutions exist even for the aforementioned Santorini issues Therasia the little Thera Santorini is 92 km2 Sparsely populated it numbers 256 inhabitants It is pretourism no cement Santorini in the 1970s Since 1613 BC it has been covered with the same offwhite porous topsoil that geologists attribute to the Minoan explosion that occurred on the other side of the caldera In 1965 there were 74 hectares in vine From the bay of Korfos the canavas cavelike rooms carved in the soft volcanic rocks in which wine was produced and stored exported in bulk to France for the production of sparkling wine Today the terraces bear little resemblance to those on my first visit in the 1990s Some 50 hectares have been abandoned Replanting Assyrtiko Aidani and a little Mavrotragano would be going back to the future There is room for new boutique wineries For their energy needs solar and wind power could be tapped Presto the carbonneutral credentials This expansion would give a new lease of life to one of a handful of the worlds improbable vineyards Nationwide action in planting vines is no fairy tale Further inertia is simply unthinkable