Cambas is a Greek winery, founded in 1882 and producing
wines ever since. The winery’s founder was born in Athens in 1851. In 1869, at
the age of eighteen, Andreas Cambas began planning his future in winemaking,
renting land from the Greek state on which to produce wine. Not long after, he
founded his first distillery, a small operation in his hometown of Athens, and
bought 5,000 acres of land for himself in the area of Kantza near the city.
Having founded his winery in 1882 it was less than a decade before Andreas
began to win awards, purchasing land in France to create cognac for the King of
Greece, Georgios I, and receiving gold awards from both Greece and France.
Cambas was the forerunner of Greek bottled wine, introducing the world to
their industry with little to no competition. Today the company is kept
alive by heir Roxani Matsa and oenologists of the Boutari Winery, maintaining
Greek traditions and vinological history in Andreas’ name.
This wine was produced in the Peloponnese, a wine region in
southernmost continental Greece home to incredibly varied landscapes of
mountains, beaches, hillsides and plains. The region is also home to Nemea,
known as the most important zone of southern Greece (in the wine industry) for
its quality red wines. This bottle hails from the AOC zone of Nemea within the
Peloponnese, and is named for the Nemean Lion – a mythological creature and the
first of Heracles’ (Hercules’) twelve labours. The lion was said to be
invincible; its fur was impenetrable by conventional weapons, and its claws
could cut through any armour. After slaying the lion, Hercules drank local
Nemean wine made from the Agiorgitiko grape – resulting in the wines made
from this grape being known today as the ‘Blood of Hercules’.
Roman mosaic of Hercules' first labour, on display at the National Archaeological Museum of Spain, Madrid