The emblematic winery of Aigialeia
In 1990, Angelos Rouvalis, making use of the slopes of mountainous Aigialeia, creates a model gravity-flow winery specially designed for the production of quality terroir wines. Here, the incline of the terrain endows the winemaking process with a natural, unhurried and leisurely flow.
The gravity-flow winery, the first Greek winery of its kind and one of the few worldwide, is built on rock at 6 consecutive levels. Each level has its own specific function:
Level 1
Receiving the grapes
Arriving at the winery in small crates, immediately after they are harvested, quality control takes place here and the raw material is sorted. This level includes a special cooling chamber for the grapes, the cold soak tank, and the pneumatic press for the white varieties.
Level 2
Must processing
Immediately under the press, the must is gathered and processed. The juice from the grapes flows from the press naturally into special stainless-steel cooling tanks, where they remain for a few hours to allow static cold settling to take place.
Level 3
Fermentation and nurturing of wines
After that, again thanks to the natural flow, the now clean must passes on to the third level, where the alcoholic fermentations take place, including the remaining winemaking tasks and the nurturing of the wines.
Level 4
Bottling, packaging and laboratory quality control
At this level we bottle and package our wines. The bottling machine creates an atmosphere of inert air that prevents the wine from coming into contact with oxygen. At the same level, an organized laboratory has been set up, equipped with the latest machinery for carrying out the analyses and quality control of all our products.
Level 5
Cellar
The next level is located underground, with specific humidity and temperature conditions. Here, French oak barrels and amphorae handmade especially for ageing the wine are kept. In addition to the wines that need extensive ageing, the sweet wines that come from the sun dried grapes grown in our family-owned vineyard are made here.
Level 6
Storage cellar
The last semi-subterranean level comprises a storage space for the final products. The two cellars communicate with the bottling plant by means of a special lift, allowing the aged wine to be elevated without the use of pumps.