The Daughter & the Floppy Pergola

The story of Chatzivaritis Estate begins in 1984, when Vagelis Chatzivaritis — a man who sold machinery for cutting marble, with no background in wine but a long-standing love of it — made a wine just for friends and family. It was a passion project, a side expression of a life dedicated to stone rather than vine. But the love grew, and in 1993 he took the plunge and planted his first vineyards. The winery, named Chatzivaritis Estate, was formally established in 1994 in the heart of Goumenissa, a subregion of Naoussa in Greek Macedonia — one of the country's most historic yet smallest appellations. Vagelis built the winery in 2005, and for the years that followed, the estate produced wines in a more conventional style — the Goumenissa 2016, with 70% Xinomavro and 30% Negoska aged 12 months in small oak, represents the style the estate made before Chloi was properly involved.

The turning point came in 2017, when Vagelis' daughter Chloi returned to Greece after completing winemaking studies in France and Portugal. Chloi had studied agronomy in Greece in 2013, then completed her master's degree at SupAgro in Montpellier — nine months in Montpellier, a month in Bordeaux, and six months in Lisbon. During and after these studies, she did vintages that would shape her philosophy: time at Léon Barral in Faugères, a natural winery in the Languedoc; at Château Margaux, the epitome of fine Bordeaux; and with Pernod Ricard at Brancott Estate in Marlborough, New Zealand. She ticked all the boxes — natural, fine, big commercial — and emerged with a vision that was not merely technical but philosophical: a commitment to low-intervention winemaking, spontaneous fermentation, and the kind of creative freedom that only natural wine allows.

Chloi's return transformed the estate. She brought with her techniques that were unfamiliar in Goumenissa — pétillant naturel, carbonic maceration, cold maceration, amphora ageing — and a philosophy that was distinctly modern yet rooted in tradition. Her first vintage was 2017, but even before that, in 2016, she had experimented with two barrels of Assyrtiko: one technical, one completely natural. She monitored the fermentations, bottled both filtered and unfiltered, and decided to go the natural route. This was not a rebellious rejection of her father's work but an evolution — a daughter building on her father's foundation, bringing new knowledge to old land, and proving that Goumenissa, with its 450 hectares and six producers, could produce wines of international distinction through natural methods.

The name "Chatzivaritis" — or "Chatzivariti" in the English transliteration of Chloi's surname — carries the weight of this family legacy. The estate is not merely a winery; as their website declares, it is "a love story told through wine." Vagelis started with a vineyard, a passion for good times, and a dream in Goumenissa. Chloi took it further, blending tradition with bold, low-intervention vibes. The estate's motto — "From Soil, To Soul" — encapsulates this philosophy: wine as connection, as memory, as the translation of place and family into liquid form. The heart logo that appears on every bottle is not merely a design element; it is a declaration of the emotional, almost romantic relationship that the family has with their land, their grapes, and their craft.

The winemaking at Chatzivaritis Estate is governed by Chloi's rigorous commitment to minimal intervention — a philosophy she developed through her studies in Montpellier and Bordeaux, her vintage at Léon Barral in Faugères, and her deliberate experimentation in 2016 with two barrels of Assyrtiko that proved natural fermentation could work. The core principle is simple and absolute: "There are no additions whatsoever until the end, when I just put a little bit of sulfur. I put it one month before the bottling. I don't filter, I don't fine." This is not a marketing slogan; it is a daily practice. The wines are fermented spontaneously with indigenous yeasts — no commercial yeasts, no enzymes, no corrections. No fining agents are used, no filtration is applied, and sulfur is added only minimally, at the very end, and only when necessary. The result is wine that is alive, unfiltered, and expressive — wine that carries the full imprint of the grape, the yeast, and the Goumenissa terroir without the safety net of technological intervention.

