Ten years after founding Oenops, one would expect Nikos Karatzas to be talking about growth, exports, new markets, investments and plans for the future.

Instead, apart from his wines, he talks mainly about the people behind them and the hard work that goes into making them. He speaks about the growers he knows better than ever before, about a team that has developed alongside him. He talks about the need to listen to each vintage rather than trying to dominate it. Even when describing how he imagines himself ten years from now, his first wish has nothing to do with wine.

“I hope to be healthy and more balanced. To be able to balance work and life even better.”

He pauses.

“We are five years more mature [than the last time we talked] … We have spent five more years alongside our growers, which means much better results in the vineyard. We have become stronger as a group. I have invested a tremendous amount of time in people and in how we can work together as a team.”

The maturity he describes is not about wine. It is about the way an organization functions, and about the way one approaches work itself. And perhaps that is why one of the most honest answers in our conversation concerns something he feels he did not do well enough in the early years.

Pinelopi Katsatou: What would you change if you were starting all over again today?

Nikos Karatzas: “I would change the way I approached marketing. I believe very strongly in word of mouth. If you ask around, people will tell you, ‘These wines, these people.’ But that also needs to be communicated. Marketing is something we are only now beginning to pay attention to.”

This admission is interesting because it comes from someone who has managed to build one of the most recognizable Greek wine projects of the past decade. At the same time, it explains something else: Oenops was not built around a business growth plan, but around relationships.

The same becomes evident in the way he perceives the role of the winemaker. Years ago, he described himself as being “invisible” in the winery. The phrase still resonates with him today.

PK: What does it really mean to be invisible in winemaking?

NK: “Being invisible does not mean that I am not there, literally doing the work. I want you to taste Vidiano and get the taste of Vidiano. I want you to taste Assyrtiko and get the taste of Assyrtiko. There is the makeup artist who comes in and completely changes your features, and there is the one who helps you look as much like yourself as possible. I am the second one. The winemaker is not there to impose himself on the raw material but to help it express itself. You cannot make grapes better after they have been harvested. The only thing you can do is not ruin them.”

PK: How important is it for you to follow the vintage?

NK: “My philosophy is to react to what happens. We do not determine what happens. A warmer season comes along? Then I need to change things both in the vineyard and in the winery. There cannot be a single protocol that applies everywhere.”

This approach is also connected to his decision to invest in Greek grape varieties, a choice that was far from the obvious one in Drama ten years ago.

“For the region, it was groundbreaking. We put out the word loud and clear that we work with vineyards belonging to growers willing to collaborate and that we invest in Greek varieties. Today, I’m happy to see more and more people following that path.”

PK: What habit would you most like to see change in Greek wine culture?

NK: “The fear of trying something new. There are people who are afraid to order a wine outside the four or five very well-known wineries. You should not be judged for choosing a label you do not know. The worst thing that can happen is that you drink a glass of wine that you don’t like.”

PK: Can Drama develop a more complete wine identity?

NK: “Yes. Progress has been made. The next stage is how we can turn it into a complete experience. To be able to say: I want to go to Drama because I will visit wineries, eat well, hike in the mountains and get to know the place. We’re still missing that piece.”

PK: Were there any certainties you lost along the way? Things you believed when you started that you see differently today?

NK: “Nothing has changed in my mind. I left the moment I felt something was no longer mine. In that sense, I always work as if it were my own. Even in the army, when I was doing my military service, they would give something and I tried to take it to a different level from the one I inherited. That’s how I operate. Wherever I am, I want to leave things better than I found them.”

PK: Do you think we have made wine more complicated than it needs to be?

NK: “I believe Greek wine needs to be demystified. It needs to move away from excessive pretension and rediscover its natural place at the table. In Italy or France, wine is part of everyday life. People are not afraid to open a bottle. Here, we’ve often made it excessively serious or excessively expensive. And that distances consumers.”

PK: What is wine, ultimately, for you?

NK: “For me, wine has never been a basic necessity. It’s something much greater than that. It’s part of the experience, part of the moment, part of the table, part of the company of friends. What we often forget is that wine can add value to a moment and transform it into a memory. That is where its true essence lies. That is what we try to serve through our work. To focus not only on the wine itself but on the entire ecosystem around it: the people, the place, the experience.

“Today, the overall quality of Greek wine has improved dramatically. It is difficult to find a truly bad wine. The real challenge is no longer quality alone. It is to keep wine accessible, vibrant and genuinely connected to the experience of food and companionship. Because that’s where it truly belongs.” ●