The Tsantali family was among thousands of Greeks who were forced to abandon hearth and home in 1922 in the wake of the Asia Minor Catastrophe. They came to Greece from Samakovo in Eastern Thrace with nothing more to their name than a cart and an ox. They settled in Serres in northern Greece and got jobs as farm hands. But they had a dream, and in 1938, they used their savings to open a small winery and launched ouzo and red wine on the market. The firm’s reputation grew through word-of-mouth and buyers came from all over the country for their products. The seed was firmly planted.
Evangelos was the youngest of the brothers and also the most energetic. When he started to feel that the town of Serres was too small for his grand plans, he left for Thessaloniki where, in 1945, he opened an ouzo distillery. The distinctive flavor of his ouzo pushed up sales and soon the business expanded from 300 square meters to 5,000. The family inaugurated its first winery in Naoussa in 1970. The following year, the company became a public limited company based at Aghios Pavlos in Halkidiki.
Today the vision of patriarch Evangelos Tsantali is kept alive by the third and fourth generations. The company continues to create fine wines and spirits with the same dedication – and the same secret recipe. Only the volume has changed and today Tsantali SA is the biggest wine producer in Greece, with over 250 hectares of vineyards (cultivating Xinomavro, Assyrtiko, Agiorgitiko and Moschofilero, as well as Merlot and Syrah), annual production of around 20 million liters and sales in 55 countries.
Try
Tsantali Agioritikos Rose
A blend of Limnio and Xinomavro from the Metoxi Chromitsa vineyard on Mount Athos, a wine with strong sour cherry and strawberry notes that has achieved some of the highest sales records in the Greek market. It was first launched in 1975 and in 1981 became the country’s first wine with Protected Geographical Indication.
Pair with
Baked or fried mussels, shrimp in tomato sauce, olive oil-rich Mediterranean vegetable stews as well as fruit.
Visit: www.tsantali.com
