Orestis Tsiakkas

The Climb

Training at Loughborough University and Montpellier SupAgro gave Orestis Tsiakkas the technical base for his early practice. The two schools point to a method shaped by discipline and curiosity, with study used as a tool for understanding rather than display. That foundation carries into a way of working that treats grape, soil and season as material facts of the winery.

Today

The title oenologist covers both wine making and viticulture in Orestis Tsiakkas’s work at the winery. In his words, "I wish to express these qualities through the wine I make and to help Cyprus rise in the global wine scene." The emphasis is on translation: taking what comes from Cyprus and carrying it into the bottle without losing the conditions that formed it.

Signature

Promara 2020 is one of Orestis’s signature dishes. It fits the larger method: indigenous varieties given attention, time and confidence, with the grape itself left to do the talking.

In Their Words “Cyprus offers a unique terroir, a captivating history and indigenous varieties that long pre-exist the ones brought from abroad.” “I wish to express these qualities through the wine I make and to help Cyprus rise in the global wine scene.”

Recognition

Orestis Tsiakkas has received Decanter wine magazine, one of the 100 best wines in the world (2020). Recognition here comes through the clarity of the problem being addressed. "We didn't know where to plant or how to make wine out of these totally new 'old' native grapes," Orestis Tsiakkas has said, a line that names the practical uncertainty inside both vineyard and cellar. Set beside his comments on terroir and indigenous varieties, it points to work organized around adaptation, not imitation, and around learning what the land can yield when it is read closely.