The vineyards of Cephalonia

Kephalonia vineyards

The vineyards of Cephalonia, the Ionian island, cover a total area of just 750 acres. They climb up to 800 m on the western slopes of Mount Enos and yield the noble white variety of Robola, a unique cultivar in Greece that is trained into traditional, low-trunk goblets. This variety thrives on the poor, calcareous soil of the island’s southern and central mountainous and semi-mountainous terroirs where, until recently, the variety was cultivated in its self-rooted form. Following the appearance of phylloxera on Cephalonia in 1988 efforts begun to replant the vineyards using existing stocks that had proved resistant to phylloxera. The red variety of Mavrodaphne, used in the production of the homonymous dessert wine, is cultivated at lower altitudes, as is the Muscat White variety.