Oenops Wines, Drama

Nikos Karatzas is the face behind ‘Oenops’ (= ‘wine face’). He is an intense, ambitious and confident in what he is doing. He studied in Bordeaux then became chief winemaker at a very young age at the high-profile Pavlidis winery, also in Drama, before setting up his own project  in 2015.  He is another member of the new generation, proud of Greece’s terroirs and indigenous varieties. He had his fill of international varieties in his previous job. Now his mission is to source great fruit and craft great wines from it. This is the  focus of Oenops, and it ‘costs’ him 50,000 km per year, touring the country and looking for interesting projects. So he is probably best described as a micro-négociant , working in partnership with growers who share his ideas.

He works from an old pie factory just outside Drama in Eastern Macedonia, which he has filled with concrete tanks, some stainless steel, some oak and some amphoras. He loves amphoras Now his own boss, he is clearly adoring the freedom to experiment, and his confidence for what he is sure he can achieve in the future is very infectious.