Enjoy a Unique Tasting Experience at Alexakis Winery

Alexakis Winery is a family business. It was founded in the 1970s by Stelios Alexakis, a Chemical Engineer-Oenologist, and Sofia Alexaki. From its early days, the winery has remained a true family endeavour, now continued by their sons, Lazaros and Apostolos Alexakis, both trained oenologists — Lazaros at the University of Florence and Apostolos at California State University, Fresno — who are actively involved in production, marketing and the winery’s ongoing evolution.

Alexakis Winery is the largest private winery in Crete, equipped with modern facilities and significant production capacity. The company not only produces its own acclaimed label wines but also services other leading Greek wine producers, with a storage capacity of up to 16 million litres.

For decades, the winery has been collaborating with grape growers across Crete, especially in the Heraklion region, on a contract-farming basis, building long-term relationships and gaining deep knowledge of the island’s viticultural diversity. This close engagement with growers and terroir enables Alexakis to select vineyards with distinct character for each grape variety vinified, including indigenous Cretan varietals such as Vidiano, Vilana, Kotsifali, Mandilari, Assyrtiko and more.

Alexakis wines have earned recognition both in Greece and internationally, with exports to markets such as the United States, Russia, and China, where the winery supplies both under its own label and through private-label arrangements.

Beyond winemaking, the estate also offers wine tours, tastings and educational programmes, welcoming visitors by arrangement and promoting Cretan wine culture under its motto “Celebrating Crete!”.

Based on the quality of the raw material, our work starts in the field. Alexakis Winery is a family business. It was founded in the 1970s by Stelios Alexakis, a Chemical Engineer-Oenologist, and Sofia Alexaki.

Alexakis Winery is the largest private winery in Crete. The winery has been collaborating for decades with all the vine-growers on the island, maintaining long-term relationships while fully aware of the peculiarities of the Cretan Vineyard.

This knowledge enables us to choose vineyards with a distinct character for each variety we vinify. Based on the quality of the raw material, our work starts in the field.

ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION

Tour and tasting of four wines accompanied by a meal of cold Cretan dishes
The tour includes:
• A guided tour of the winery’s production facilities.
• A guided tour through a vineyard of the white grape variety Malvasia Aromatica covering an area of half a hectare.
• A video presentation produced by “Wines of Crete” regarding Cretan vineyards and their wineries. The presentation is held in one of the two wine tasting halls, with capacities of 30 or 50 persons, in the following languages: Greek, English, French, German, Russian, or Chinese.
• A wine tasting-session (during the video projection) of four wines: Alexakis Kariki red, from Mandilari and Kotsifali grape varieties; Alexakis Kariki white, from Assyrtiko and Athiri grape varieties; Alexakis Vidiano, from the Vidiano grape variety; Alexakis red from Kotsifali and Syrah grape varieties.
• A tasting-session of the following Cretan products:
• Meligyris honey (a mixture of pine, thyme, and sage honey), extra virgin olive oil of the 2015 harvest (organic and conventional) accompanied by traditional paximadi, Cretan anthotiro, and organic salt.
• A meal of cold Cretan dishes.