Ezousa

Michalis Constantinides is a young man who studied Chemical Engineering at Athens Polytechnic, with specialization in Foods and Drinks and the Environment, and then did postgraduate work in Business Administration. He will certainly need all these qualifications at his new job: he decided to set up business as a winemaker in the shrinking village of Kannaviou – another victim of urbanization.

The environmental aspect of his studies will also prove useful for behind the building that houses his winery is the Ezousa river whose flow is in danger due to the completion of a near-by dam, the Ezousa dam, built by the state's agricultural authorities. The young man's ambitions are wine-related: he hopes to increase his four hectares of vineyards to over ten so as to be almost self-sufficient in grape production; he hopes to treble his production of wine, now standing at 52 thousand bottles a year; and he hopes that eventually he will only need to buy grapes from 2 or 3 specific growers, as a permanent arrangement, rather than rely on random sources, which entails a number of risks.

Michalis Constantinides's winery at Kannaviou is yet another link in the really long chain of Cypriot wine-producers – a chain that gets longer year by year as new players join the wine poker that is currently being played on the island.