Achaia Clauss: Where Mavrodaphne Was Born

Stone buildings surrounded by greenery rise 500 meters above Patras at Achaia Clauss. The historic complex includes vast warehouses, stables and an impressive cellar filled with carved wooden barrels. The barrels carry the signatures of visitors including Pavlos Kountouriotis, Eleftherios Venizelos, Otto von Bismarck, Alexander Fleming, Empress Elisabeth of Austria, Aristotle Onassis, Omar Sharif and Melina Mercouri.

How much survived the recent fire is the question hanging over the site. Achaia Clauss is Greece’s oldest winery still in operation. The Bavarian Gustav Clauss founded it in the mid-19th century, and its buildings still stand like a fortified town beneath Mount Panachaiko.

Clauss arrived in Patras in 1854 as an executive at Fels & Co, one of the major German companies involved in the Corinthian currant trade. He fell in love with both a young woman named Daphne and the landscape of Achaia. His first love died from a serious illness before their wedding. In 1859, his second led him to buy 60 stremmas in Riganokampos, where he built a summer residence and planted vines. He named the estate Gutland, an inversion of the German word Landgut, meaning estate.

By 1861, Clauss had married Thomaida Karvouni, the daughter of King Otto’s aide-de-camp, and they had a daughter, Amalia. Gutland became the family’s permanent home, and Achaia Clauss was established. The company became a joint-stock firm in 1872, and in 1873 it bottled Mavrodaphne for the first time. The sweet wine is still made from red grapes using the same “secret” recipe.

Romantics believe the wine commemorates the dark-eyed Daphne. Others say its name refers to the grapes’ dark color and aromas of laurel, plum, raisin, fig, coffee, chocolate, cinnamon and walnut. Both sides agree that it is one of Greece’s most iconic dessert wines. Clauss died in 1908, and the winery passed to the powerful currant trader Vlassis Antonopoulos in 1920. Mavrodaphne continues to hold a leading place in Greek viticulture, thanks to a Bavarian founder.