Go Greek - Go Macedonian Thrace Brewery!

 It being Greece, and summer and all, you can see some lovely ads for beers – Alpha, Mythos – who celebrate their cool drinks being  enjoyed by a cool coast, Alpha even going as far as to show scenes from Another Big Fat  Greek Wedding, to the delightful strains of Dimitris  Mitropanis singing, ‘Thes’. But don’t be taken in as I was recently when I fancied a cider. Given the choice of Strongbow or Milokleftis, I chose the latter to support our economy. Wrong choice – much too sweet!  And it is produced in Greece, by the subsidiary group Athenian Brewery, offering employment to around 900 locals, but the company is actually owned by the huge Dutch multi-national, Heineken, which also produces Alpha and Amstel, while Mythos is a product of Danish Carlsberg.

 I actually thought I had stumbled across a case of plagiarism or copyright infringement when I read about a cider in Ireland called ‘Orchard Thieves’ which sounds very similar to “Apple Bandit’ which is how the company translates the Milokleftis brand name. A little research revealed that the same cider is marketed by Heineken under similar, but different names: Malaysia has the ‘Apple Fox’, while Portugal enjoys the feisty ‘Bandida do Pomar’.

So, hold on a moment, do we actually have a purely Greek beer-producing company? Step right up, Macedonian Thrace Brewery, established in 1996 in Komotini, Thrace, by Dimitris Politopoulos who is the company Chief Executive Officer. Run as a family operation, it seems quite natural that on their website they talk of their different kinds of beer as ‘being born’!

                                                    

In 1998 Vergina Premium Lager, brewed in the Pilsner tradition, became the first 100% Greek beer with a Greek label.

In 2001, Vergina Red - initially brewed for their brewmaster’s wedding! – an amber speciality beer, came on tap.

The product family continued to grow:

 Vergina Weiss – brewed to the Bavarian tradition of top-fermented wheat beers.

Vergina Perfyra  - an unfiltered, limited edition lager.

Vergina XXX Black – an unfiltered, dry stout.                                                  

In ancient times, the natural spring waters from the mountains of the Rhodope range were renowned for their exceptional quality and archaeological finds have shown that some of the earliest beer fermentation in Europe took place in Thrace.

Macedonian Thrace Brewery aimed to craft a fine premium lager, to bring back to Thrace the lost art of beer craft. Much of the information and the pictures here are credited to their website: www.verginabeer.com.

Their development, however, has not been without difficulty. Athens Brewery (AB) took Macedonian Thrace Brewery (MTB) to court on the grounds of alleged perjury. The prosecutor, however, found this claim to be ‘totally false’ and lodged ‘with malicious intent’.

This was just one episode in a long, ongoing legal battle between MTB and Heineken/AB for anticompetitive market abuses in Greece. In essence, it was found that AB had employed a policy to exclude competitors from wholesalers and other retail outlets. For almost 20 years the company had used its dominant market position to thwart competitors, thereby contravening both Greek and EU laws. Consequently the subsidiary was forced to pay a hefty fine of 26.6 million euros.

 Taking on and smiting Goliath must have been a real strain on the time and resources of this David organization but, despite that, MTB has continued to thrive. It now operates one of the most technically advanced brewing and bottling facilities in Europe.

More diverse products are literally in the pipeline as the company continually quests to improve and diversify.  One new product is their Greek Mountain Tea with the delightful name, Tuvunu - literally ‘from or of the mountain’. This tea is infused with lemon juice, wildflower honey and brown sugar – a little added ice makes this just the right beverage to quench your thirst in these hot, summer days.

                                                               

And my quest to find out more about Tuvunu was to lead me on an exciting trip to the Rhodope mountains, north of Xanthe in Thrace   …………

                                                         

Our Macedonian Summer.

 It’s remarkable how summer, as for any longed-for event, takes its time coming, then seems to scarper on before we properly have time to savour it. We have had tragic news so far and some excellent news as well.

It was horrific to hear of the death of the American scientist, Dr Suzanna Eaton, while she was in Crete to attend a conference.  Thankfully the police found the killer but hearing the circumstances in which she died was very hard to stomach. The recent violent storms in Halkidiki also led to tragic loss of life: seven souls all told. Any loss of life is lamentable, but in the case of tourists and conference delegates, it must be particularly difficult for family and friends to countenance such devastating news.

After our heavy rains in June, the sun came out and the garden cheered us with blooms of varied shapes and shades. Below is the wild garlic, or allium, whose straggly plants I allow to grow in our rose garden because of its delicate pink florets. Alongside it is the beautiful morning glory, or ipomoea, of the convolvulus family, with its rich velvety flower and delightful heart-shaped leaves. I once harvested seeds and gave them to friends as Christmas gifts. Two years later they were bemoaning the fact it was taking over their gardens!

                                          

Last autumn Z did not give our acacia tree its usual severe pruning and our tree responded by providing bounteous blooms – delicate, fragrant power puffs. Our roses also respond to the heat by developing too quickly: the buds bloom and fade before we can fully enjoy them. But there is always fresh budding to follow.

                                        

 

Alas, the same cannot be said for some of our other plants. Below our fine cucumber vine can be seen scaling the frame, trailing its plump, sweet fruit. But as our temperatures began to nudge 40oC, within 48 hours that fine plant had collapsed, its leaves like parchment.

                                    

Prunella reclines  in front of our great rocket patch, its leaves in salad giving a fine sharpness in contrast to the sweetness of our tomatoes. Despite constant watering, the rocket, too, rapidly went to seed and was felled by the heat.

                                            

Fortunately we only saw the tail end of the well-documented storms that ravaged Halkidiki. That night we had an awesome display of lightning, eerily without any attendant thunder, distant as it was. We did not have the 100 km-an-hour gusts recorded down on the coast, but the wind was enough to fell stout branches and we had lots of windfall apples and pears. 

 

                                        

An entire row of well-supported tomato plants, were dashed to the ground. Here is Z raising and retying them - under the supervision of Mr Mao.

So, we have just finished processing the still-unripe fruit in chutneys, crumbles, juices and sauces.

                              

 

Thankfully our temperatures have dropped to a more comfortable 30oC mark. Still, it can be thirsty work and you have to conserve your energy in the heat.

 Leon, our resourceful doggie, has learned that, instead of walking round the back to access his water bowl, he can just use the big one to slake his thirst. And the livin’ is easy!

                                            

   

PS The excellent news is that Syriza, ding-dong like the wicked witch, is gone!   :)