Sofoklis Vlassides: The Man Who Redefined Cypriot Wine

EPISODE 02 · WINE TALKS · ELIPACK PODCAST

Sofoklis Vlassides: The Man Who Redefined Cypriot Wine

A conversation with Sofoklis Vlassides, Founder & Winemaker at Vlassides Winery

About This Episode

Welcome to the second episode of Wine Talks, the Elipack Podcast series with the people shaping the Cypriot wine industry. In this episode we travel to the wine village of Kilani, in the hills above Limassol, and sit down with Sofoklis Vlassides, the winemaker many credit with redefining what Cypriot wine can be.

Known for his scientific background and his passion for innovation, Sofoklis started making wine 27 years ago in a small winery inside the village, before moving in 2012 to the modern winery that carries his name today, surrounded by family vineyards planted generations ago. His guiding principle has never changed: a winery cannot lie.

A conversation about honesty, barrels, technology, blind tastings, pricing, and the future of Cypriot wine.

🧬 A Winery Built on Honesty

"A winery, the moment you try to describe its character, basically brings out the character of the people behind it," Sofoklis explains. "In our case, the character behind our wine is honesty. I cannot lie as a person, and the winery cannot lie either. Whatever a wine truly is, that is the image that will reach the consumer."

That honesty has been tested over 27 years: from the first small winery inside the village of Kilani to the modern, purpose-built winery he moved into in 2012. "My steps were slow and steady, because I never saw wine as a business. If I wanted to make money I would have become an accountant or a lawyer. This winery and this wine are my life from morning to night; I cannot imagine doing anything else. I go to the gym a little, but nothing else."

📣 Marketing, the Vlassides Way

Vlassides is one of the most recognised wineries in Cyprus, yet Sofoklis insists marketing is not his strong suit. "Our strong suit is the work we do inside the winery, the effort to make good wine. Fortunately, in Cyprus the strongest marketing is word of mouth: the consumer tastes the wine, likes it, and goes and tells the friend at the next table."

The winery still invests continuously in social media, even if its founder laughs at himself about it: "If you look at the posts we make, I wouldn't even like half of them. That's how good I am at social media. But when you want to be a proper businessman you cannot ignore what is happening around you. The extroversion of a winery matters enormously: what you do, you must show."

And underrated wines? "Cypriot wine as a whole is underrated, that's the starting point. In our own portfolio, our Cabernet Sauvignon should have been priced well above our other reds for years, excluding Artion, our flagship. But at the end of the day it is we, the producers, who must promote a wine so the consumer understands what it really is."

⚙️ The Vlassides Innovations

"As a winery we are innovators. We are constantly searching, never at rest," Sofoklis says. Three innovations stand out, each one a first, or close to it, for Cyprus:

"Technological wine"? For Sofoklis, technology means the right machines, barrels and temperatures, never recipes or additives: "We want everything to happen as naturally as possible. In the old days the machines beat the grapes into pulp and fermentation extracted green, harsh, astringent notes. The new technology avoids all of that."

🍾 The Blind Tasting That Proved a Point

"In people's minds, French and Italian wine is very important, while Cypriot wine is still mediocre," Sofoklis says. "I disagree." Two weeks before this interview, he decided to prove it, hosting a blind tasting for seven friends who spend serious money on foreign labels. He deliberately paid roughly triple for the foreign bottles.

"The Cypriot wines were leagues ahead of the foreign ones. We are still trying to arrange the rematch dinner, because I embarrassed them. And whoever doesn't believe it, let them come; I'll do it to them too."

🍷 Drink It Right: Four Rules from Sofoklis

Asked about the biggest mistakes people make with wine, Sofoklis has seen them all, in restaurants as much as at home:

1. Temperature first: reds at 16–18°C, whites at 8–12°C. Served too warm, a red turns alcoholic and its tannins harsh; over-chill a white and its acidity becomes aggressive instead of pleasant.
2. No ice, ever: an ice cube simply waters the wine down, the biggest mistake of all. (One exception he happily allows: Commandaria on ice, his favourite winter drink.)
3. The 10-minute test: taste, leave the glass, come back. A truly good wine keeps changing in the glass, in aroma and in taste, as if you were tasting something new.
4. Ask for the vintage: on a restaurant list, hunt for older vintages; an aged bottle at €45–55 often gives more pleasure than a fresher, cheaper one. And his personal ceiling? "I will almost never spend more than €50 on a bottle."

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 The Next Generation

Who follows next? Sofoklis has three children, 17, 19 and almost 22, and, for the moment, "I don't see anyone coming to the winery. But never say never. My philosophy, and what I have passed on to my children, is that in this life we must do what we love. Nobody should work at something they feel forced into. They are studying what they truly love; what may turn and bring them close later, I cannot know. I hope."

He is honest, too, about what that means for the winery: "I admire, and I'll admit I envy, other wineries where I see the new generation coming in. Things unfold around you and more becomes possible. Vlassides Winery would be much further ahead if there were more people pulling alongside me. If I had a twin, or a triplet, I might even take a day off."

📦 Equipment & Partners: The Elipack Role

From grape reception to the bottle, Sofoklis keeps coming back to one theme: you cannot skip a single piece of the puzzle. "Equipment today is an extremely important part of reaching the best possible result. In our machinery, our bottling and our barrels we have Elipack behind us, supporting us so that we keep our product at exactly the quality we want."

The partnership runs through this episode: the Oscillys destemmer by Bucher that transformed the reds, the Ermitage Berthomieu barrels that respect the fruit, the bottling equipment behind every label. And, as the main sponsor of the Wine Talks series, Elipack now backs its partners on a front Sofoklis says he never expected: marketing.

💡 Advice for New Producers

"A difficult question," Sofoklis admits, when asked what someone starting a winery today should invest in. "The truth is that to make good wine you must invest in everything. But the most important investment, without question, is the vineyard." From there, four principles follow:

🍇 Visit Vlassides Winery

Completed in 2012 and built on the principles of sustainable development, the winery sits above the wine village of Kilani and welcomes visitors for tours and tastings.

📍 Kilani, Limassol, Cyprus

Building Your Own Winery?

From grape reception to bottling, the Elipack team is with you every step of the way, with machinery, bottles, closures, barrels and 24/7 service. Exactly as it's been with Vlassides for years.

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