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Top: My favourite (cheap) Retsina brand - Malamatina. Can’t find it in London (thanks @joycejonesdesign for driving me to stock up when we were in Chicago 😝) but heard they recently got bought by Red Bull, so maybe it will be in our supermarkets soon too.
Bottom: Greek Appetizers, their version of “cheese fries”, perhaps? 🙃
wine with a view | Mykonos | Retsina
photo by christofw
There is a particular kind of attention we pay to things that refuse to be modern. A bottle of wine that has not changed its nature in two thousand years asks something different of us than a label designed yesterday by an algorithm. It asks for a different kind of listening.
Retsina Malamatina Rose is such a bottle. It comes from Central Macedonia in Greece, made primarily from Roditis - a grape with pale pink skin and a disposition toward lightness, toward freshness, toward the honest admission that it is not Burgundy and does not wish to be. Into this wine, as Greeks have done since antiquity, a small amount of pine resin is introduced. Not as a flaw. As a signature.
The resin does not overwhelm. It speaks quietly, the way pine forests speak - present, a little cool, reminding you of something you cannot quite name. Around it, red berries and a whisper of citrus move like light through leaves. The wine is dry. The acidity is clean. Served very cold, perhaps at eight degrees, it becomes something geometrically simple and entirely itself.
I have been thinking about Wisława Szymborska lately. She had this extraordinary habit of finding in the smallest, most overlooked things - a grain of sand, a cat in an empty apartment, a medieval tapestry - a door into the infinite. She never reached for grandeur. She leaned toward the particular. She trusted the specific weight of a single object to carry the whole world inside it.
A 500 ml bottle of pink retsina would have interested her, I think. Not as wine, exactly. As evidence. As proof that certain human impulses - to preserve, to remember, to mark a taste with a place and a time - survive every empire and every forgetting.
The Bieszczady mountains in southeastern Poland have this quality too. They are not dramatic in the way that Alps are dramatic. They are quiet, rounded, covered in beech forests that turn amber and rust in autumn. They keep their silences with a kind of dignity. People go there to stop rushing. They go there, I think, for the same reason someone might open a bottle of retsina on a warm evening - not to be transported somewhere spectacular, but to arrive somewhere specific. Somewhere that smells like resin and cool air and the honest passage of time.
Wine and mountains share this grammar. Both reward the person willing to simply be still.
The Poles have always understood something about duration. About things that persist. Solidarity was not built in a day; it was built from years of quiet insistence, from people who refused to let go of something essential even when letting go would have been easier. There is a similar stubbornness in retsina - a refusal to modernize away the pine, to smooth it into something more immediately acceptable. It remains what it is. This, too, is a kind of courage.
I am not asking you to love retsina. Some people encounter that resinous note and it remains foreign to them forever, and that is completely honest and fine. But I am asking you to consider what it means to taste something unchanged. To hold a glass of wine that was already ancient when Rome was learning its alphabet.
Pair it with grilled octopus if you can. With white cheese and olives if that is simpler. Or pair it with nothing except the late afternoon, a chair, and the decision to be somewhere rather than everywhere at once.
That is already enough. That has always been enough.
If the bottle interests you, darwina.pl carries it - and you can find it there without any fuss.
