Page 11 - Code de Vino, #3/10, s/a 2009

Code de Vino #3
Беседа с Янисом Каракезидисом
10 Винный клуб Code de Vino #3 Code de Vino #3 A Discussion with Yanis Karakezidi 11 11
Yanis waved his hand. In fact, what he made was a gesture
expressing the futility of any discussion about how people fail
to change over the years, and how something should be done
about it. Our talk becomes more informal.

— Yanis, are you a philosopher?
— No, I’m just a winemaker. To tame a vine, to turn simple
grape juice into a work of winemaking art — that is a task
for men. To me, Stretto — its very quintessence — is the
culminating result of many years of my work and winemaking
philosophy, a manifesto of some sorts; but for everyone else it is
just good wine. Even very good wine.
Of course, people determine who works in this industry. That’s not
just some poeticism either, it’s the truth. A microrevolutionary won’t
hold out for a long time here. Even when we hire seasonal workers
and a person like that comes... We can tell right away.
So I tell them to do things like stoke the furnace, and I let them
smoke, to make them happy too. Because a person who’s
unhappy can interfere in this delicate process and ruin it. Fights
aren’t allowed, for any reason... If someone drops a bucket and
spills some wine — never mind, we just turn it into a joke. That’s
crucial.

— How compatible are women and winemaking?
— Since ancient times winemaking has been a male dominated
activity. It’s a serious matter, like religion. A winemaker operates
using basic elements — the earth, the sun, the space of the
vineyard and cubic meters of sky. Women don’t participate in the
process, especially during their cycle. This is strictly prohibited.
They also aren’t allowed to enter the cellar.

— But there are women working on your farm too, right?
— What would we do without women! (a satiric smile lurks
on Yanis’ lips) Women can collect grapes; their hands match
the shape of a bunch of grapes perfectly. But they can’t be
winemakers. Women are forgetful and wine does not forgive Yanis, philosopher, musician, and winemaker
mistakes.
That’s why people who come to work with me are like one big
family. Wine unites us like a chairman. What I mean is that we find
something in common, and people understand that on the one — What does winemaking mean to you?
hand, everyone does their own duty, but on the other, all of us are — It’s business and meditation, art and religion, jazz and drive;
parts of a whole. The most important thing isn’t money, it’s our in short, it’s my lifestyle.
relationships, because we spend so much time together we feel
sympathy for each other, and there’s no room for feuds, intrigue or — Who can be called a real winemaker?
anything of the like. Everything is done for the sake of the wine. No — A real winemaker must be like the vine he tends, with his
one is allowed to fight or make loud noises at the warehouse where roots buried deep in tradition. Making wine for me is more
wine is stored, so as not to disturb it. than just business and art, it’s a message from my childhood,
Drinking real wine can change the world for the better. People who the smells of oak barrels and grape pomace, the creak of the
drink good living wine feel truly free. First comes God, and then the manual press wheel, the coolness of grandpa’s cellar where
freedom he grants to us. the wine sat ageing.
Wine is older than us, it’s wiser. We must learn from it, kneel down
before a real vineyard... Yes, exactly, kneel down! I’ve known true His cheerful cynicism and philosophy of love for life were
visionaries who the country passed by unnoticed. There used to real, just like his aversion to industrial winemaking. He is
be a lot of people like that, but now almost all of them are gone. I a true restless Pontic Greek: a merchant and philosopher,
also spoke a lot to my grandfather. And people who used to work coming from a family of winemakers and musicians, a cynic
in Abrau-Durso, who were such individualists. On the one hand, and surrealist. He was born straight from the Greek myths
they worked in a factory, but on the other, they lived in this world, about satyrs and Argonauts to fight against the windmills of
the world of wine, their own space. Now that’s the real school of dead industrial wine, press grape “blood” with his own hands,
winemaking! breathe life into wine, and make life itself feel more alive...