Kamara Pure

Kamara Pure is the natural wine label of the Kioutsoukis family, based in the hills of Mygdonia in northern Greece, about 30 kilometres from Thessaloniki. The family story runs deep. They came from East Romylia on the Black Sea coast, a region famous for wine, and migrated to Greece in the early 1900s carrying their winemaking knowledge with them.

The dream of building their own winery had to wait a century. Dimitrios Kioutsoukis, the grandchild, finally made it happen in 2010. Dimitrios trained as a chemical engineer in Thessaloniki and worked for years in the medical field to save the money to plant vines. He studied oenology at UC Davis in California, then planted 11 hectares on slopes where vines had grown since ancient times but had been abandoned since phylloxera struck around 1900.

The site is special. Millions of years ago the region was an ocean floor, which is why the soils shift so dramatically across the estate, from clay and sand to lighter parcels of small stones and schist. That diversity feeds straight into the wines. The vineyards sit at around 140 metres on eastern facing slopes, and a fresh northern breeze blows through all year round, cooling the grapes and keeping the acidity high and bright.

They grow almost entirely native Greek grapes. Xinomavro, Assyrtiko and Malagousia lead the way, backed by Roditis, Limnio, Muscat and Moschofilero, with a little Merlot. It is a proper family operation, everyone involved, working land their ancestors would recognise.