darwina.pl
Dirigeants de Malamatina : Si l'usine n'ouvrait pas, nous irions à des licenciements massifs
Dirigeants de Malamatina : Si l’usine n’ouvrait pas, nous irions à des licenciements massifs
De Giorgos Lampiris La confrontation entre le nouveau propriétaire et une partie des travailleurs de l’historique Malamatina Winery se poursuit, tandis qu’un haut responsable de la direction parle de la forte possibilité de fermer définitivement l’usine, si l’usine ne commençait pas à produire après l’acquisition de l’entreprise par le groupe Mantis Emporiki. “Si l’usine ne commençait pas à…
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Malamatina : Du bord de la faillite, au nouveau propriétaire et à la lutte avec les syndicalistes
Malamatina : Du bord de la faillite, au nouveau propriétaire et à la lutte avec les syndicalistes
De Giorgos Lampiris Le cas de l’historique Malamatina Winery semble se développer sur un chemin long et toujours aventureux, qui prend désormais clairement des implications politiques, avec le soutien des membres du PAME et des dirigeants et députés de SYRIZA aux travailleurs qui ont bloqué l’usine d’embouteillage en Kalochori, Thessalonique, tirant des coups de feu directs sur le gouvernement…
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Οι συλλήψεις συνεχίστηκαν την Πέμπτη, με τη σύλληψη και του διευθύνοντος συμβούλου ενώ αποφασίστηκε συνέχιση της απεργίας μέχρι τις 31 Αυγούστου. Συλλήψεων συνέχεια και σήμερα Πέμπτη έξω από το εργοστάσιο της οινοποίιας Μαλαματίνα στο Καλοχώρι Θεσσαλονίκης, λίγες ώρες μετά τις χθεσινές σ...
The arrests continued on Thursday, with the arrest of the managing director, while it was decided to continue the strike until August 31.
Arrests continue today Thursday outside the Malamatina wine factory in Kalochori Thessaloniki, a few hours after yesterday's arrests of workers - trade unionists and managers.
However, those arrested yesterday were released, after both sides filed lawsuits, while today, seven more arrests were made, with the process of self-incrimination, of the company's executives, as well as of the managing director Nikos Keranis, after the lawsuit he filed the workers' union. Those arrested were also released today at noon.
At the same time, events in the wine industry have gone beyond the borders of Northern Greece, while hashtag #malamatina is among the first these days on Twitter. It is recalled that outside the company's premises there are still strikers, as well as their colleagues from other unions, resulting in the constant presence, as the Union emphasizes, of 70-80 people who support the strike. On Thursday morning, in fact, according to information from BusinessNews.gr, a general meeting of the company's employees took place in which it was unanimously decided to continue their mobilizations, until the end of the month, on August 31. It will be preceded, if there has been no development in the meantime, by a new general meeting of the workers on August 30, which will determine the course of the strike, but also give a "green light" for mass mobilizations during the International Exhibition in Thessaloniki at the beginning of September with a march in front of Vellideio.
Nikos Keranis: Reaction of the old to the new
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The CEO of Malamatina Nikos Keranis speaks to BusinessNews.gr about the problems that have arisen and have resulted in the production stoppage of the factory in the last twenty days, just a few months after its acquisition by the Mantis group: "What is happening in recent weeks I would characterize it with a sentence "the reaction of the old to the new". At this stage a minority of workers - trade unionists are trying to maintain their rights, at a time when the collective agreement we proposed not only ensures that there will be no reductions, but there is also an increase of 2%. Until now we have not realized that they disagree with what we propose" emphasizes Mr. Keranis,adding that he has even proposed the mediation of the OMED (Mediation and Arbitration Organization) in order to achieve a balance in the process of the new collective agreement.
In relation to the dismissals that took place in the previous period of time, he emphasizes: "Of the 4 who were dismissed, one returned with a fixed-term contract. The rest belonged to a department, the so-called distribution department, which is extremely unprofitable for the company and according to the business plan should be restructured. They were given options for other positions, but also the alternative of voluntary exit, only 2 accepted it."
The managing director also states: "We are open to suggestions from the employees, open to negotiation. But we are against sidewalk trading. We want to sit down, discuss, keep minutes, decide points that will be publicized. Our goal is to resurrect the company, to give the Malamatina brand its glory again and to take it even higher. That is why we have already made investments and will make even more".
On the part of the workers, at this stage it is still being requested to lift the 15 dismissals of the workers a few weeks ago, in order to restart the operation of the company, followed by the signing of a collective agreement for two years, during which the SSE as it was in previous years, with the employees granting the company 20% of their salary, for the sake of the consolidation effort.
