Nostos    

Ted

Theodoros (Ted) Manousakis is a Greek immigrant who lives the American dream. His father, a shepherd in a mountain village on Crete, died when he was 5 years old. His mother moved to New York with Ted and his two older sisters.

The women worked. Ted went to school, eventually earning an MBA. His first job was for a small D.C. firm providing security guards. When the owner retired, Ted bought him out and built it into a national business. He sold it in 1996 and retired.

Retirement didn’t suit Ted. He loved hospitality, food and wine, so he opened several restaurants and then a bakery. A few years later he realized that he now owned 15 bakeries, and he was bored. He turned the bakeries over to his wife.

From his earliest working days, Ted was involved in commercial Real Estate. This continued through his bakery years and now became his full time business. At the same time his elderly mother wanted to return to her native village. Ted had the small house in which he was born enlarged and renovated. For the first time in two decades he began to visit Greece regularly. He saw opportunities for development and a need for jobs in his home village. He opened a coastal resort hotel, planned with great environmental sensitivity. And he planted an organic vineyard in the mountains.

Nostos

‘Nostos’ is an ancient Greek word. ‘Nostalgia’ (same root) is as close as we can get in English. It is not only longing for, but love of things past.

Ted planted his vineyard in 1993. He loved wine and read wine books voraciously. Besides a taste for Lafite and Petrus, Syrah and Chateauneuf-du-Pape were favorites. He found Lucie Morton of Broad Run, Virginia. She is one of the world’s top viticultural consultants (her customers include Domaine Chandon, Chateau Margaux and Stags Leap).

What should he plant? Syrah, Grenache and Mourvedre. White? Roussanne. The first harvest was 1997. The Roussanne was so ripe and soft that it wasn’t safe to bottle on its own. It became, in Chateaneuf-du-Pape tradition, part of the red wine. The 1997 Nostos was 35% Syrah, 25% each Grenache and Mourvedre and 15% Roussanne! The Roussanne adds tremendous aromatics and a wild, savage note to the wine without detracting from color or body (at almost 16% alcohol, it probably added body). This was a beautiful first effort.

Ted’s model was Chateauneuf-du-Pape, but as the vines have matured, production has evolved to include single varietal bottlings as well. The blended wine is now usually about 42% Syrah, 30% Grenache, 20% Mourvedre and 8% Roussanne. Bottlings of Syrah and Roussane are now sold in Greece, maybe soon in the U.S.

Ted’s Team

The full time vineyard manager and wine-maker is Kostis Galanis. Ted has always employed an array of consultants for this project. At my suggestion, Ted recently invited Laurence Feraud and Mark Fincham of Domaine du Pegau to visit. They have no formal role yet, but Ted and Kostis have already told me that their input is invaluable. The wines are now considered among the finest of Greece. Ted’s goal is for them to be considered among the finest in the world.