A SMALL WORLD. A VERY OLD VINE.
Some supplier relationships begin with a catalogue or a tasting appointment. This one began on an island, continued in North London and included one of those coincidences that makes the world feel remarkably small.
A Greek meze feast in front of the Acropolis.
BEFORE GREEK TINGS HAD A WINE LIST
In 2023, the year Yannis met Shelley, they travelled around Evia—Yannis’s home island—to explore its food, wine and landscape.
During the trip, they visited two wineries: Vriniotis Winery in the north of the island and Lykos Winery. The visits were filmed for Yannis’s YouTube channel, which was very active at the time. The channel is still there, although these days most of that energy is devoted to running Greek Tings.
At that point, there was no supplier relationship to establish and no wine list to fill. It was simply an opportunity to meet the people behind the bottles and understand the land from which they came.
Neither of us knew how important those visits would later become.
WHEN EVIA CALLED LONDON
By the summer of 2025, Greek Tings was in one of the busiest periods of its events calendar.
Then a message arrived from Lykos Winery. They had released a new label and wanted to know where we might be able to find it in London or elsewhere in the UK.
The nearest suggested shop happened to be closed, so Yannis and Shelley travelled to North London and visited Grecian Artisan Wines instead.
There, they met Maria—and, later that year, another Yiannis.
Not only was this second Yiannis also from Evia; he came from the same town and even the same neighbourhood as Greek Tings’ Yannis.
Two people from the same small corner of a Greek island, meeting years later through a specialist wine business in North London.
It is a very small world—especially when Greek wine is involved.
WINES WITH SOMEWHERE TO COME FROM
Grecian Artisan Wines specialises in small-production Greek wines, distinctive indigenous grapes and family-run wineries whose work deserves to be seen far beyond Greece.
This is precisely what makes the relationship so valuable to us. We are not interested in choosing a Greek wine simply because it is Greek. A bottle must have character, a sense of place and a genuine reason to be served alongside our food.
Through Grecian Artisan Wines, our selection can include producers such as Vriniotis, Lykos, Samartzis and Kir-Yianni, among others.
It also allows us to introduce our guests to grape varieties they may never have encountered before: Vradiano, Mouhtaro, Mavrokountoura, Malagousia, Assyrtiko and Xinomavro, to name only a few.
These are not wines designed to imitate what is already familiar. They express different soils, climates, traditions and ways of making wine.
THE GRAPES GREECE REFUSED TO LOSE
Some of these bottles preserve more than flavour.
Vradiano, a historic grape variety from northern Evia, came close to disappearing before being cultivated and brought back into production by the Vriniotis family. Today, it offers drinkers the opportunity to experience a grape that might otherwise have been lost.
Samartzis works in the Valley of the Muses beneath Mount Helicon, an area with an exceptionally long history of viticulture. Among its wines are expressions of Mouhtaro, another rare native variety with a character quite unlike the international grapes most people already know.
Lykos, meanwhile, grew from a family tradition of making wine for the family tavern. What began with grapes pressed for the restaurant eventually developed into a modern winery without losing that connection between wine, food and hospitality.
That connection matters to us. Wine should not feel separate from the meal or presented as a display of knowledge. It should make the food—and the occasion—more complete.
A barrel with win, the grapes and of course an ancient temple
FROM THEIR BOTTLES TO OUR TABLES
Since that first visit, Grecian Artisan Wines has become our supplier for Greek wines and a genuine collaborator.
We have created food for their wine tastings, worked together at pop-ups and used their portfolio to build pairings for our own events. It means we can select wines around a particular menu rather than treating the wine list as an afterthought.
Shelley’s knowledge allows us to explain what is in each glass, why it was selected and how it connects with the dish beside it.
For many guests, it may be their first taste of a particular Greek grape. That deserves more than simply opening the bottle and pouring it.
AND WHAT ABOUT THE FRENCH?
Yannis will happily argue that many of these wines can stand above their better-known French counterparts—and not only because he is Greek.
France did not invent wine, after all. It was simply very good at making the world talk about it.
Greek wine does not need to imitate that story. It has thousands of years of history, remarkable native varieties and a new generation of producers making bottles that are precise, expressive and entirely their own.
The pleasure is in putting one on the table and allowing the wine to make the argument for itself.
A CONNECTION THAT CAME FULL CIRCLE
This relationship began before Greek Tings existed, with two winery visits on Yannis’s home island.
Years later, a message from one of those wineries led us to a shop in North London, a meeting with Maria and an unexpected connection with another Yiannis from the very same neighbourhood in Evia.
Today, those wines accompany our food at tastings, pop-ups and private events across the UK.
From Evia to London—and from their bottles to our guests’ glasses—it is difficult to imagine a more fitting journey.
