Seiradi, otherwise known as the Paros Farming Community, is a cooperative cellar with the difference on the island of Paros in the Cyclades, just north of Santorini. Formed 100 years ago, constant evolution by the project has brought new viticultural and winemaking approaches to the island through investment and modernisation.
After 100 years, the cooperative is inextricably embedded in the social fabric of the island. With their goal to support the farmers of Paros, the cooperative has invested in the future and upgraded production facilities not only for the winery, but for their cheese factory and olive presses.
Across their activities, organic farming is practised, and beneficial wildlife encouraged to manage pests. A priority is nurturing soil health in the vineyards, with compost derived from winemaking helping to build a robust ecosystem. Those soils vary across the island, with granite and basalt at lower levels. Some vineyards climb to 450 metres where there is limestone on the east side of the mountain, and in red iron-rich soils on the west. Many vines are old and ungrafted, planted on terraces with naturally low yields. Fermentation is with wild yeasts, in vessels that include stainless steel, clay amphorae and cement ‘eggs’.
Wines for Curious Minds
With their slogan ‘Wines for Curious Minds’, the winemakers create some adventurous and unusual wines, focused primarily on the two indigenous grape varieties, the white Monemvassia, and red Mandilaria. Their website has a very contemporary feel, the texts showing a deft understanding of youthful international language.
I wouldn’t normally focus on the language used on a wine producer’s web site, but I was tickled by the contrast between photos of sun-burnished, craggy farmers holding new-born goats, and the vintage report for 2024: “By the time June rolled in, water reserves were at rock bottom, and the vines kept hustling through fruit set and cluster closure at record speed. We braced for the early harvest, but the real jaw-dropper? Yields nosedived across the board—every vineyard, every variety, every vine age. We clocked numbers between 22 and 45 hL/Ha. The kicker? No one saw it coming…”
The Paros Farming Community seems to be a very modern co-op in terms of wines, packaging and presentation, but just as importantly, in terms of thinking on aspects such as soil health and the environment.