over one of those random conversations you tend to have living here our neighbour Spyro invited me to help with his wine making. I’d like to say that I got stuck in with the hard work but he had already spent 12 hours cutting the grapes from the vines, removing the leaves and cleaning the fruit before putting it through a giant mangle to crush the grapes that then went into a trough and was covered for 2 days. A bucket was placed under a tap that collected the juice from the grapes.

After a few days the crushed grapes were then placed in a large press and the remaining juice was extracted from the fruit, this was then placed in large glass containers and Spyro explained that every few days he would have to remove the sediment, the wine would be ready in about 20 days. The waste from the fruit he keeps and uses as compost in the garden.

Spyro explained that the process has been passed down through generations and he looks after the fruit from his family’s vineyards in the village, for every 100kg of fruit he only adds 1kg of sugar.

I’ll be sure to return in 20 days to taste the result.