The cold maceration technique that Chloi employs for her white wines is a deliberate choice that transforms varieties like Assyrtiko, Malagouzia, and Roditis from simple, fruity whites into wines of greater complexity, texture, and phenolic depth. The grapes are left in contact with their skins for 2–4 days in stainless steel or amphora before fermentation, extracting colour, tannin, and aromatic compounds that conventional direct-press whites lack. The amphora — a clay vessel buried in the earth — provides a unique ageing environment: gentle oxygen exchange through the porous clay walls develops complexity and softens tannins without the aggressive wood flavours that oak barrels can impart. The Malagouzia "Ni" 2020, with 1.5 months on skins in 400-litre Clayver amphoras, is the fullest expression of this technique: deep gold in colour, with wonderful perfumed aromatics of peach, apricot, and spice; lovely intensity on the palate with grainy, structured pear and peach fruit. This is not orange wine in the extreme sense; it is white wine with enhanced depth — a subtle, thoughtful application of ancient technique to modern expression.

The carbonic maceration that defines the estate's Negoska "Carbonic" 2019 is another technique that Chloi brought from her Languedoc experience — a method that transforms the thick-skinned, low-acidity Negoska variety into a wine of aromatic lift, fruit purity, and surprising freshness. Whole grapes are fermented in a sealed container, allowing intracellular fermentation to produce a wine of unusual brightness, low tannin, and vibrant red fruit character. The Negoska, with its thick skins and big berries, is particularly suited to this method: the carbonic process extracts colour and flavour without the harsh tannins that conventional maceration would produce, and the result is a lighter-coloured red that is aromatic with red cherries and plums, supple, juicy, and very fine. The Spin 2019 — 100% Negoska — is the estate's most celebrated expression of this technique: lighter coloured, aromatic with red cherries and plums and a touch of spice, with a supple palate that is really fruity, fine, and juicy. This is not the heavy, structured Negoska of conventional Goumenissa; it is a fresh, playful, almost Beaujolais-like expression that demonstrates the variety's hidden potential.

The pétillant naturel production at Chatzivaritis — the Migma pét-nats — represents the estate's most joyful and immediate expression of the natural philosophy. Pétillant naturel, the ancestral method of sparkling wine production, involves bottling the wine during fermentation to capture natural carbon dioxide, creating a gentle, cloudy, effervescent wine that is the antithesis of technologically precise champagne method. Chloi produces both white and rosé pét-nats: the Migma Petnat from Muscat and Malagouzia, and the Migma Petnat Rosé from Negoska and Xinomavro. These wines are fermented with indigenous yeasts, bottled unfiltered, and left to develop their sparkle naturally — wines of vibrant colour, fruity aromatics, and a textural richness that conventional sparkling wines lack. The Migma Petnat 2021 is very aromatic, floral and fruity with some grapey richness; the lively palate is pure and intense with lovely fruit, very pretty and balanced, and really fine. The Migma Petnat Rosé 2021 is pale pink, lively and fine, showing a pure palate with taut citrus fruit and some cherry and redcurrant notes — very fine and expressive. These are wines of celebration and conviviality, bridging ancient technique and contemporary fashion.

To understand Chatzivaritis Estate, one must understand the concept of the Goumenissa natural voice — a viticultural identity that is distinct from the larger, more famous Naoussa appellation, distinct from the conventional wines that the region produced before Chloi's arrival, and distinct even from the established natural wine regions of France, Italy, and Georgia. This is the voice of a tiny appellation with only six producers and 450 hectares — a voice of intimacy, of community, of the kind of hands-on, family-driven viticulture that is impossible at larger scales. It is a voice of sandy-clay and schist, of wet winters and hot dry summers, of Xinomavro and Negoska transformed by carbonic maceration and pét-nat, of Assyrtiko and Malagouzia reimagined through skin contact and amphora. Chloi has spent her years at the estate refining this voice, learning to translate the specific conditions of the five villages — the clay near the winery, the schist at 600 metres, the gravel and sand in between — into wines that speak with clarity, authenticity, and creative freedom. The result is a portfolio that does not imitate Burgundy or Barolo, the Loire or the Jura, but that stands as a unique expression of a place that has no equivalent in the global wine map.

