Pyrgos Vasilissis: the must-visit winery in Athens

The most impressive winery we visited during the familiarization trip of the Attica Region was the old Tower of Queen Amalia! The Queen’s Tower Estate was born out of Queen Amalia’s vision of the establishment of a model agricultural facility, where innovative production methods were to be applied aiming to the modernization of the Greek agriculture. I will not refer to historical facts and information, as you can read everything on the official website of the estate. I will only share my own experience from this beautiful place, inside and outdoors, which literally traveled us to a romantic era of the past.

The guide started, of course, in the winery with the unbelievable wine aromas. After passing a beautifully decorated exterior environment with small stone buildings, we headed toward the also stone cellar with inox tanks. The person in charge informed us there about its history, their products and the production and bottling process with the use of the special machine you may see in the following photos. We continued our walk within the enormous field of 180 acres with one stop at the stables hosting racing horses. Apart from the horse stables, the estate mainly contains organic vineyards, olive groves and other kinds of trees like pistachio and almond trees, as well as aromatic plants, which are sold in the main hall of the estate. Our walk unfortunately had to be interrupted earlier, as it started raining and, therefore, we headed toward the Queen’s Tower.

The Queen’s Tower is the royal villa that was built in the place of a previous tower. The building depicts gothic style and was replicated according to Ηochenschwangau in Bavaria where Otto was born. The two buildings share a lot in common, despite their significant difference in size (more here). The truth is that during my latest visit to the Bavarian castle, I did notice lots of resemblances to the Tower of Athens, which comprises a national monument of the recent Greek history. Even from the well preserved garden, the whole atmosphere travels you back to the past, and immediately as soon as you enter, you may see decorative elements of that era. To visit the first storey, one has to first take of the shoes, wearing slippers so as to protect the wooden floor, and then go on a helicoid staircase. The decoration on the first floor is absolutely impressing, with intense colors and wooden details on the walls and the ceilings of the rooms, as well as colorful wooden furniture that nicely fits to the rest of the decoration. After a very interesting guided tour in the Tower, we returned to the main hall of the estate, where we enjoyed our lunch buffet, followed by wine tasting of bio wines accompanied with cheeses and spinach pie.