Philia Winery - Vassilis Alexiou

In 2016, Vassilis Alexiou returned to Samos after a decade running a restaurant in the Marais, Paris — a list built entirely around low-intervention growers before that approach had a name or a market.

He produced the first experimental vintage on the island with French natural wine importers, and in 2017 launched the Sous le Végétal project with the collaboration of Patrick Bouju (Domaine de la Boheme): an exploration of what the Muscat of Samos could become when worked with restraint rather than correction, in dialogue with the schist, quartz, and volcanic terraces of Mount Karvounis. The labels — Livia, Octave, Hupnos, Auguste, Semelle — found their way into restaurant lists across France, the USA, Japan, and beyond.

Philia Winery is the continuation of that project in a more structured, long-term form. Not a rebranding — a structural evolution. The same commitment to working without unnecessary intervention in the cellar, the same respect for the Samian terroir, but with the precision required to build something that endures vintage after vintage. Each label — Oriens, Omnis, Vulcanus, Amphora, Augustus — is built around the relationship between a specific site, a specific vessel, and time. Philia is the first natural winery on Samos, and it continues fully independently today.

Vineyard: All vineyards are estate-owned on the terraces of Mount Karvounis at altitudes between 400 and 980 metres. Soils vary by plot: Schist and Quartz (eastern terraces, 550–980m), Crystalline Gneiss (400m), and Volcanic soils (650m ravine). Farming follows Zero-Zero principles — no copper, no sulphur in the vineyard. Treatments consist exclusively of nettle tea and zeolite. All harvests are carried out by hand in late August. Several plots feature ungrafted centenarian vines over 100 years old.

Cellar: Spontaneous fermentation with indigenous yeasts only. Vessels used depending on label: concrete eggs, clay amphorae, and old oak barriques. No fining, no filtration. Zero additives. No SO2 added at any stage.

Certifications: No formal certification. All practices are beyond organic — Zero-Zero farming with no copper, no sulphur, no additives of any kind.