Afianes Raos Red Fokiano 2022

Wine has a very prominent place in the historical identity of Ikaria (Ικαρία or Icaria), an island in the Aegean Sea PDO. Athenaeus, writing around the turn of the third century CE and drawing upon much earlier sources, specifically identifies the island as a source of Pramnian wine. He describes it as dry, hard and extraordinarily strong and records competing ancient explanations for the name, including an association with a mountain or rock called Pramnian on Ikaria. Homer had referred to Pramnian wine centuries earlier, although those earlier references do not themselves securely establish its geographical origin. The connection between Pramnian wine and Ikaria is therefore ancient, but it would be misleading to identify the wine directly with a modern grape variety; this sort of ancient literary ampelography and archaeology is very difficult. Local winemakers will claim that Ikaria is one of the so-called Global Blue Zones —places deemed to have exceptional concentrations of very old residents— although subsequent research has questioned the reliability of these findings, particularly given gaps and inconsistencies in Greek population records during the turbulent mid-twentieth century.

Fokiano itself is documented under that name from considerably later sources and became one of the principal red grapes of modern Ikaria. Afianes was founded by Nikos and Maria Afianes in 1997 and has played an important role in preserving both Fokiano and traditional Ikarian winemaking practices. Raos is 100% Fokiano from Profitis Ilias, which sits at approximately 600 metres elevation above sea level.

Fermentation is spontaneous and the 2022 was matured for twelve months before bottling without fining or filtration. Production is extremely small.