Paros Herbs & Wine Tour

Transfer4h-4h30Lefkes

Description  Join us in a unique, light-walking tour with a strong botanical, gastronomic & cultural accent, in the countryside around Lefkes village. We pick you up from your hotel in our minivan and drive you to Lefkes, and start with a short tour of the traditional village, the heart of old Paros. Soon, we find ourselves walking along the Byzantine Way, a centuries-old marble-paved footpath to the next village. In an hour’s walk, you are introduced to the various herbs and edible plants that border our trail, and hear all about their culinary and medical uses past and modern, as well as their stories; our talk expands to the various aspects of the Lefkian agricultural life as we wander around the age-old stone-built terraces on the hillsides, where olive trees, vineyards and cereal crops are still grown.

We’re back to the village, and it is a short drive to a a farmstead by a small walled monastery (St. John Kaparos) tucked away in a leafy valley in the shadow of Paros’s mountains. Here, we walk around the lush valleyhead around the monastery to reach the tiered vineyards that have produced the famed Lefkian wine since the medieval times. There, we meet an enthusiastic young farmer who has, among other things, undertaken the restoration and rejuvenation of those highland vineyards; he will show us around, walking among his beloved grapevines and talking about their cultivation, local varieties and their characteristics and traditional methods of vinification, as well as other aspects of traditional agriculture.

After so much walking and talking about food & wine, you will probably have grown a good appetite: our wine-tasting picnic comprises a local cooked vegetarian dish, two distinctive Parian cheeses (‘graviera’ & ‘xinomitzithra’), salad, olives and traditional herb-braised smoked-ham, as well as generous tasting of four local single grape variety wines, including a monovarietal PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) white (from native ‘Monemvasia’ grapes), an award-winning rosé, a PDO red based on the local ‘Mandilaria’ variety & the medium-sweet ‘liasto’ (the sun-dried wine of Paros). You can also taste our local grape distillate, the ‘souma’ (similar to Italian grappa, but smoother) or a hot & sweet ‘rakomelo’ (‘souma’ with honey, clover and spices); both make excellent digestives.

You may also buy some of the great, mostly organic products you have just tasted, straight from the farmer-producer. The return to your hotel is a downhill drive to Lefkes with great views, followed by a short tour of inland Paros to Parikia or Naoussa.

More info or booking request? Ask here!

In a nutshell  [Paros Essence: Herbs, food & wine… from the source] Food/culture/tradition/countryside, easy, drive=5km (from Lefkes) & walk=3.5-4km , duration: 4h-4h30m (incl. stops).