The pulse of the country’s wine industry beats fast in its heartland in Central Greece: from Thessaly in the north, Mainland Greece in the center, Attica and the island of Evia in the east, and Aetoloakarnania in the west, this large area is home to one-fourth of the country’s vineyards. Perhaps they are here by divine destiny: according to at least one version of the myth, it was in Central Greece, in the city of Thebes (present-day Thiva), that Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and vine, was born. On the other hand, it might just be a winning combination of climate and land.

Most of the vineyards of Central Greece are located on plains where the weather tends to be hot and dry, although there are quite a few at higher altitudes on hilly land, benefitting from cooler temperatures and breezes. Throughout this area, the soil is mainly clay loam. As a result of the diverse topography shaped by the region’s several mountain ranges, there is a variety of mesoclimates.

Known as the breadbasket of Greece thanks to its fertile plain, Thessaly has given us three wine zones with Protected Designation of Origin (PDO): the up-and-coming Rapsani, the lesser-known Mesenikola (reds) in Karditsa, and Anchialos (whites) in Magnesia. At an altitude of 700 meters in Krania on the slopes of Mount Olympus, the region’s highest vineyards are doing excellent work with well-adapted foreign grape varieties, Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay in particular. At Tyrnavos in Larissa, Christos Zafeirakis has made strides with the red Limniona variety, a candidate for promising things in the future.

Heading south, we come to the valley of Atalanti in Fthiotida, which has proven fertile ground in past decades for foreign reds from Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, but also for native varieties such as Assyrtiko and Xinomavro. It is here that the Hatzimichalis family wrote one of the brightest chapters in Greece’s winemaking history; today, newer wineries with courage and character are adding their own pages to this ancient book. Meanwhile, in the Valley of the Muses in neighboring Viotia, another grape is attracting interest: Mouchtaro, a red with intense fruity aromas.

Located at the southeastern edge of Central Greece and home to the Greek capital, the region of Attica has been making modern wine history since 1882, when patriatch Andreas Cambas established the family winery. His enterprise soon became the first in the country to make use of modern technology and of the know-how of experts in the field, including geologists, chemists and tasters.

In 1935, the winery began selling Cava Cambas, Greece’s first aged wine, made exclusively of free-run juice Savatiano that was matured in horizontal position in wax-sealed bottles for eight years before being released on the market. The seat of the Cambas winery, Kantza, even managed to acquire a designation of origin, albeit for a few years. Attica no longer has any PDO zones and its most popular variety, Savatiano, is prolific all over Greece. It is a high-yield grape that has adapted extremely well to the mesoclimate of Attica’s Mesogeia Plains, where it has managed to yield good quality vintages, thanks to the calcium-rich soil, from vines that are as much as 60 years old.