October 15, 2009
Love Letter from Crete # 9
Welcome to our latest edition of Love Letters From Crete
Inside you will find:
• Places to See - Vai Beach
• Cretan Culture - The Sitia Red Wine
• For Travellers - Matala by Ana C from Brazil
• Our Villages - Dafnes Village
Vai Beach
Vai is a beautiful unpopulated beach of fine sand and pebbles at the far eastern tip of Crete. It has a unique and luscious palm forest of a species found only on Crete.
Even without these wonderful tall, leafy palms, it is a spectacular beach with clear, clean water, excellent snorkelling and plenty of room for everyone.
Vai does not have a village or accommodation, in summer season the car park is full of temporary services such as food, beach gear, cameras and drinks. There are beach chairs and umbrellas to rent, and the nearby monastery runs a restaurant right on the beach which serves delicious traditional Greek food.
The beach itself is worth the drive of 25 kms from Sitia, and the palm forest, now protected by the EU, is well worth the visit. Nestled into a valley behind a fresh water pond and creek, the palm forest is home to local birds and animals such as the shy Cretan Marten, a small native mammal like a stoat which we saw darting out of the bushes as we walked near the forest.
This palm forest is the largest in Europe, the palms are Phoenix Theophrastii and are unique to Crete.
Windsurfing and jet-skiing are popular here, topless bathing is common and nudist bathing is popular at the south end of the beach. This is not a beach for the faint-hearted, it gets really, really crowded in summer.
We visited in November and there were hardly any people, yet beach chairs still available and the restaurant open.
We visited again in January, the beach was closed and there was not a soul in sight. The bus service is virtually non-existent in the off season. We hitched a ride back to town on a little open-topped work truck. Ahh the joys of travelling, free as birds!
Wildflowers line the roadside, and traditional farming surrounds the palm forest reserve. The locals are very proud of the bananas grown in hot houses here, in fact all over Crete they refer to the bananas grown here with pride.
The village of Palekastro, on the way to Vai from Sitia, is 6km from the Vai beach, there are plenty of cafes serving local food and there is a folklore museum.
The beach of Kouremenos, just 5 km from Vai, is a pretty beach, drawing visitors for its clear waters, great diving, fresh seafood and wind-surfing. There are plenty of rooms, villas and accommodation at this beach.
Sitia Red VQPRD from Eastern Crete
The Art of Greek Winemaking
The Union of Agricultural Cooperatives of Sitia represents almost all farming families in the Sitia region of eastern Crete whose main activities are olive oil and wine production. This region produces some of the best olive oils and wines in Crete.
“The mountainous ecosystem of the Province of Sitia is one of the best in the Mediterranean for the cultivation of vineyards. The minimal changes in the yearly temperature and a relatively stable humidity, combined with the constant presence of sunlight provide the ideal environment for the varieties vilana, moschato, thrapsathiri and liatiko.” says Marios Lygkonis.
Sitia Red has a deep red colour, an aroma of red fruits, characteristic bouquet of vanilla and cinnamon and a very good body. It gives a spicy taste with a characteristic flavour of fresh-ground pepper. It has a long aftertaste. This wine perfectly accompanies nuts, red meat and spicy food, strong fatty cheeses and spicy cooked fish.
Sitia Red is the dry VQPRD wine of the Sitia region. VQPRD stands for Vin de Qualité Produit Dans Une Région Déterminée which means Quality Wine Produced in a Specified Region.
This red is made from eighty percent liatiko and twenty percent mandilaria varieties. Liatiko is an early ripening grape with a soft red colour. Its name is derived from the Greek word for July. It is believed to have been a traditional component employed in the byzantine sweet wine malvasia, one of the few red grapes to be used in this process.
According to Miles Lambert-Gocs, liatiko is a “variety whose lineage goes so far back that Greek ampelographers regard one variant of it as the ancestor of the Corinthian grape used in Greece since ancient times to make currants.” Liatiko provides wines with high degrees of sugar.
