I will confess that I hadn’t visited Crete in over ten years, something I only recently realised, as deep down I think I’m still seventeen. However, this was not the only peculiarity of my upcoming trip to the island; it would also be the first time I would get on a plane again after eighteen months. The sense of ritual was more than pervasive in the atmosphere; a combination of anticipation and euphoria with a touch of fear. Departing from “Eleftherios Venizelos” in Athens, in less than forty minutes, I arrived to “Ioannis Daskalogiannis” airport in Ηania and from there by car to Rethymno.
There is no way for someone who wants to embrace the Cretan culture not to immediately succumb to the allure of tsikoudia. It is said that the frequency with which tsikoudia is offered in Crete rivals the frequency with which “kalimera” (meaning good morning in Greek) is proffered and the reality is not far from this claim, indeed. Over the years, tsikoudia has been a friendly welcome, a medicine, a comfort in sorrows, a companion in joys, always there, a constant you can always count on, a valuable ally. On the other hand, despite its popularity, it is also quite misunderstood. Its low cost, combined with its heterogeneous and often unclear raw material, has led to all sorts of abuses. After all, it is often said that reckless or immoderate consumption of tsikoudia causes dizziness and next morning hangovers. All this until today.
Talking about 35N Cretan Distillery, their eyes reflect sheer joy
The huge and modern 35N Distillery lies inside Pigianos Kampos, in Rethymno. The tour there soon turned into a particularly long visit, as when you meet people with sincere intentions, you end up spending more time with them than you expected. The team behind this project, namely the evolution of tsikoudia from a product often served in draft form to a bottled premium drink, consists of George Markoulakis, Ilias Melissourgos and Pantelis Fanourgakis.
George is cheerful, quick-witted and sharp. Ilias is exuberant and eloquent, while Pantelis combines lifelong experience with a youthful spirit, carrying an aura reminiscent of Stan Lee. They could easily be characters in a TV series, both for their relationship with each other and for their shared history. They’ve known each other for more than thirty years and have always shared a common dream, to take tsikoudia to the highest level of quality. They all have separate, day jobs and every investment in the distillery has been made at their personal expense. Their only motivation and gain is the realization of their vision.
Τalking about 35N Cretan Distillery, their eyes reflect sheer joy, they are modest and humble, but confident in their creation. As George says “Ilias did all the work; he created the distillery and experimented with many different grape varieties diligently and acquired tremendous expertise. He never made discounts on anything which is why we have excellent raw material; we throw a lot of product, keeping as much of the high purity spirit as possible. Moreover, we use excellent equipment: we have installed copper alembics, according to the standards of our German counterparts; we use steam and observe all the rules of fractional discontinuous distillation. When we started we thought we were going to do something small, but along the way it became something very big, it escaped the notion of spontaneity and got more professional. Everything mattered, from the design of the bottle to the target audience and our name, which stands for our planet’s geographical parallel 35N that crosses Crete from one end to the other. It is a very special name to us. We could never call our tsikoudia “Psiloritis” or “Minotaur”, for instance.”
Ilias is quick to add: “Our aim is for our tsikoudia to capture the senses with every sip, to create a kind of ‘cult’, as Millennials would say (Editor’s note: I am momentarily surprised to hear this terminology but the next moment I am self-flagellating as I realize how deeply ingrained some stereotypes are in us. Cretans may be people who honour and carry on their traditions, but at the same time they are aware of the times they live in). We want everyone who tries it to recommend it to their friends. If you have noticed, now, when young people go out drinking, they ask for specific liquor brands”, and continues, “Tsikoudia is a Cretan trademark but many times we have abused and misused it. In fact, over the years I realized that in many cases, the grapes discarded from the winemaking process were later used to make tsikoudia.”
“Call it stubbornness”
Describing events with fervour as if they happened yesterday, Pantelis narrates “Call it stubbornness. We’ve been traveling abroad every year for twenty-five years and have seen everyone’s local products take off. We were at exhibitions and wondered whether we were so far behind, whether we were doing something wrong? Why do we keep downplaying what we love instead of highlighting it? The quality of tsikoudia is not always what it should be, and even the way it is distributed (in plastic packaging, instead of glass) devalues it as a product and can even make it dangerous. The first preparations sprang from our personal quests. Friends would come by, we would offer a sample of our tsikoudia, and they would taste it, like it, then come back and ask for a whole bottle. This incident was repeated so many times that we decided we had to start our own production officially and en masse, which we did in August 2020.”
I think that, apart from being ambitious, the whole project also touches on a subject of great cultural importance: what does tsikoudia symbolize for Cretans, which is inextricably linked to the life and society of Crete? Let’s not forget that in the 1920s waves of immigrants from Asia Minor arrived on the island, in the 1940s there was a war, later came the Greek Junta, and after the 1970s tourism began to flourish, overturning years of daily habits, but tsikoudia has always been present. By the time the society took shape, tsikoudia had already established itself as the region’s signature drink. Will this group of friends be able to change the entrenched status quo and right a wrong? Time will tell, although the future is more than promising.
At 35N Cretan Distillery there are four excellent varieties at the moment:
- Blended: distilled from the best Cretan grapes from selected vineyards from the island, with a fully balanced aftertaste.
- Syrah: distilled from the French Syrah variety, perhaps their most distinctive tsikoudia, with earthy, warm and delicate aroma, and a velvety aftertaste.
- Moscato: distilled from the Moschato Spinas grape variety, with intense aromas that leave a long aftertaste. A very special tsikoudia that may not be to everyone’s taste, so try it before you buy it.
- Tsikoudia with honey: blended with mountain thyme honey, without the addition of artificial colouring. Sweet with a strong thyme taste and aroma.
