On 17 January 2025, the shares of Semeli Winery passed from Lyktos Holding to Hellenic Wineries, and the land and buildings to Premia Properties. The total price was €10.6 million, including part of the debts the buyers took on. The estate takes in the winery at Koutsi, Nemea, in Corinthia, 232,000 square metres in Nemea and Arcadia under vine, and a guest house of nine suites. It leaves the Sallas family for the group that already owns Boutari.
What was agreed
The deal separates the property from the business. Premia Properties took buildings of 6,850 square metres in all: a winery in Nemea, in Corinthia, of 5,512 square metres including its storage, and 1,338 square metres of suites with a multi-purpose room. With them went 278,000 square metres of land, of which 232,000 square metres, or 23.2 hectares, are under vine in Nemea and Arcadia. All of it is leased back to the existing Semeli company on a long-term lease.
The shares went to Hellenic Wineries, the parent company of Boutari Wineries and IOLI Spring. With them went the winemaking and the trade: the brands, the production equipment, the stock, the money owed to the company and its debts. Premia’s own announcement noted that the Nemea winery is known for its architectural design and construction, and has room to grow in wine tourism. That is an unusual point for a property company to make.
“SEMELI has completed its journey as a family-owned business,” said Michalis Sallas, chief executive of Lyktos Holding. “We pass on the stewardship of a company with a rich history and strong industry presence to Elias Georgiadis.” Georgiadis is chairman of Premia and chief executive of Sterner Stenhus Holding. He called the estate a distinguished asset in Greek winemaking and wine tourism, and thanked Sallas for entrusting its legacy to the new owners.
The winery at Koutsi
Semeli was founded in 1979. Its winery came much later: built in 2003, 4,000 square metres, gravity-fed, among the company’s own vines at Koutsi. It stands on a hillside covered in vineyards, with a long reputation for grapes of vintage quality. Gravity-fed means the wine moves downhill under its own weight. From pressing to barrel and on to bottling, the estate relies on gravity in place of machinery that might damage the fruit. The grapes are chilled to 7 to 8 degrees before crushing. This holds off oxidation and lets fermentation begin under the conditions the winemaker chose, not the ones the day supplied.
The vineyards lie at 600 metres on the slopes of Koutsi, which the estate counts among the most celebrated crus of Nemea. A cru is a named vineyard area known for the quality of its wine. Yields there are low, and the fruit and its natural acidity are in balance. Semeli also buys from growers at Asprokampos, Kastraki and Ancient Nemea under long-term agreements. It advises them on cultivation and pays a price that rewards quality.
Some details are easy to miss in a property schedule. The winery at Nemea is carbon neutral. Exports bring in 20 per cent of the company’s revenue, mainly from the United States and the United Kingdom. The nine suites stand among the vineyards and are given over to occasions, booked as a group and not by the room.
The valley
Nemea is an upland valley midway between Corinth and Argos, ringed by mountains, with vines planted among cypress and olive trees. Its name goes back a long way. In myth, Hercules performed his first feat in a cave in these mountains. The region later became known for its sanctuary of Zeus, for the games held every two years in his honour, and for a wine from neighbouring Phlius that was famous throughout ancient Greece.
Today Nemea is known for Agiorgitiko, its red grape, named after the village of Agios Georgios. It carries a Protected Designation of Origin, a legal mark that links a wine to the place it is made, and a tradition 2,500 years old. Nemea is spoken of as the most important appellation, or protected wine area, in Greece, and Semeli has been one of the names that upheld it.
A group built from Greek wine
Hellenic Wineries was founded in 2022 and has been buying Greek wine businesses ever since: Boutari Wineries, Scalarea Estate in Crete, Navarino Vineyards in Messinia, the Cambas brand, which it manages, and IOLI natural mineral water. Semeli Estate now sits among them. One of the benchmark wineries of Nemea is now part of a group that already owns a great deal of Greece’s wine history.
The structure is the part worth reading twice. Ownership of the land moved to a property company. The wine did not move at all. The vines, the cellar and the gravity that runs through it stay with the company that has worked them, on a long lease, under a group whose business is wine. In a valley where owners have long been tempted to value the hillside above the harvest, that is the more lasting arrangement of the two.
Who is this for
Semeli suits wine lovers who want to see a working estate in Nemea, and companies planning an event among the vines. The long, red-roofed winery stands on a ridge, with vines on every slope and a hazy mountain valley falling away behind. Underground, oak barrels lie in long rows under a slatted wooden ceiling, lit from below. Tours run every day except Tuesday and must be booked in advance. The estate welcomes visitors over 12, and all its hospitality spaces are accessible to guests with disabilities.
