Region & History

What is tsipouro, and why does it sit on nearly every tavern table in Thessaly and Macedonia? It's a Greek pomace brandy. After the grape harvest, the skins, seeds and stems are left over, and it's precisely this residue that gets distilled. The EU places it in the same category as Italian grappa.

According to tradition, monks on Mount Athos and in the monasteries of Meteora were the first to distill pomace. That's a legend, not a historical record. Common accounts say the craft spread in the 15th century into Macedonia, Epirus and the rest of Thessaly, wherever grapes have grown ever since.

Until the last decades of the 20th century, tsipouro was made almost exclusively at home, for the winemaking family and their neighbors. Selling it bottled was long prohibited. Only after Greece introduced an alcohol tax in 1883 did licenses become available, with the first ones recorded in 1896.

Today the EU protects three names: Tsipouro of Tyrnavos, Tsipouro of Thessaly and Tsipouro of Macedonia. All three have been listed in the register of protected geographical indications since 1989. Tyrnavos, a small town near Larisa, is the only town among the Greek names; otherwise entire regions carry the protection. The product specification's main requirement is that both production and bottling take place within the Tyrnavos area. Alongside this, there's been a general designation since 2008, Tsikoudia or Tsipouro, which applies to the whole country.

In Tyrnavos, trade directories list family producers such as Katsaros and Kardasis, as well as the town's wine cooperative. In Macedonia, Idoniko from the Costa Lazaridi estate near Drama is among the well-known bottlings. Labels usually show the protected names in both Greek and Latin script, for example Τσίπουρο Τυρνάβου alongside Tsipouro of Tyrnavos.