"We are ready to work from the next minute in the company when the layoffs are lifted and to sit at the negotiating table, claiming, however, our rights as employees" emphasizes the President of the Workers' Union in Malamatina Yiannis Fragidis, adding that until now very few people within the company have signed an individual employment contract. According to information, however, the d. advisor goes to the factory every day, while there is not, at least until now, the presence of the heads of the Mantis group, to which the company belongs, Charalambos and Alexandrou Krommidas, President and CEO, respectively. Information, of course, wants Alexandros Krommidas to speak to the employees three months ago about the new era of the company, mentioning data about the consolidation plan, when nothing showed that this development would exist, a few months after the acquisition of Malamatina by the new owners. It is worth noting that Malamatina now counts 126 years of operation and according to its recovery plan, under the new regime, it is estimated to show net profits from the second year, with its turnover gradually increasing at an average annual rate of 3%, to rise to 14.7 million euros from the eleventh year. The consolidation plan and the investments It is indicative, according to what is mentioned in a recent information note of the company, after its acquisition, the investor assumed more than 13 million euros of obligations to Banks, the State, Insurance organizations and individuals. In fact, even before the decision was issued, from September 2020 the Group took over the financing of Malamatina, in order to continue operating. He emphasizes that without this financing, production would have stopped, as the suppliers did not have a product without a guarantee of collecting their money. He continues, arguing that "thanks to the group's support, theMalamatina , which before the consolidation agreement was on the verge of bankruptcy, managed in 2021 to buy and vinify more than 12,000 tons of grapes, at a total cost of approximately 3.5 million euros, in order to continue production uninterrupted." According to the data from the group, over 1.5 million euros are already the investments, within the first seven months of the acquisition of Malamatina, which were spent on mechanical equipment for the wineries.
The company's plan, in addition to the obligations it undertook, includes the implementation of significant investments totaling 12 million euros for the next decade, both in mechanical equipment and in fixed assets.
According to the group, "these investments far exceed the original plan and confirm the commitment of the Mantis group to significantly develop "Malamatina", taking advantage of its large distribution network throughout Greece, while aiming to expand the portfolio of Malamatina, with 100% Greek products, utilizing the treasures of the Greek land". The aim is to more than double the winery's net sales in the next five years, with the prospect of these rising to 20 million euros (against 9.5 million euros in 2021) and exports reaching 25% of its turnover. In fact, the establishment of a subsidiary in Germany is planned for the better promotion of its labels in the Central European market. Malamatina has already launched new wine labels under the name Filioma (White – Rosé – Red) as well as 2 new resins under the name REZINE (White and Rosé). Mantis Group: Who is the new owner of Malamatina
Having been present on the Greek market since 1974, the Mantis group, with its companies Mantis Trading SA, Fortis Trading SA and Attraction SA, is in one of the leading positions in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCGs) sector in Greece and is a from the distributors of soft drinks, alcoholic beverages and consumer products. The group is headed by the brothers Charalambos and Alexandros Krommidas . As stated on the company's website, the group is housed in modern privately owned facilities of 14,500m2 in Aspropyrgos, Attica and employs 150 workers.
Among the brands it sells are energy drinks such as Red Bull, Kalaitzis tsipouro, Tottis chips , Mm's chocolates, Twix, etc., while it distributes Aqua Carpatica water, Wilkinson razors and Hawaiian Tropic care products in the Greek market.
Πέντε είναι οι ενδιαφερόμενοι επενδυτές που πέρασαν στην επόμενη φάση για τη διεκδίκηση της χειμαζόμενης βορειοελλαδίτικης οινοποιίας Μαλαματίνα.
#Retsina #malamatina #villatina (på/i Villa Tina) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bz1JSeECCoGP8b6pFFTVyVpJ6NlP8KJtNCSWeo0/?igshid=kg0qt8gbzph0
