Who We Are: Odyssey Of Wine Tours Inc., Exploring Wine from Ikaria, Greece

Welcome to our blog! We are thrilled to officially launch this space that will act as a way to connect with our community, sharing in our love of the island, and of course, wine from Ikaria, Greece. We will feature news articles relevant to Ikaria, as well as our own reflective pondering about the way in which wine seeps into our lives. 

My name is Mary Kate (hi!), and I am the co-owner of Odyssey of Wine Tours Inc., as well as a sometimes-writer and perpetual-literary-nerd. This blog will be written by me unless otherwise specifically noted, so thank you in advance for joining me on this journey, and indulging me in what is sure to be a lot of waxing poetic about wine (my specialty). 

Nikos and I created Odyssey of Wine Tours Inc. because we truly believe that Ikaria has something special, something that is increasingly rare to find in this very modern world that often leaves us feeling isolated and disparate. The island, to put it simply, is about connection. Connection to the earth, to ourselves, and to each other. Our tours were built around this simple tenant: to give an authentic experience of the island that we both love dearly, specifically through the lens of exploring the incredible wine from Ikaria. 

For context, Nikos Afianes is a native Ikarian islander, and as for myself, I am from suburban New Jersey. How we ever met in the first place is miraculous, and a constant reminder of my personal belief in the weird and wonderful ways that life opens itself up to you if you continue to follow your path. I suppose I should give a little background about myself, and how I got into the wine world in the first place. I appreciate your patience and promise that all future posts will not be as long-winded and self-indulgent as this one, but I hope that this gives you a better idea of who I am and why Ikaria means so much to me. 

My Story: The Weird and Winding Roads of a Wandering Jersey Girl

I have always been a curious person. Ever since I can remember, I searched for worlds through words first, books a truly fascinating way to travel and explore something other than the immediate two square mile town in which I grew up. Words alit something deep inside of me, they struck at the very core of me and unveiled facets of myself that I had not previously known how to name. Literature has, and always will be, my first love, and the lens through which I still view much of the world. 

After so much reading about life, I wanted to experience it for myself! That meant leaving my little New Jersey town and opening myself up to something different. When I turned 16, I applied for the Rotary Youth Exchange Program and was accepted, spending my junior year of high school in a small town off the coast of the Mediterranean in Spain. Everything was new, and vibrant, and overwhelming. I was constantly thrown into situations in which I felt like a total idiot, fumbling my Spanish words and grappling with an entirely new culture. I made lots of friends and even more mistakes, I felt cracked open to the world and to myself, and it was this one year that changed my entire life. Suddenly, I knew a new language, which carried with it an entirely different experience of the world. I loved new people; I had made new memories. I had experienced first-hand how travel can change you, shake you, and awaken you to more of who and what you are. 

I was hooked. I knew that I wanted to continue exploring the world, so I decided to move back to Europe for university. I attended Saint Louis University, although I never stepped foot on their Missouri campus. They have a small satellite campus in Madrid, Spain, and that is where I spent all four years of my college experience, studying International Relations and Political Science. I loved living in Madrid, it is still one of my favorite cities in the world. It is also where I fell in love with wine. In between classes, my friends and I would study together at one of the many nearby cafés around campus, all touting wines by the glass for approximately 3 euros (perfect for my student budget). Albariño, Txakoli, Rioja, Ribera… all wonderful foreign words to me at the time, which quickly became a second language that I learned fluently (and enthusiastically).

Although I did love studying International Relations, I found that after college I could not find a realm of work that felt satisfying to me. With stints in bureaucratic government and nonprofits, whatever inspiration I found from studying culture, language, and social systems, quickly waned into emails, paperwork, and disheartening conversations about the catastrophic status of the world. Certainly, there are people that are meant to do this incredibly important work, but I don’t think I am one of them. I felt whatever sheen inside of me start to fade, and I realized that I could not spend every day thinking about all of the things wrong with this world. I wanted to focus on the things that connect us, and to grapple with those romantic questions of what it means to be human, and what it means to live well. 

Wild and Precious Wine: That Which Sings Within Me

After having a quarter-life crisis over what the hell I am supposed to do with my one “wild and precious life” (thank you Mary Oliver ♥️), I re-evaluated my priorities. What are the things in this life that I love the most? What is it inside of me that sings with joy when it is recognized? I wanted to make a life out of that, whatever that was.

Literature. Travel. Nature. Culture. Gastronomy. People. These were the things that hummed inside of me, the parts of life that made me feel part of something larger than myself. And in this reflection, I realized that wine intersects with all of these things. It was then that I was “wit-struck by the thunderbolt of wine,” as the ancient poet Archilochus so aptly put, and I realized that I wanted to know as much as I could about this beguiling and ancient elixir. 

