Tuesday May 13 was a spectacular day. Sunny, blue skies, 21C and no humidity. We had decided to go for an early lunch at Kouzina e.p.e. located in 1821 Square which is right next to the St. Nicolas Church.
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| Such an amazing Church with the Bell Tower and Minaret |
There was a Memorial to the Greek War of Independence also known as the Greek Revolution of 1821 which let to Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire. Crete participated in the war with high casualties of both Muslims and Cretan Christians. After nine years of war, Greece was recognized as an independent state in 1830. Crete was not part of the new Greek state and remained under Ottoman rule. There were a number of revolts by the Cretan Christians in the following years until 1898 when Crete became an autonomous state within the Ottoman Empire. In 1913, Crete was finally unified with mainland Greece.
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| Memorial in 1821 Square |
Kouzina was located in the square and featured wonderful food and a daily changing menu on an inside blackboard.
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| Our table in the large patio with a view of the restaurant |
We shared a huge green salad with candied walnuts and figs and a platter of zucchini flowers stuffed with rice, with yogurt on the side.
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| Lovely lunch |
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| The delicious sweet and raki served after lunch (on the house). |
We then stopped at the nearby second location of Monogram coffee.
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| Outside patio at Monogram- just a few minutes walk from the restaurant |
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| Inside of Monogram |
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| Waiting for our coffee. Lovely spot and excellent coffee. |
We proceeded back to the apartment. We walked on a street with a Minaret standing on its own beside the Minaret Hotel.
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Minaret
There were a number of jewellery stores on a nearby street. We wandered into a very interesting store which showcased a number of local jewellers. The owners are a brother and sister who both make jewellery. I bought a piece from one of their featured jewellers and Allan bought a piece from the brother.
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The owners
We headed back to the apartment. At 3:15 p.m. we were picked up by a driver in a small van (Uncharted Escapes) to head to the Winery for a tour and tasting that we had organized through "Beyond Travel", the travel company we had wandered into on Monday. We were the only people in the van. We headed out through the suburbs of Chania and then into some beautiful countryside with a view of the White Mountains (Lefka Ori), which are 60 km in length While the mountains get snow, they are named for the white granite rocks at the top of the mountains. There are many peaks, rugged ravines and gorges and there are many hikes in the area. |
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| The White Mountains in the distance |
As our winery tour was not scheduled until 4:00 p.m., our driver stopped at Lake Agia and we had a short walk to take some pictures. A lovely spot with a beautiful restaurant nearby. There were many birds on and around the lake.
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| Lake Agia |
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| Allan on the boardwalk near the Lake |
We arrived at Manousakis Winery, located in Vatolakkos.
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| One side of the winery |
We were ushered outside to a table with many wine glasses where we would return after the tour for our tasting.
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| Allan looking forward to our winery visit |
A staff person came to take us and two other couples on the 4:00 p.m. tour. She outlined the history of the winery. Ted Manousakis, the owner and founder of the winery was born in the village of Vatolakkos in 1943. He had three sisters and his father died shortly after he was born. The family was poor and his mother worked hard to send him and his sisters to the United States in 1954. His older sisters worked and Ted was able to go to school and eventually got a business degree from George Washington University in Washington, DC.
He ran a number of successful businesses including a security business. Our tour guide told us that his firm had discovered the break in at the Watergate Hotel in the early 1970s! Ted returned to Crete in 1984 and rebuilt his family home which is very close to the present winery and served as the wine tasting building in its early years. When Ted decided to open a winery, he selected a group of experts to help. They found that the soil near his home was not good for growing vines (it was too wet) but a number of plots on the hills about five km away were found to be ideal. The first vineyards were planted in 1993. Ted is presently retired and lives in the US, but returns frequently for visits.
His youngest daughter Alexandra now runs the winery. She moved back to Crete in 2007 when they were a small winery producing around 35,000 bottles of wine per year. Today, they produce 150,000 bottles of wine yearly. The wines are organically produced. The winery operations have been expanded over the years with a new winery building and a restaurant (where we had the tasting).
We then went on a tour of the wine production facility.
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| Old hand pressers from the start of the winery |
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| Modern white wine presser (they have a different one for red grapes) |
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The cellar where the wine is stored (a mix of French and American oak-
due to different pore size of the oaks). |
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| The modern bottler |
The guide told us about their corks which are made from cork trees in Portugal. The tree is stripped of a layer of cork (looks like the piece on the table in the phono below). Then one waits 10 years and a flat piece like the one the she is holding grows. That piece is then cut into pieces and made into the corks. The wine makers like the natural process and only use cork.
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| Cork from Portugal |
We then went back to our tables in the restaurant for our wine tasting. We sampled one white, one rosé, and three reds.
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| First white--- Fumm-- nice quaffable wine |
The only wine we didn't particularly like was the Rosé. The red wines are all called Nostos which is the Greek meaning of "yearning to come home".
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| Nostos Alexandra (named for the daughter who also did the drawing on the label) |
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| Nostos Syrah 2020-- our favourite |
We sat outside until 6:00 p.m. and ended up having a great discussion with a young Finnish couple who had been on the winery tour with us and were sitting at a nearby table. They were in Crete for a one week holiday. There are a number of tours during the day that can be booked through the winery's website, which the Fins had done. They rented a motor scooter for their holiday.
The winery had a lovely shop with ceramics designed by Alexandra as well as their wines and a wonderful olive oil, which we had with the rusks they gave us with our wines.
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| Winery gift shop |
Our driver was waiting for us and we headed back to Chania. He took a different route through the countryside which was just beautiful. White cloud formations over the mountains and a lush green landscape with olive, avocado and orange trees and many flowers.
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| Clouds and hills |
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| Beautiful light |
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| House on a hill |
After we returned, we went for a short walk and then Allan made a salmon dinner. We were very glad we had decided to walk into the travel agency and book the tour. The countryside is beautiful around Chania and the visit to the winery most memorable. Apparently, Manousakis Winery was the first to do tastings and tours, and now many other wineries in Crete have followed suit. A great day!
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