Siflogo – Vardea Amber 2022

Siflogo is a small organic wine “workshop” (as their owners call it), which was founded in 1994 by Dionysis and Maria Papanikolopoulos, in the small, mountainous village “Platystoma”, on the island of Lefkada in the Ionian sea. Their son, Vasilis, is also involved and destined to take over after a few years.

Viticulture and winemaking has been a family tradition and occupation for many generations. Its production is limited to a handful of “pure” wine bottles. The family has been farming organically (certified) the island’s indigenous grapes: Vertzami, Vardea, but also more obscure grapes, like Mavropatrino, Chlori, Thiako, Apsrovartzamo, Kokkinostafylo.

At an altitude of 500m on the dry, poor, limestone rocky soils – which have never seen chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or any harmful intervention – the ungrafted vines struggle to produce low yields, which, however, lead to impressive results in the winery. Farming is done exclusively by hand, with only a little help from plant fertilization, bluestone, and sulphur.

The underground stone-built cellars are equipped with a few stainless steel tanks and old French oak barrels. The family has always been a stickler for tradition, and stubbornly chose the hard way of working manually, with no intervention, to preserve the expression of their place in their wines.

Dionysis Papanikolopoulos worked as a teacher for most of his life, and he has also published poetry books. After discussing with him, one understands his deep knowledge and sensitivity for his local heritage, culture and history, and his passionate effort to preserve through his own wines.