Old vines in Santorini, an interview with vinegrower Nikolas Pelekanos

By Yiannis Karakasis MW

In a previous article, I discussed the need to protect old vines, and I emphasised that their management should be different from that of new vineyards. What do I mean by that? Pruning that avoids cuts in the old wood as well as ploughing to revitalise the soil. And indeed, the design and planting of the vineyard should be of particular architecture right from the start. I understand that these thoughts sound nice in theory, but in practice, the producer will come back and say that the grapes he gets are too few and the whole project is financially unprofitable (although scientific evidence may suggest the opposite). However, this does not justify uprooting an old vineyard of 60 or 80 or 100 years old, mainly if one considers that there is an ongoing discussion about Greek wine precisely because of these old vineyards. In my opinion, the maximum possible effort should be made to save such vineyards even if they bear little fruit. How we can achieve this is another matter and goes beyond the purpose of today's article.