Ancient Wine Guys

As we recently passed the four-year mark of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, we’ve been reflecting on a history that stretches back thousands of years, and which inspired our upcoming Ancient Wines Club release: Europe From East to West: Wines of the Steppe. 🇺🇦

The Black Sea coast and steppe regions located in modern-day Ukraine have been a crossroads of the ancient world for thousands of years. However, many are unaware that these lands were traveled by and home to some of Europe's earliest cultures, civilizations, and winemaking traditions. 🍷🏺

We believe this history deserves to survive, be shared, and experienced through your wine glass.

Wines of the Steppe is a special pre-sale offer of wines featured in our upcoming Ancient Wines Club release, but made open to all.

We’ve partnered with , an importer dedicated to Ukrainian craft products, to bring you a selection of unique, beautiful wines from Ukraine 🇺🇦and Georgia. 🇬🇪

We’re proud to feature producers such as Beykush Winery (), an organically farmed family estate between Odessa and Mykolaiv on Ukraine's southern Black Sea coast, and Villa Tinta (), a family-owned winery located in Danubian Bessarabia in southwestern Ukraine.

These producers, and so many others, have now endured years of war during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but still continue to courageously produce incredible wines worthy of any table or cellar. 💪🏼

In partnership with Brave Selections, every bottle you order supports two incredible non-profits:

🟡Rebuilding Cellars: Helps winemakers, vineyard owners, and families in the wine industry rebuild war-damaged facilities and sustain their livelihoods
🔵Common Man for Ukraine: Humanitarian aid for displaced families and children who have lost a parent in the war

Ancient Wine Guys is donating an additional 10% of all profits from this sale to Rebuilding Cellars.

👉 Link in bio for the full offer selection and details. Simply email your desired order to [email protected] by March 23rd.

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Ancient Wines Club Members and Friends!

Only a couple of spots remain for our upcoming October 2026 tour of two of the most historic and exciting wine regions in Europe.

Join us as we explore the incredible wines, cuisine, culture, history, archaeology, and mythology of Crete and Rhodes.

Check out the full itinerary in the Travel section of our website (link in bio) and email us today to reserve your place!

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As we raise a glass (in this case a lovely Vidiano from Crete) to the end of 2025, we simply want to share how grateful we are for all of our incredible Ancient Wines Club members, fellow history lovers, and everyone in this beautiful community who joined us in exploring the past, one bottle at a time. Thank you!

Here’s to enjoying history, timeless wines, and new adventures (such as our upcoming trip to Crete in October - space available!) in 2026! 🍇✨🥂
Happy New Year!



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Visit the product page of our website (link in bio) for the exclusive opportunity to enjoy these four incredible wines from our Winter 2025 Ancient Wines Club, “Isle of the Gods: Wines of Crete” - and with flat-rate shipping of only $25 to all eligible states!

With your order, you will also receive our Winter 2025 club write-up, which features four laminated, full-color pages of detailed information about the wines, suggested food pairings, and a detailed look at the history and archaeology of Crete.

Orders will ship on December 30.

For a 15% discount on your order, enter AWGWINTER2025 at checkout!

To continue your Ancient Wines Club journey into the new year, also be sure to sign up for a regular Ancient Wines Club subscription on our website!

ISLE OF THE GODS: WINES OF CRETE 🍷🏛️

With our last club release of 2025, we journey to the island of Crete! Largest, most mountainous, and most geographically diverse of all the Greek islands, Crete played a critical role in the movement of ideas, peoples, and goods in the ancient world, and had a profound influence on the rest of Greece, particularly in the realms of material culture and myth. Today, it is also one of the most exciting and compelling wine regions in Europe. 🇬🇷🍷

Ancient Wines Club members: check your email for details about this month’s two amazing special offer wines, including a spectacular bubbly for the holidays! 🍾🥂

Not yet an Ancient Wines Club Member? Sign up today on our website (link in bio). We also have 1-month, 6-month, and one-year gift subscriptions for the wine, history, and mythology lover in your life! Gifts purchased by this Friday will ship in time for Christmas! 🎁🧑🏽‍💻

We traveled south out of the Macedonian hills to journey to another historically and viticulturally important region of Greece: Thessaly. Located in the foothills of Mount Olympus, the sleepy Thessalian town of Tyrnavos (and surrounding regions) was at times better known for tsipouro (grape brandy/grappa) production. In ancient times, Thessaly was an important region for grain production but it also famously provided some of Alexander the Great's most prized cavalry units, with the Thessalians long being recognized for their horsemanship. 🐎

