Hatzidakis

Hatzidakis winery was founded in 1997 by Haridimos Hatzidakis and Konstantina Chryssou.

In 1996, Konstantina showed Haridimos her family's vineyard, located in the village of Pyrgos Kallistis, on the way to the monastery of Profiti Ilias-Santorini.  At 330 metres above sea level, the vineyard had been abandoned for many years, since Konstantina's parents, George and Aikaterini Chryssou, had left the island after the earthquake in 1956, moving to Athens as many locals did.  Until 1996, the vineyard remained neglected.  Haridimos was the first to re-cultivate the vineyard, planting Aidani, and the rest is history.

On one of their visits to the vineyard, Haridimos had spotted a cave at the end of it.  "Over here, we can create a Kanavaki", he said ('Kanaves' is the local name for wineries).  So a small underground winery started to take shape, built with patience, persistence, enthusiasm, passion - with "meraki" as we say in Greek - and hard work.  And this is how the dream came true!

In 1998, the first bottles of wine, vintage 1997, were released from that new winery.  'Santorini', a white wine made from Assyrtiko and  'Mavrotragano', a red wine from the rare Mavrotragano grape variety, were the first two wines to be produced.

Today, Hatzidakis Winery has 10 hectares of vineyards and most of them are organic.