One of Greece’s most artisanal and sought after producers, Yiannis Economou, is the heart and soul of Domaine Economou. A natural winemaker of extraordinary ability he is truly obsessed with displaying his homeland’s exceptional terroir in the most vivid way possible. With an oenology degree from Alba, years of cellar work in Germany and Bordeaux (Chateau Margaux) as well as Piedmont under the guidance of Nebbiolo maestros such as Ceretto and Scavino, he returned to Crete in 1994 to do just that.

He quickly set upon resurrecting the family vineyards. Yiannis brought his considerable collective wine making experience to bear on the rare native varieties of the high Ziros plateau of eastern Crete. It is a sparse, ethereal place, a terroir of such a singularly exposed nature as to lend itself to lunar comparisons. In its main part, the vineyard is self-cultivated with ungrafted vines of 35 to 70 years old. Cultivation is done with absolute respect to the environment in accordance with the high standards of organic agriculture and primarily includes local varieties such as Liatiko, Mandilari, Vilana and Thrapsathiri.

Yiannis treats his vines and the resulting wines with a kind of obsessive care rarely seen in modern wine making: selling off lesser vintages when not satisfied with a year, suffering through incredibly low yields rather than chemically treating the vines, and bottling and releasing his wines when he feels they are ready, instead of being dictated by market principles. The last bit is made clear by the vintages we are very proud to offer today.

While the wines of Economou originally garnered attention from those whose palates trend more esoteric, nowadays they are collected by those whose cellars are usually filled with wines that come from regions that start with the letter B. They are a point of pride on many of the world's great wine lists. It's no surprise really. These wines, born of Crete’s ancient, volcanic soils, stand shoulder to shoulder with the world's best wine when it comes to complexity, longevity and their ability to bring sublime pleasure to those who love them.