The family legacy that Chatzivaritis preserves is not merely a matter of generational succession; it is a matter of creative evolution, of a father's foundation and a daughter's transformation. Vagelis built the estate with passion and perseverance, creating a winery from nothing, planting vineyards in a region that was shrinking, and producing wines that honoured the tradition of Goumenissa. Chloi took this foundation and built upon it — not rejecting her father's work but expanding it, bringing new techniques, new perspectives, and new energy to a place that risked stagnation. The Minimus trilogy, the Migma pét-nats, the Spin carbonic Negoska, the Ni amphora Malagouzia: all of these are Chloi's creations, but they are built on Vagelis's land, Vagelis's vines, and Vagelis's dream. The estate's motto — "From Soil, To Soul" — captures this continuity: the soil is Vagelis's, the soul is Chloi's, and the wine is the bridge between them. The heart logo on every bottle is not merely a design; it is a symbol of this love, this connection, this family story told through wine.

The natural wine philosophy that guides Chatzivaritis is not a rejection of skill or knowledge but a rejection of the assumption that technology improves wine. Chloi is a highly trained winemaker — SupAgro Montpellier, Bordeaux, Lisbon, Léon Barral, Château Margaux, Marlborough — who has chosen to apply her knowledge in the service of restraint rather than manipulation. She knows how to correct acidity, how to add tannins, how to stabilise wine with sulfur and filtration — and she chooses not to, because she understands that each correction masks the voice of the terroir, each addition obscures the character of the vintage, and each technological intervention moves the wine further from its origin and closer to a generic, global standard. The Chatzivaritis wines are not always consistent from vintage to vintage; they are not always easy to sell to conventional distributors; they are not always predictable in the glass. But they are always honest, always alive, and always unmistakably Goumenissa — and for the drinkers who seek these qualities, they offer an experience that no technically perfect, commercially optimised wine can provide.

The future of Chatzivaritis Estate is tied to the deepening of Chloi's relationship with her five villages — the continued refinement of her organic practices, the expansion of her understanding of the Goumenissa microclimates, the development of new cuvées that explore the full range of what indigenous and international varieties can achieve at up to 700 metres, and the strengthening of her position in the international natural wine market. The estate will remain small and family-driven — 20 hectares is not a large commercial operation, and the six-producer community of Goumenissa ensures that intimacy and collaboration remain the norms. The floppy pergola will continue to grow wild, the carbonic maceration experiments will evolve, the pét-nat programme will expand, and the Minimus trilogy will remain the creative heart of the portfolio. And the name "Chatzivaritis" — the family name, the love story, the connection from soil to soul — will continue to resonate as a statement of identity, a declaration of philosophy, and a promise that every bottle carries the imprint of a specific place, a specific family, and a specific winemaker's unwavering commitment to natural expression.

In an age of industrial wine production, of appellation consolidation, and of homogenised flavours, Chatzivaritis Estate stands as a radical alternative — not because it rejects tradition but because it reimagines tradition, one that values organic farming over chemical convenience, natural fermentation over laboratory cultures, carbonic maceration over conventional extraction, pét-nat over champagne method, and the specific voice of a specific Macedonian village over the standardised replication of a global style. Vagelis and Chloi Chatzivariti are not merely making wine; they are making a case — that a tiny appellation with six producers can produce wines of international distinction, that a daughter can honour her father's dream while forging her own path, that natural winemaking can restore a region's reputation, and that the best wines are those that carry the imprint of a living ecosystem, a patient winemaker, and a family's love story told through wine. The 1994 founding, the 2017 transformation, the organic certification, the five villages, the floppy pergola, the Minimus trilogy, the Spin's 95 points, the heart logo, and the name that connects soil to soul: all united in one bottle, one estate, one unanswerable argument for the possibility of authentic, place-specific, family-rooted natural wine in the heart of Goumenissa.