On the wine side, we had been dreaming of a visit to Tyrnavos ever since we founded Ancient Wine Guys for one simple reason - it's home to (producing in PGI Tyrnavos) who has long been one of our favorite (and also regularly enjoyed) producers in addition to being one of the most respected winemakers in Greece. 👌🏻

These beautiful wines have long been hallmarks of quality Greek winemaking, and throughout our careers as wine merchants, the consistent balance, energy, and pure pleasure that 4th generation winemaker Christos Zafeirakis () brings with his organic and bio-dynamically produced wines is always impressive. ✨

While we loved the entire lineup of wines (no surprise there!), the wines made from the Limniona grape (an indigenous variety Christos is credited with reviving!) always stand out. In particular, his elegant Limniona Rosé, and Limniona Terra Cotta (aged in clay amphora) showed a beautiful depth and purity alongside layers of red fruit - simply joys to taste! 🏺🍷

It was truly a privilege to visit, tour, and taste in such a lovely setting - something any dedicated traveler to Greece should make the trip to do - thank you again for having us! 🙏🏻

We braved a blisteringly hot day to travel south along the coast of Thessaloniki to Epanomi where we stopped for a visit at the esteemed Gerovassiliou Estate (). Now an established winery, Gerovassiliou came from humble beginnings in the 1980s during a time when Greek wine's international reputation was either poor or non-existant in most drinkers' minds. Throughout the decades, these wines have come to represent Greece's winemaking quality and consistency and work hard to showcase the potential of native Greek varieties, such as Malagousia, a native white variety revived by the estate.

In the lovely tasting room overlooking an ocean of vines, we enjoyed tasting through a fun lineup of classic, focused, and polished wines from the estate. The group particularly loved the 2024 Malagousia, a refreshing orchard/melon/lemon-fruited respite from the day's heat, but all of the wines in the flight (which were matched with unique, inspired little pairing bites) showed just why it's not surprising that this estate is to be found as a "business card" for Greek wine all over Greece and the rest of the world.

The winery and estate itself are beautiful and state of the art, with a large, pristine facility surrounded by over 220 acres of vines currently being sustainably farmed on rolling hills that enjoy constant coastal breezes. They farm 11 varieties, but also have a vineyard plantation of dozens of rows of experimental varieties from all over Greece and beyond - something we loved exploring! Some of the interesting varieties on-site included Tannat, Koiniariko, Liatiko, Pamidi, Debina, Traminer, Riesling, and Moschomavro.

Finally, below the winery itself, is the Wine Museum which contained not only an incredible array of artifacts (some ancient) and tools from throughout the history of wine, but also what is easily the largest and most fun collection of corkscrews/wine openers in the world! We loved browsing the hundreds (thousands?) of examples of unique, clever, funny, and historical devices used to pull corks -- if you're in the area don't miss a visit here!

We kicked off this morning bright and early to get the jump on Helios, who has been driving his flaming chariot all too close to the plains of Macedon this week. Our destination? The ancient ruins of Dion, nestled at the foot of Mt. Olympus. As early as the 7th century BCE, this site was a bustling city and religious center, attested to by the wide paved city streets, numerous sanctuaries, and ornate mosaic floors depicting gods like Dionysus (long may he reign!) Like Olympia in the south, Dion hosted a Panhellenic festival where Macedonian kings gathered the best of the Greek world, and dedicated it to the gods. Athletes ran and actors performed. Euripides’ famous play The Bacchae even had its world premiere in Dion’s Theater! 🎭
Another highlight was visiting the Temple of Zeus Olympios, said to have been founded by Deucalion, the Greek flood survivor (think: ancient Noah 🛶). Considered the second oldest temple to Zeus and a birthplace of Greek religious tradition, it was here that Alexander the Great sacrificed 100 cattle here before launching his campaign to conquer Persia (Spoiler alert: it worked!)
In Greek religion, the gods got the bones and skin from burnt sacrifices and the meat was shared by all who attended. Fitting then, that we closed out the day with a sumptuous wood-fired BBQ paired with amazing wines at Kourtis- a feast fit for the gods indeed! 🔥🍖

We ventured farther south in Macedonia to the beautiful region of Pieria where we set out to explore the PGI Pieria appellation. Wrapping around the north side of Mount Olympus and extending to the western edge of the Thermaic gulf, Pieria is a sizeable, and relatively new PGI (est'd 2008) with a range of unique terroirs. Vineyards extend from the lower, rolling slopes of Mount Olympus all the way to breezy coastlines, and are influenced heavily by cooling winds on both fronts. In the small town of Rachi, in the shadows of Mount Olympus, we met winemakers Apostolos Kourtis (of and Dimitris Papagiannoulis (of ) who generously welcomed us at Apostolos' winery and home for an unforgettable tasting and afternoon lunch.

