Wine

Viticulture in Lemnos had and has experienced a huge boom, especially after the arrival of the refugees of 1922 from the village of Reis Dere in Asia Minor. There are two main varieties cultivated and identified with the island: the Muscat of Alexandria and the Kalambaki or Limnio, both of which are PDO varieties. Most of the production is gathered by the Union of Agricultural Cooperatives of Lemnos 'Enossi', which was founded in 1932 and was initially focused on the gathering and resale of all agricultural products of the island, mainly cotton. In recent years, however, its main activity has been limited and specialised in the vinification of the island's red and white grapes. There are around five wineries in Lemnos, most of which are open to visitors, and it is characteristic that they all started from the love and passion of the owners for the Lemnos vineyard.

As for the areas which occupy the map of production of these two varieties, while until recently Moschato dominated the vineyards, because of its productivity, today Kalambaki is gaining more and more ground, and is even mentioned by Homer and Aristotle. Alongside these two varieties, one can also find table grapes such as Fokiano, Eftakoilo, Strawberry, Sultanina and Agoumastos. Varieties brought from Asia Minor by the refugees who settled mainly in the area of Agios Dimitrios.

Family winemaking and the processing of wine at home in general presents very big differences compared to that of the craft or industry, as with the example of the Union of Agricultural Cooperative of Lemnos. The wine is left to mature in underground chambers dug into the earth, so that it acquires all those characteristics that make Muscat of Alexandria and Limnio one of the unique wines of the country. It is then stored in large wooden barrels, usually in the basements of houses or in basements as one finds them on the island. Nothing is wasted from the grape's derivatives: part of the must is boiled to make petimezi, which will accompany home-made sweets for the whole year, "tsampanara", the grapes harvested from the second harvest, which are a little more tasteless than the first, the ‘manna’ as they are called, creates retsina, and in the past they were used as an acidic substance for food. It is worth noting that in Lemnos, raisins from Muscat of Alexandria are used, not from Sultana as in other parts of Greece, which is also called ‘kook'ts'dati’ because of the pits in it. The special feature of raisins, just like in the case of cheese and figs, is that after drying they are washed in sea water and then, once dry, stored for the winter.