After moving back to New Jersey after graduation, I began taking wine education courses at the nearby Wine School of Philadelphia, while also working at a local vineyard. After two years of working with the basics, I was ready for more. I was accepted into a competitive Master’s program that brought me back to Europe, and even more immersed in the wine world. 

I received my Master’s in Wine Tourism Innovation (WINTOUR) through the Erasmus Mundus education program. Over the course of two years, my classmates and I studied in a different country and wine region every semester. I had the incredible opportunity to live in Tarragona, Spain; Bordeaux, France; and Porto, Portugal, all while experiencing each of their unique terroir and wine-making styles. It was an amazing program that introduced me to some incredible people and places, but I am most grateful to it for bringing me to my beloved Ikaria. 

The Wisdom of Wine in Ikaria, Greece: An Ancient Story

When deciding the topic of my thesis research, I wanted to continue exploring the dynamic relationship between wine and literature, the two fields I found most interesting in the world. While doing some research online, I came across Nikos Afianes’ paper, The Vine Which is in Ikaria, which detailed the long-standing history of Ikarian wine culture, with wine from Ikaria first being mentioned in Homer’s epic poems, The Iliad and The Odyssey. 

This really lit my nerdy little heart ablaze! Wine and ancient poetry? Sign me up! Not to mention the fact that Nikos still made wines in the ancient Greek method, creating a visceral connection to the rich wine heritage of the island and connecting ancient generations to modernity through a glass. I was enthralled. I moved to Ikaria in the spring of 2021 to work with the Afianes family at their winery, and complete my Master’s thesis. My thesis, entitled, “Storytelling in the Wine Industry: Reviving the Cult of Dionysus,” explored in further depth the connection of wine from Ikaria in relation to the mythology, philosophy, longevity, and ancient literary ties to the island. 

Living in Ikaria was another life-changing moment for me. I was welcomed so warmly by both the Afianes family and the rest of the island, and I felt that the work that I was doing was so connected to what I value in this life. Ikaria is one of the most special places I have ever been. The island, and its people, actually live the philosophy that they proclaim. It is authentic, in every facet: from the natural wine, to the healthy whole foods, to the spirited traditions, and to the relaxed island mentality. It is no wonder that Ikaria is one of only five “Blue Zones” in the world, places that are hotspots of longevity with the highest population of living centenarians. Who would want to die when you have such a connected and vibrant life? I have been lucky enough to have lived and traveled all around the world (30+ countries and counting!), but no place has struck such a deep chord within me as Ikaria. 

How Odyssey of Wine Tours Inc. Was Born: An Ode to Wine from Ikaria, Greece

After six months in Ikaria and officially graduating with my Master’s, I returned to the United States to continue my wine education and work experience in Napa Valley, California. I received my WSET Level 3 Advanced certification in wine, and worked at an amazing boutique winery for nearly three years. And though Napa is another incredibly beautiful wine region and taught me so much, I felt my heart yearning for Ikaria. At this point, I was still doing work with the Afianes family online, helping with copy-writing and marketing campaigns. But working online was not the same thing as being on the island. I missed the slow pace of the days, and the wide sea placid as olive oil. I missed the jugged cliffsides, and the long, warm nights of summertime. I missed watching the fig trees ripen in late August, their sweet scent permeating everything. I missed the people, and the wine, but most of all I missed how connected I felt to others and to myself, the sensation of true purpose and life-force flowing through me. 

I couldn’t stop thinking about Ikaria. I talked about it incessantly, I dreamt about it, I used my vacation time to return to the island. It was a place that had permeated me so deeply and prodded at me so insistently, that I knew I had to dream up a way to get back. I started asking myself some intentional questions: What would my dream job look like? If I could create something beautiful, what would it be? And the idea of curated tours to the island came to mind. A tour in which every wonderful facet of the island was recognized, and explored, a way to share the deep lessons of Ikaria with others, and to create a space of reflection and connection, the two biggest gifts that the island had given me. 

As I was writing up my dream business plan with the intention of presenting it to Nikos, the universe seemed to conspire in my favor, and Nikos actually reached out to me with the same exact proposition. It was a sign if there ever was one! We decided to make our shared dream a reality, and quickly got to work on creating tours that felt best representative of Ikaria from our point of view.

My experience of Ikaria is, of course, much different than Nikos’, whose family has been on the island for generations, and who built his life around creating wines that represent the place that he calls home. But we are united in recognizing how rare, how special, this place is. Both of us, from two totally different perspectives, seek to share the beauty of Ikarian wine as an invitation to slow down and to open up to connection. Our modern life, for all its conveniences, often leaves one feeling lonely. But there are still places, still moments, that have the power to jolt us awake, and to remind us of the peculiar gift of being human. We believe that Ikaria is one of those places. 

If you have read this far, bless you and your patience! I hope that you feel a little more connected to who I am, and to what Odyssey of Wine Tours Inc. stands for. Nikos and I hope to meet you soon, and warmly invite you on our tours to share in the magic of wine from Ikaria together.