At nearly 1,000 meters, in a rugged triangle of mountains near the Albanian border, winters reach minus 20 degrees Celsius and summer days swing more than 20 degrees from dawn to noon. Here, in his grandfather's old vineyard, a family makes some of Greece's most singular natural wine.
Backstory
Abraam's Vineyards was founded in 2014, named for the grandfather whose historic plots the family revived in the village of Komninades, in the Nestorio municipality of Kastoria, West Macedonia. The name honors the patriarch rather than serving as a brand.
The Region
The vineyards sit high in a mountain triangle formed by the Grammos, Vernos, and Askios ranges in northern Greece, at roughly 960 meters, with some parcels approaching 1,000. The semi-continental climate brings severe winters and wide diurnal temperature swings during the growing season, conditions that preserve acidity and aromatics.
Vineyards & Farming
The estate is certified organic and farmed with biodynamic principles, using no synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers. Soils are sandy-clay with a strong limestone influence, giving drainage and mineral character. The surrounding woodland of elm, oak, walnut, pear, and cornelian cherry supports a self-sustaining ecosystem. Plantings include the indigenous white Malagousia and Riesling.
Winemaking
The estate works as a small, philosophically driven operation that treats the vineyard as a self-sustaining ecosystem rather than a monoculture. Fermentations use indigenous yeasts, with minimal additives and no filtration. The flagship orange wine sees extended skin contact and amphora aging, with little or no added sulfur.
The Wines
The signature M & Orange is a skin-contact, amphora-aged Malagousia macerated for roughly three weeks and bottled with no fining, filtering, or added sulfur. It earned 93 points from Falstaff in the 2022 vintage. The range also includes a high-altitude unsulfured Riesling, the R & Nature, a direct-press Malagousia made without skin contact, and a rotating set of limited experimental cuvees.
