Ktima Marco is a social business bringing fine wine and organic extra virgin olive oil back to the island.
Its roots reach deep into the ground and its shoots stretch toward the sky. Because of this nature, its fruit carries, almost unbelievably, the energy of a place. Making wine on Alonnisos has one mission: to express the beautiful, unique energy of the island, which has enchanted everyone who has ever landed on this small corner of paradise.
Alonnisos is a small island, part of a nature reserve, green with vines and olive trees in the blue Aegean. For centuries it lived from those vines and trees, and from sheep and goat farming. When phylloxera struck in the mid-1950s, that way of life came to an end.
Tourism brought work back, but it asks a lot in return: a few busy weeks a year, and a heavy toll on the beaches and the sea. For islanders the question is an old one: how to make a living without giving up what defines them?
Our answer is a social business: a company that pays no dividends, sustains itself and reinvests its profits on the island, to spread skills, build a network of growers and bring vines and olive trees back.
Our first years were a pilot: investment, licences and building a network on the island. They produced our first white and red wines, sold on the island with the help of local restaurants, and a top-rated extra virgin olive oil.
Today we have 2 hectares of vines and expect full production from 2027. With the 2026 harvest we tested every part of the process: it will give the first Kleis and Limnio made the way they will be made from 2027.
Our goal is to grow this network and offer wines from indigenous grapes, made in amphorae, and extra virgin olive oil, all certified organic.
A small team on the island, with specialists from Italy and France.
Ktima Marco would not have been possible without the help and enthusiasm of all the people of Alonnisos who took part in the project, in one way or another. Above all, we thank Dimitris Vlaikos, who inspired this project. And thank you to all the friends who join us every summer and bring joy to the harvest and the winemaking.
Photos coming soon
Amphorae, large earthenware vessels, have held fermented food and drink since ancient times. The method began in Greece, and Georgia kept it alive: Georgian qvevri winemaking is on UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Terracotta is natural and porous. It keeps the temperature steady, lets the wine breathe, adds no flavour of its own and needs less sulphur during long macerations. An amphora also lasts for generations.
We make our wine in a former henhouse, converted into a small, fully insulated cellar with temperature control. Amphorae remain our main vessels: we use Tava amphorae, made in Italy, of 55, 320 and 750 litres, and from 2027 also of 1,600 litres. Since 2025 we also use Stockinger barriques, made in Austria. We are now preparing a new winery, planned for 2027.
Grapes are destemmed by hand, berry by berry. Each wine is made from separate components, fermented and aged in different ways, then blended before bottling.
| Fermentation | Maceration | Ageing | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Without skins | Pressed first, left 2 days on the fine lees, then fermented in amphora at a controlled temperature | None | Amphora |
| Long maceration | With the skins, in amphora | 4 months on the skins, in the sealed amphora | Amphora, without the skins |
| Barrique (since 2025) | Pressed first, left 2 days on the fine lees, then fermented in a Stockinger barrique, made in Austria | None | In the same barrique |
| Fermentation | Maceration | Ageing | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pressed, aged in amphora | With the skins, in amphora | None: pressed after fermentation | Amphora |
| Long maceration | With the skins, in amphora | 4 months on the skins, in the sealed amphora, then drawn off | Amphora, without the skins |
| Pressed, aged in barrique (since 2025) | With the skins, in amphora | None: pressed after fermentation | Barrique |
Made in small quantities, mainly in amphorae.
Alonnisos is a marine park and also a remarkably green island: a paradise of fragrant plants and flowers, pine, sage, thyme and rosemary. On the nose, both our wines bring back all the scents of the island. Drinking Kleis is like having Alonnisos in your glass, as if the island took shape in it.
A blend of 60% Malagouzia, 20% Malagouzia macerated on its skins for 4 months, and 20% Asyrtiko, all made in amphorae.
€49.60incl. 24% VAT
Made from Limnio, one of the oldest Greek grapes: 75% pressed after fermentation and 25% left on its skins for 4 months, all in amphorae.
€49.60incl. 24% VAT
Kleis is named after the daughter of Sappho, the poet who lived on the island of Lesbos around 600 BC and is considered one of the greatest lyric poets of ancient Greece. In one of her fragments, Sappho writes that she would not exchange her beloved Kleis for anything in the world.
ἔστι μοι κάλα πάις χρυσίοισιν ἀνθέμοισιν
ἐμφέρην ἔχοισα μόρφαν, Κλέις ἀγαπάτα,
ἀντὶ τᾶς ἔγωὐδὲ Λυδίαν παῖσαν οὐδ’ ἐράνναν…I have a beautiful child, whose form is like golden flowers, beloved Kleis. For her I would not take all of Lydia, nor lovely…
Nearly lost to phylloxera, Malagouzia has been revived since the mid-1990s and is now one of Greece’s finest white grapes. It gives perfumed, full-bodied wines with moderate acidity, often with notes of peach, apricot, citrus, jasmine and mint. Part of our white wine rests on its skins in amphora, which gives it a golden colour.
Asyrtiko, originally from Santorini, is one of Greece’s best-known white grapes. It keeps high acidity even in hot climates and gives fresh, mineral wines with citrus notes.
Limnio is a very ancient grape. In the 5th century BC, Aristophanes already mentioned the vines of Lemnos, the first to ripen, and according to the wine writer Jancis Robinson, Limnio is almost certainly the Lemnian vine described by Aristotle. Today it is grown in only a few regions of Greece. Its vines are hardy and survive drought, and its wines stand out for their finesse and elegance, with moderate tannins and acidity and a mineral aroma.
Ktima Marco is the only producer on Alonnisos licensed to produce, bottle, label and sell extra virgin olive oil.
The mill is a restored kalivi, the small shelter farmers once used during the harvest. Its two-phase Mori-Tem machine presses 80 kg of olives an hour.
We pick our organic olives in mid-September, while they are still green, for higher quality and to avoid the olive fly. Every year an expert tasting panel assesses our oil.
Since 2022, residents and homeowners on the island can bring their olives to our mill and receive part of the oil back in labelled bottles, so the trees are cared for and the fruit is not wasted.
Pressed in our mill in Gerakas from green olives picked in mid-September.
€22.60incl. 13% VAT
Choose your wines and oil and send us a request. We reply by email to confirm availability, shipping cost and payment. Nothing is charged now.