Greek legends: Chatting with Thanasis Parparousis

I truly respect the fact that great people are often humble and unpretentious. Especially in the era of Social Media, where everyone else is trying to show off and state their presence. They could even be described as ‘antisocial’. Thanasis Parparousis is such a rare case. He belongs to the historic first group of Greeks, who were trained (DNO) as oenologists in Bordeaux, together with Gerovassiliou, Voyiatzis, Fakorellis and others, and whο transformed the Greek wine scene in the 70s. He is a quiet man with a lot of hidden power.

The following chat took place last week in Κatakolo in the Peloponnese after I initially ran into him by chance in a local fish tavern. He was having dinner with another iconic Greek producer, Christos Kokkalis (pictured below). The next morning, when I came down to breakfast, there he was again. As I say, I never plan my posts. Posts find me on the way. 

YK: What is wine for you?
TP: What I learned early on in my life, even from the times of my oenology studies, is that wine is a cultural product. But you need to have sense of aesthetics and beauty to assess its value. 

YK: Where is Greek wine today in an international context? 
TP: We need to produce wines of added value, wines that can age, always bearing in mind what the current situation is like. In the previous years we had inflation, now we still have a crisis, but you have to age your wines if everyone else does so. Even though there is a trend in France for wines that offer more immediate pleasure. 

I believe, that we have eventually moved forward from the USA impressive, rich, full-bodied style of wines; a style which was unfortunately adopted by Greek winemakers and kept us behind. We have reached the next level with Greek wines that are in many cases, very special and exotic. 

We have a very small production, a pot of flowers, we only account for the 1.8% of the E.U., 1% of the global production, a number that can fall even lower as competition rises across the market. Greeks possess only 0.5 to 1 hectare of land whereas in the new world that figure rises up to 1.000ha. We need to specialize more if we want to continue to exist. We need to start our work with the vine.

YK: Have things improved over the last years?
TP: Even small wineries, much like myself (120.000 bottles), sell in the metropolises of the world and that fact says it all. When you sell in New York, London, Tokyo, it means you have broad acceptance. What we still miss is top quality. This is the missing link.

YK: And how we can get there?
TP: With two actions. Care of the vine comes first. I believe you need to have smooth cultivation methods. So you can express your terroir and I am not talking about plants with yields that are unreasonably high. I am talking about a vine that can stand the test of time, aging and most importantly have aromatic elements, to live from the soil, to have it's own flora and fauna. On the other hand, you also need to have wines from good vintages you can put aside and forget. So you can stock up on aged bottles and increase the prices.

YK: How does the novice consumer in Greece comprehend Greek wine?
TP: As long as many people, and especially the young generation, go for “hard liquor” (mostly for financial reasons), we cannot talk seriously about wine. Another category of consumers are those who have a consistent, business-like relationship with wine. Those people go for fruity wines, in the beginning. The percentage of Green wine lovers that have been trained abroad are the "spark" for us to grow. I wouldn't say they constitute a large percentage, but they are the evangelists that will take Greek wine further.

YK: Still staying in Greece, bottled wine or bulk wine? Which one is preferred?
TP: People in Greece drink mostly bulk wine. Caused partly by the special taxes that apply to bottled wine (can be up to 50%). Bottled wine still has a long way to go to find its deserved place. We are getting there very slowly.  

YK: You are one of the pioneers of dry Mavrodaphne. What do you think of its potential?
TP: Actually I started vinifying dry Mavrodaphne in 1975. Most people know about the sweet stuff, a substitute for Port, especially during the phylloxera period. The dry version is a rewarding wine. It has friends and foes. But what I think is a fact is its complexity. It definitely needs time to open up even in the glass.

ΥΚ: How difficult is it to change the legislation concerning dry Mavrodaphne? Now, for example, Parparoussis Mavrodaphne is called Taos and you cannot mention the variety on the label. 
TP: Unfortunately, the pace at which legislation changes is very slow. In the past we had suggested the establishment of a professional body that would be in charge of any legislation to do with Greek wine, but the Ministry prefers to keep the legislative power within the state. The Ministry says that if the legislation changes it will interfere with sweet Mavrodaphne, which has a history of 2 centuries. However, when you drink a sweet wine you always drink less and a Sweet Mavrodaphne will not expand your experience. We will not be stopped by that. We will change its name to "Tsiggelo", which is it's best clone, and that is final.

YK: How do you evaluate Greek legislation in the year 2019?
TP: We always take slow steps, when we could be doing many things. For example, we could allow Greek varieties to be produced everywhere, in the whole of Greece. Just like the French have done with their wines. Why shouldn't we have the weapons to fight? Would the varieties change if they could be cultivated anywhere in the country, wherever the terroir allows? Greek wine needs to decide for itself, instead of having the government do so. There are many issues and challenges.