Chiseled block walls of honey
state-of-the-art wine making facilities,
colored sandstone quarried on the
showing off the oak barrels used in
estate’s lands were used to
aging, the tasting rooms and educational
construct the handsome main
center which caters to both tourists and
winery and outbuildings and the
students.
airy glass walled restaurant –
His family’s
been distilling
for nearly 140
years.
plans are under consideration for a
We settled at a table on the terrace,
boutique hotel. From the wide
overlooking the vineyards, hills and
terrace with panoramic views of
distant sea, set with a dish of fresh olives
the valleys and hills, a permanent
glistening in oil, three tall glasses, ice
Anestis Babatzimopoulos, his
visitor’s picnic area was visible
water and a chilled bottle of Babatzim
longish white hair flowing in the soft
with each table shaded by a grape
ouzo – his family’s been distilling for
breeze, seemed a character out of
arbor.
nearly 140 years. It’s barely 11:00 in the
central casting.
morning. Apologizing, unnecessarily,
Domaine Anesti Babatzimopoulou
through Eva, about his lack of English,
Yet Anestis is a committed third
was serene this July day, meaning
for the next several hours Anestis
generation farmer, distiller, wine
there was no one around. The
effectively expressed, through his hands
maker and businessman whose
winery had just closed to prepare
and natural animated gestures, that he
family had survived the vagaries of
for the August harvest, but for the
holds the Greek language as the best for
empires. It was in 1875 that Anestis’
next week or so, this was Anestis’
feelings and emotions. So too did
family started distilling raki and
break as well. Eva and I were the
centuries of scholars and playwrights.
tsipouro in Constantinople during the
only guests. He escorted us
With a backdrop of brilliant sunlight and
era when that fabled city was the
through the compact 12 year-old
blue sky, the tanned, gently weathered
capital of the Ottoman Empire and in
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FEBRUARY 2014 • LUXE BEAT MAGAZINE