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The „Evangelos Tsantalis S.A.“ company is the largest producer of wine and wine merchant in Greece. The head office is located in the town of Agios Pavlos above Cassandra, the Western tip of land on the Chalkidiki peninsula in the wine-growing region of Macedonia. The roots of the company go back to 1890, when the grandfather of the current Tsantali generation started producing Tsipouro (grappa-type spirit) in Sidirochori im the northeast of Thracia. In 1922 the five children (four sons and one daughter) of the founder moved to Serres in eastern Macedonia. The two brothers Theodoros and Evangelos initially worked in a small beverage company, and established a distillery for ouzo in 1938. In 1945 Evangelos Tsantalis (1913-1996) moved to Thessaloniki, while Theodoros remained in Serres). He started producing small amount of red wine in Naoussa. That was really the beginning of the company as it still exists today. At that stage ther was no own winery, ready-made wines were purchased in bulk, then bottled and marketed. Today the third generation of the family runs the business, in the form of president Ioanna Tsantalis and vie-president Dr. Georgios Tsantalis.
The first own wine cellar was built in Naoussa in 1970. A quality wine (OPAP) is produced from the 20 hectares of own vineyards. What is currently the main winery in Agios Pavlos, with 20 hectares of own vineyards there, was built in 1974. In the same year, 80 hectares of vineyards were leased on the holy Mount Athos, on the eastern finger of Chalkidike) from the St. Panteleimon abbey in the abbey’s own Domaine Metochi Chromitsa, and completely replanted. It is here that the first Greek country wine (Topikos Oinos) was produced. Today several white, red and rosé wines are produced, all of which are allowed to bear the origin Agioritikos („from the holy mountain“). Some of these are marketede in bottles similar to the German Bocksbeutel shape (or Mateus Rosé). It is worth mentioning that organic methods have been implemented in the Agios Pavlos vineyards as well as on Mount Athos since the mid-1990’s. In addition, large amounts of grapes are bought in from 680 contract growers working more than 500 hectares of vineyards. The varieties used include the indigenous varieties Agiorgitiko, Assyrtiko, Athiri, Batiki, Mavroudi, Moscato, Mavrodaphne, Roditis, Xynomavro and Zoumiatis, as well as the international varieties Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot, Muscat d´Alexandrie, Sauvignon Blanc and Syrah. They are used to make Topikos Oinos bearing the designations Agioritikos, Makedonikos, Chalkidikis and Thessalikos.
Furthermore, Tsantali buys in grapes from contract growers in the Rapsani district on Mount Olympus (Thessalia region) and processes these in its own winery at the foot of the “seat of the gods”. The red wine „Epilegmenos Rapsani“ is one of the absolute top-rated products of the house. A fourth winery, with 50 hectares of own vineyards, is located in Maronia (Thracia region). The quality wines from the islands of Limnos and Samos are supplied by cooperatives there, and are bottled by Tsantali in Agios Pavlos. Other well-known products include the Agioritiko Tsipouro (grappa-style spirit), as well as the Makedoniko Apostagma apo Stafili (grape brandy). The latter is bottled in a jug-like bottle showing relief-style decorations depicting the wedding of the god of wine, Dionysus, with Ariadne. The prototype for the jug shape and design was a 2300-year-old jug found close to the Tsantali winery. Annual production is around 18 million bottles of wine which are exported to 43 countries around the world.
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