Μαυροδάφνη Κεφαλληνίας (Mavrodafni Kefallinias)

Styles

Principal grape varieties

Terroir

• The area is characterised by a particular microclimate with high relative humidity and calcareous soils, in many places with marls in Paliki, features that together create the distinctiveness of the region.

• The traditional production centres were the areas of Thinaía and Paliki, while over time production became concentrated in Paliki and, to a lesser extent, in Thiniá.
• According to legend, as soon as Kephalos set foot on the island he planted the vine he had brought with him to remind him of his homeland, and the Athenian earth became in time the earth of Thinaía — Thiniá.
• Mavrodaphne experienced a new period of prosperity with the founding of a Wine-Making Company by Dr Nik. Piniatoros in April 1858, which was purchased in 1872 by the English merchant Ernesto Toul and redirected towards foreign markets.

• The wine is described as an aromatic wine of very deep red colour, according to the account of the nineteenth-century geographer Josef Partsch.
• A few drops of this wine impart an intense colour change to a glass of white wine.

• The wines come mainly from semi-mountainous, non-irrigated vineyards in proximity to the coastal zone, with relatively low yields, a factor that allows them to develop intense and distinctive aromatic and flavour characteristics.

Facts drawn from the specification's terroir-link section by automatic interpretation — see the source.

All appellations in Greece

Sources

• National product specification (PDF) — ypaat
• eAmbrosia register (EU) — File number PDO-GR-A1055
• Official trade body site — Kefalonia Winemakers Association