GUIDED TOUR & WINE TASTING THE TOUR IS CONDUCTED IN GREEK BY MRS NANA LYKOU WINEMAKER'S WIFE

1. The guests are welcome in the sampling room where lyko's produce wines are exhibited, this is also the place where the tour ends round some bottles of wine for guests to taste them.

2. We come straight to the 1st building. This place was built in 1996 when mr a. Lykos launched out into winemaking. At the beginning of his career, he applied himself to produce two varieties of quality wine : one red and one white, today, all oak barrels of wine are stored in this appropriate room and supply lykos restaurant with wine (the restaurant is located just in front of the winery). This wine is not bottled but served in jugs. Lykos winery has made a reputation and has won fame in the district and the whole country as well

3. As you might known vintage is the very first step to wine making and the grapes are gathered every year in September or October according to the climatic conditions and the different vine-growing areas that are strictly controlled by approved vine growers who closely collaborate with mr lykos. The grapes are hand picked and carefully gathered in wooden tubs. For your information, after the grapes harvest, the vine growers proceed to the dressing of vines. Then, every vine is properly looked after its growing and its vegetative cycle. We always proceed with total respect for nature.
From the wooden tubs, the grapes are delicately put into wooden boxes ready to be loaded up for transit. At lykos'winery, boxes of grapes are tracked on a rail from the lorry to the main building for wine-making, the process of making wine starts here, in this second room. The grapes are tracked to the huge loading tunnel and then swallowed into the suction pump in conformity with the health standard of food processing; this pump comes under a very strong suction in order to collect only the grapes in the huge vat. This stainless steel vat is fit with a specific system of pressure. That crushes the grapes and collects its juice in another big stainless steel vat by means of pumps. According to the wine to produced, the grape juiced is fermenting in this vat for maximum 10 days before its next process

4. While walking to the 3rd room, it's worth mentioning the location of our different wine growing regions. These are of course all splendid, very sunny lands.
Up-to-date equipment that enables a considerable extension of lykos businss and a wider production of different wines.
In this 3rd room the grape juice fermenting in the previous room, is decanted into these new vats by means of pumps. The second stage of wine process is in progress now. After that, the grape juice is decanted to that big stainless steels machine called « filter » . This step is very important the the work of wine. At this stage, the wine is getting stabilized.
Finally, in January or at the latest February that follows the vintage, the new (or young) wine -that's to say the wine that won't be aged- is bottled by means of this bottling machine.
Here is the variety of these young wine we produce :
Panselinos white
panselinos grenache rouge (vin rose)
kerastis moshofilero white
Negreponte white
negreponte red
kerastis aghiorgitiko red

At last, after the bottling, all the bottles are carefully settled and laid down for minimum one month before their sealing (setting of a crown cork) and labeling.

5. However, all wines don't ferment in the same way. Some of them undergo a different and specific process of ageing wines. We've got four finest quality aged wines in the winery :
Iliatoras chardonnay white - kratistos nemea "vqprd" (equivalent of guaranted
Vintage) - panselinos red - melikos
In the basement, you'll find the cellar where these 4 vintage wines ripen, in a slow process, in oak barrels.
After a long period of maturing, the wine is decanted into the vats you've seen in room 3, prior to bottling, finally, the bottles are gently laid down on wooden pallets for at least one month before sealing and labeling.
Correctly cellared, this wine will continue to improve for the next years.

6. You'll find the store room with all the wines, coded, just in front of the cellar.

7. Time has come for you, now to go back to the sampling room where you'll have the opportunity and the pleasure to taste some wines suggested and selected for you by lykos winery. All the year round people from this region and the whole country, private persons or tourists like you, concerned about new wines, new varieties, new tastes, new aromas, come here to buy the wine they've tried and appreciated.

It is also the opportunity to learn about Greek grapes like : moshofilero, roditis, aghiorgitiko, assyrtiko, moschato alexandrias.