Vineyards

Vineyards


The vineyard of Tyrnavos includes the vineyards of the municipalities of Tyrnavos and Ampelonas and communities of Argyropouli, Damasi, Deleria, Dendra- Platanoulia and Rodia.It has a total area of 25,000 acres, of which 15,000 acres are grape varieties with predominant the red Muscat of Hamburg (10,000 acres). It is a variety which has very good results and is dominated mainly in the region of Tyrnavos (tends to be called Muscat of Tyrnavos), because the cultivable area of this variety in the rest of Greece did not exceed 1,600 acres. The white grape varieties grown in the area are mainly: Roditis, Bantiki, Limniona, varieties grown for ages, and the “cosmopolitan” varieties such as Syrah, Merlot, Cabernet S., Ugni Blanc, Maccabeu, Chardonnay, Grenach-Blanche, Debina that found fertile soil too.

Analogous the variety of the kind of the wines produced, white, red, rose in color, resin, dry, semi-sweet, sweet as regards their type, and many of them are officially recognized as Local Wine of Tyrnavos. But it is worth focusing more on the variety of Muscat of Hamburg and it is the one that dominates the area and nearly all the arable area in Greece is located in the region of Tyrnavos. This variety is identical to our place and it constitutes the basis for the production of highly aromatic wines of all categories but the separate Tsipouro of Tyrnavos as well.

Historical data of viticulture and wine production in the region of Tyrnavos.

Phylloxera was first identified in Tyrnavos probably in 1929 (Paper of Ministry of Agriculture 6/ 6 / 1929). The replacement of old subjects occurred during the period of 1930-1936 and was accompanied by a radical change in the varietal composition: The varietal composition of the old vineyard (roditis, bantiki, cocoon, imero mavro, sideritis, kartsiotis, outmali etc.) was followed by a fewer in numbers composition consisting of only three varieties: The Bantiki (vinificated variety ofgrapes), the Rozaki (desktop variety) and Muscat of Hamburg (mixed use). In the replacement of the varietal composition the Agricultural School of Averoff in Larissa seemed to have an important role. At that time the vineyard of Tyrnavos covered an area of more than 10,000 acres and produced 702,000 and 200,000 kilos of black and white wines, respectively (Greek Viticulture and Enology 1932).

Trying to find information related to the history of viticulture and the production of wine and tsipouro in the region of Tyrnavos poor results were yielded. It is possible that these activities dominated the domestic economy of the region, not only in the 19th century, but also during the Ottoman and Byzantine period (Leonard 1836, Heuzey 1858, Tsopotos 1896). It is possibly considered that the exercise of viticulture and the wine production of the region of Tyrnavos during the Byzantine and Post-Byzantine period is the continuation of an earlier experience of the local residents of the region(Lambert-Goes 1990).