Mandilaria, the second component variety of Sitia Red is the most widely planted red variety in the Aegean. It provides deep red wine and the flavor leans towards tannic. It is generally, but not always, low in alcohol, which balances perfectly with liatiko. Selected grapes from mountainous and dry parts of Sitia province with low yield are harvested by hand to produce this beautiful wine.
Source – Mr Marios Lygkonis, Export Manager of Sitia Coop - sitiacoop.gr
Matala by Ana C from Brazil
October 2009
Dear Katia and the We Love Crete team,
Here we are to ensure the choir of the ones that love Crete. We do! Absolutely we do!
We have just come back home and we must tell you that we had an amazing time in Crete ever. There is nothing to complain about, as well as there is nothing to regret about our decisions regarding to our travel in Crete. We are just very sorry about being back home so early…
|
We lovely thank you Katia for your support. That was something inestimable.
In our heart and dreams Crete is the ultimate place to go back in our next vacation. Including because there still many places to visiting that we missed this time… That was just impossible to visit the entire island in 6 days.
We would like to thank you also for suggesting the Iliaki Pension in Matala. Antonia was just an amazing hostess: nice, simple, and sweet.
|
If I could, I would like to suggest to you to include the lovely restaurant in Matala of Anna and Alex in your records and website. She is a Grete woman that is married this Macedonia´s man and they have a great restaurant in Matala (Anna and Alex Restaurant). The same way as Antonia´s pension: nice, good price, well served, and great food.
The ferryboat to Santorini was very nice as well.
|
Finally, we would like also to send to you some photos that we did during our stay in Crete. We are sending the pictures graciously. Thanks for being helping hands during our trip planning.
Looking forward to a sooner return in Crete and meeting in the Piece of Heaven on Earth.
All the best,
Ana C from Brazil
|
|
Dafnes Village
Dafnes Δαφνές is 18 kms from Iraklion, south by the national road.
Dafnes is a proud Cretan village in Iraklion prefecture, surrounded by other villages Venerato, Avgenikí, Kerasia and Síva. The dimos local government is Palianí Παλιανή, named after the nunnery on the outskirts of Venerato.
Dafnes sits along a ridgeline looking over the foothills of Mt Psiloritis, surrounded by gently sloping valleys. It is an agricultural centre busy producing sultanas, grapes, wine, spirits, vegetables and olive oil.
The name comes from daphniwhich means laurel. This is a tree that was growing in the chapel of the village.
The village sits just up from the national road with access to both Iraklion and the thriving agricultural valley of Messara. Dafnes has been on the trade routes of the island for many years. Since the 13th century it has been known for its dafniano wine.
Today the famous red wine VQPRD 'Dafnes' is produced by the Agricultural Cooperative of Iraklion, from liatiko variety.
The hub of village life is the kafenion, of which there are plenty in Dafnes. The central plateia is shaded by beautiful large eucalyptus trees, and ringed by cafés and kafenia. On one side of the plateia is the small church of Agia Zoni Agios Nikolaos, a beautiful rough stone church dating from 1685.
As a centre for winemaking, Dafnes has a few different wineries including Douloufakis and Vergitsis wineries. See our wine page about the wine grown here. The industry suffered in the mid 80s with the phylloxera virus, forcing winemakers to plant American rootstock. This initial problem has proved a long-term gain for Cretan wine, as a wider range of varietals are now grown all over the island, resulting in tasty modern wines.
The village and the whole region celebrates in a week-long wine festival. This year the festival runs from 29 June to 8 July 2007. There is plenty of Cretan music, dancing and wine drinking to enjoy.
A nearby gorge forms part of the European walking trail E4.
See our page about nearby village of Kerasia for more descriptions of the area, and our food page which talks about village life, foods and rhythms.
Close by are the other wine regions of Peza and Archanes, and of course the ancient Minoan site of Knossos. To the south by the national road lies the town of Mires. It is easy to reach this town in the centre of the Messara plain within a one hour drive, and close to it are the sites of Festos and Gortys.
Also within driving distance is the mountain village of Zaros.
Dafnes is a truly authentic Cretan village.
Something that you wanted to see but didn’t find? Contact us to request it.
Looking for a specific place? Have a look at our interactive map.
Evíva!