We tasted through an eye-opening lineup of wines from both winemakers that showcased an impressive, diverse, and delicious range of extremely well made wines. We absolutely loved all the wines shown, with highlights from Kourtis Winery including Apostolos' 2024 "Nyxta", a vibrant, mineral-packed blend of 90% Vidiano (from some of the first Vidiano vines grown outside Crete!) and 10% Assyrtiko, and his 2021 "13th Apostle", a complex red blend of 50-50 Xinomavro and Agiorgitiko, that was packed full of dark, savory, bramble-fruit character and paired perfectly with the rich flavors of wood-fire roasted meats prepared by the winemaker and chef himself.

From Dimitris' "Pion Oros" label, especially remarkable was his 2018 Xinomavro, a stunning example of textbook Xinomavro that showed the grape's most balanced and pleasurable sides. With its firm structure tempered by age, Dimitris captured the classic Xinomavro combination of silky red fruits, spices, and rich sundried-tomato paste flavors in a wine that we wish everyone could try as an example of what this excellent grape can do.

Most of all what stuck with us from our afternoon was the genuine, knowledgeable, joyful, and good-humored character of our hosts, serving up a spread of home-cooked dishes all from local produce and products that proved Pieria can offer not only fantastic wines, but exceptional cuisine as well! Thanks again for having us!

Like the heroes of Greek Mythology brave (or foolish!) enough to descend to the underworld in search of knowledge, today we paid our respects at the royal Macedonian tombs of Vergina. Hidden beneath an unassuming grassy mound lies one of the most significant archaeological discoveries of the 20th century—the tomb of Philip II, father of Alexander the Great. After paying the ferryman at the ticket booth, our group ventured into the dimly lit, beautifully preserved underground museum, where every gilded artifact told stories of power, legacy, and ritual. We felt like tantalus, standing mere inches from treasures that were used by Phillip and the royal Macedonian court to help reshape the Mediterranean world during the fourth century BCE.
One of the true highlights: A gleaming set of solid silver wine bowls, strainers and vessels—all perfectly preserved for their continued use in the afterlife. These weren’t just grave goods; they served as a connection to the vibrant, living world of the symposium, where wine was more than a drink—it was a ritual of intellect, storytelling, and politics. To drink deeply from these vessels, just as those who buried Phillip surely did, was not just about pleasure. It was about memory, philosophy, poetry, and shaping alliances over good wine and sharp wit. Unlike elsewhere in the Ancient Greek world, we are told the Macedonians did not dilute their wine with water, which explains why the echoes of debate and laughter we felt in our hearts were that much stronger.
The underground museum itself is a masterclass in immersive design. Our group of adventurers wandered through the glowing cases, stood at the doors of Phillip’s richly decorated tomb, and asked the kinds of questions one only can when standing on the threshold of life and death. Having learned the lessons of Orpheus and Persephone, we were careful to only take the amazing memories we made together with us, and soon we were allowed to depart, blinking back at the bright summer sun, the rhythmic thrum of the cicadas, and the vibrant bustle of life all around us.

We escaped away from a hot-and-humid Thessaloniki up to the beautiful, rocky, limestone and sun-soaked hills of the Siatista PGI appellation for a wonderful visit with winemaker Dimitris Diamantis who produces a range of do-not-miss wines under the Magoutes label. 🍷

Dimitris is an incredibly passionate and knowledgeable farmer and winemaker who works tirelessly to not only create soulful, energetic, and beautifully balanced wines from Xinomavro, and the local Moschomavro variety, but also to tell the story of Siatista. Siatista used to be recognized for making primarily dessert wines, called "liastos" (we loved the rich, appassimento method 2008 Liastos Dimitris shared with us!), but now the focus is on serious, mineral-driven wines that deserve a place in any conversation about world-class Greek wine. 🇬🇷

But, as we all know, great wine is made in the vineyard, and Dimitris's love of the land, terroir, history, and region he works in is immediately apparent. He and his family have worked to revive abandoned vineyards and varieties, as well as plant new ones with strong massale selections - a huge step to keeping the rare local varieties for generations to come. We loved seeing some of his old-vine Xinomavro (planted 1932) and even saw some of the only existing plantings of a nearly-extinct variety called Nigiriotiko that he is working to revive (after it was saved by his father) in his own vineyard. 🌱

We tasted through a full lineup of beautiful wines, including an incredible blanc de noir of Xinomavro (and perhaps some other secret varieties), as well as the newest vintage of his Moschomavro - an AWG favorite. So much more could be said about these wines but honestly you'll just have to try them yourself to understand! 🪄