The story begins with the life dream of two people and their quest for good wine. Domaine Karanika was founded by Laurens M. Hartman – Karanika, the son of a Greek mother and a Dutch father and his wife, Annette van Kampen. Both, have lived all their life in the Netherlands and had worked for about 15 years in various management positions in publishing.
Their common love for good wine and discontent with the commercial “Parkerised” wines, led them one day back in early 2004 to pursue their dream: produce world-class organic sparkling wines following only the traditional method (methode traditionelle). Over the years, they were trained as winemakers, oenologists and vineyardists in Europe and the US while searching for the right combination of terroir and grape varieties. After serious consideration of options from Australia to Germany, their love for the amazing Xinomavro variety, not yet famous then, led them to Amyndeo in Greece where their dream started coming to life. They set the bar very high by allowing themselves only completely natural ‘means and tools’ and at the same time demanding a whistle clean crystal clear and elegant sparkling character. Their winemaking philosophy is minimal handling of grapes and wines with few additions and respect to earth farming. They believe that only in natural balance one can find true quality. They follow nature, instead of trying to control it. So, if nature decides to give less color to grapes, they make more blanc de noir than rose, or if the climatological circumstances benefit phenolic ripeness, they decide to produce more red wine. They try to avoid pumping to transport must and wines, but instead use gravity adding only sulfites and Montmorillonite clay to the wine. They prefer the use of ‘homeopathic’ sprays in the vineyard instead of fertilizers and pesticides. They plant cover crops, they make their own compost from horse manure, straw, hay, vineyard cuttings, and grape skins and lees and to fight oidium and mildew, they use the ‘homeopathic’ sprays. The result is straightforward and honest wines. Wines that ‘breathe terroir’, are crystal clear, very aromatic, with considerable length. No bombastic heavyweights. Every drop of these wines encompasses and reflects the art and the ritual process of good wine-making.
