Along this route, a fenced off bern is visible, a short distance above the village Ambelouzos (placename related to vines), which carries obvious signs of a cultivated vineyard. The fenced off bern used to protect the vineyard, while the berns themselves maintained the soil and aided cultivation. Everything suggested a “venetian” (well-curated) cultivation.
To the west of the Ploutìs settlement, one can see the interior walls of five constructed pressing vats, which had survived till the beginning of the 1980s according to testimonies by local residents. A few meters further down, a large rock carved collection basin and some circular constructions seem to suggest vaulted installations for the fermentation of wine. Cool fermentation (subsoil temperature 14-15° C), probably dating from Hellenistic times. Cool fermentation was “discovered” in the US in the previous century. There is a natural fountain very close to the settlement, which produces “apyronero”, i.e, water containing sulphur. This is due to the bedrock the underground water passes through, which contains gypsum (calcium sulphate). The “apyronero” or gypsum in the area may have been used in the Middle Ages to keep wines from spoiling during the voyage all the way to the markets of Europe. The well-cared for vineyard, the large pressing vats and the sulphuric minerals of the area provided an advantage, and therefore wealth to the local residents.
According to written sources, three wine merchants can be identified in the Middle Ages under the last name Mezzapetas –which exists to this day as Matzapetakis. It refers in fact to members of the same family, who lived in the area of Ambelouzos until the middle of the previous century and sold wine to Lviv in Ukraine. “The Greek from Candia, Emmanouel Mezzapetas was one of the first Greek residents of Lviv and he first appeared in the city in 1587. At the end of the 16th century, Michail Mezzapetas would sell Cretan wine. In 1615, Konstantinos Mezzapetas was found among the residents of Lviv, was the owner of businesses and took an active part in the life of the brotherhood of Lviv... The best wine quality was obtained from the malvazia (malmsey), which was carried back and forth a lot...” (Stelios Manolioudis, 2014, Wineroutes in the cultural landscapes and the Malvazia of Crete.) Viniculture today is still thriving at the hill of “Orthi Petra” [‘upright stone’]
