SOIL AND MICROCLIMATE

GENTILINI VINEYARDS
(Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Moschofilero, Syrah, Muscat)

The Gentilini vineyards are located near the village of Minies in Cephalonia at 50 - 60 meters above sea level. Half the vineyards are chalky clay and the other half are chalky sand. The soil is shallow above a limestone bedrock.

Although the vineyards are close to the sea, they are protected by a hill that slopes down from the cliff top. The proximity to the sea and unusual protection create a unique microclimate in the vineyards. The vineyards are cultivated in a valley that runs north-south, parallel to the coastline.

The winters are rarely very cold, and the vines rarely go fully dormant. Bud break is frequently early which puts the vines at risk from spring storms that can bring salty, cold winds off the sea.

The springs are usually warm and dry, followed by increasingly hot, dry summers which, in turn, can result in stressed growth in the vineyards. However, the combination of extremely alkaline soils and difficult growing conditions ensures the development of terroir concentrated aromas in the wines.

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A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE WINERY

In 1929, Gerassimo Cambitzi opened one of England’s first wineries, Isleworth Wineries, a little outside London. Thirty-five years later his grandson, Spiro-Nicholas Cosmetatos, happened to spend two years near the vineyards and Wine Institute of Stellenbosch in South Africa.

It was there that the idea was born to create a world-class wine in Greece. With this challenge formulated, he returned to his native Cephalonia and, in 1978, planted his first vineyard of local and classic white grape varietals outside the village of Minies. Having studied the latest techniques being taught at the universities of California and Australia, he experimented with different methods of canopy management, grafting, pruning and spraying programmes etc, in order to identify the processes best suited to the climate and soil of the area.

Further detailed experimentation was conducted in the winery before the fist commercial vintage was released in 1984 under the label Gentilini, simultaneously in Athens and in the very difficult London market.

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STRATEGY AND PHILOSOPHY

It is no coincidence that Gentilini, the creation of Spiro Nicholas Cosmetatos, has been represented by top international wine merchants such as Justerini & Brooks, Bibendum, Simon Loftus and, lately, Oddbins. Gentilini produces a range of wines that aims for world class stature, and is targeted at the sophisticated and discerning consumer. Today Gentilini wines can be enjoyed throughout the world, from England to Tokyo and from Germany to Canada.

With state-of-the-art winery and estate vineyards on Cephalonia, Gentilini has been at the forefront of quality white winemaking in Greece since its first vintage in 1984. All the steps that go into the making of these fine wines, from vineyard management to bottling and marketing, are overseen and contolled by us, the Cosmetatos family, together with our resident winemaker, Gabrielle Beamish.

The creation of Gentilini has always represented a challenge. Essentially, what we do is take the latest technology in winemaking and combine it with the most advanced research findings in viticulture and oenology. These we then apply to indigenous as well as classic grape varietals, adjusting and fine-tuning them as we go along, to take into account local soil and climatic conditions. Quantities have purposefully been kept low to ensure that quality is not compromised, with a total production of just 50,000 bottles annually. The results have been stunning. Never before have Robola, Tsaoussi and Muscat, the local Cephalonian cultivars, been vinified in this manner.