Yiannis Tselepos
Proprietor/Winemaker
Tseleopos Winery
Mantinia, Peleponnese, Greece
Spotlight No. 22
It is in the Greek tradition to use the mind to attain knowledge about life. It would be anti-Socratic to think otherwise. So despite a dialectic* attempt, getting Yiannis Tselepos to agree that part of his relationship with nature is intuitive was never going to happen. Yet everything he told me indicated that his connection with nature was much deeper than detached academics.
Yiannis grew up in war-torn Cyprus, where a long history of occupation left a complicated society, part Turkish and part Greek. Life was not easy. In 1974, he left Cyprus to study chemistry in England—except he did not stay there. Instead he kept going and made his way to the University of Dijon, in France. He knew nothing about wine at the time and had no idea that there was a field of study within the chemistry department known as enology. His time in Burgundy became the great epiphany of his life. He changed his major to enology and discovered a relationship with nature that has defined him ever since. Vineyards and wine revealed to him a way of life with beauty and harmony that he had not known could exist.
In 1981, after five eudaemonic* years in Burgundy, Yiannis decided it was time to take what he had learned closer to home and moved to Greece. He spent the next eight years working with wineries, gathering knowledge about the varieties and wines of Greece. In 1989 he bought his first vineyards: 1.5 hectares (3.7 acres) of Moscofilero in Arcadia, Mantinia.
Nothing about his selection is usual for Greece. To begin with, as far back as the time of the deities, Arcadia was a special place, home to Hermes and his son Pan, playful companion to Dionysus, famed god of the vines among other things. The forest-filled landscape was a great setting for Dionysians to play. The PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) itself is a high plain at approximately 650 meters (2,132 feet) that gets snow in the winter and plenty of rain, sometimes even floods. The soils are a mixture of limestone, iron clay and schist, which drains well. The Summer is temperate, providing a long growing season. The autochthonous* variety, Moscofilero, is like a hydrangea, changing color depending on its soil. This concerned the ancients greatly until Aristotle reminded them that if it was recurring, it was, in fact, natural.
Moscofilero is part of the Filéri family, which also includes Mavrofilero, which has black skin; Asprofilero, with white skin; and Xanthofilero, which is more blond skinned. Moscofilero has pinkish-greyish skins and is thought to be a relative of Traminer, as in Gewürtzraminer. This may be why, as Yiannis acquired more land, he planted Gewürtzraminer along with other cool-climate grapes like Riesling and, of course, a little Chardonnay (an impulse inspired by his beloved Burgundy). He also oversees the farming of Bordeaux varieties.
Yiannis’ vineyards are not certified organic or anything else. For him certifications are all dogmas, and he prefers to use his own mind to make good decisions. He advocates sustainability in everything he does, but the heavy rains of the region make it impossible to commit to not using fungicides. Sometimes, when they are necessary in order to save the vintage, he has to. But he does not use herbicides. Yiannis says, “If nature actually could speak, it would say ‘Please do not use Roundup!’” As for biodynamics, he doesn’t believe in it. He believes in conscious awareness, internal ethics and responsibility, and rational observation, plainly stating, “Nature shows you what it needs.” But he does acknowledge gravitational influences of the moon and he abides by them in the cellar.
Aristotle said, “In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.” Yiannis would agree. For him, the best part of being a winemaker is when he is walking with his dogs in the vineyards. I suspect that in these moments Yiannis is unable to apply his Socratic approach to the experience and that is why he senses freedom, the state he values most. The vines may have no words, but I observe that Yiannis and his vines are most certainly connected.
*dialectic διαλεκτική dialektikē - practice of debate
*eudaemonic εὐδαιμονικός eudaimonikós - Aristotelian happiness, which is an objective state in which life is lived well (eudaimōn means “happy”)
*autochthonous αυτόχθονες aftóchthones - that which belongs to the land where it is found
Yiannis Tselepos is featured on Terroir Talking’s Speak Greek Video — Winner of Wine Spectator’s 2018 Most Educational Video.
