In 1876, the Papaioannou family began to cultivate vineyards at the region of Nemea. The unique soil and the favorable climatic conditions of the area in combination with their continuously growing knowledge and experience in viticulture were the basis to develop the family business Papaioannou with great impact on the wine business in Greece and abroad. Papaioannou family invest in their products’ ultimate quality and hygiene, as well as in the delightful taste experience that they offer to their customers. Today, Papaioannou Organic Vineyards is a successful family business. After having experienced considerable success with a variety of wines, the youngest member of the family, Giorgos Mazos, the grandson of Thanasis Papaioannou, one of the first wine producers of Greece who launched their own private wine label, decided to focus on the production of their globally-recognized Corinthian Raisins and share them with everyone who appreciates excellent flavors. The sole condition he set to begin production is the qualitative differentiation in order to highlight the uniqueness of this historical product. Giorgos Mazos grabbed the opportunity to learn the secrets of currants from his grandfather, especially the secret that the black Corinth raisins used to dry in the shade and not the sun. Having in mind that secret, he began his first experiments for re-creating the genuine black gold of Corinth. Following the grandfather’s advices, Giorgos put small quantities of grapes on a series of wooden furniture, the so-called Skiades, where they are hanged one-by-one with great care in order to drain them. Thus, Papaioannou family and the founder of Golden Black, Giorgos Mazos, started producing Organic Corinthian Raisins in their vineyards, dried naturally in the shade, and not the sun, and at the same time they named it, properly and rightly, “Golden Black” referring to the classification of raisins as the “black gold” of Greece in the 19th century.

Raisins are a historic traditional product of the Greek economy, having a strong presence and involved in various social activities. According to historians, the raisins accompany mankind since the dawn of civilization. It is said that the raisins were discovered accidentally when people tried out of curiosity the dried grapes in the vineyards. The first organized cultivation of vines for the production of raisins was first reported between 120-900 BC. Among the best varieties were the dark currants cultivated in Ancient Greece. So, the Phoenicians and Armenians developed the trade of raisins with the Greeks and the Romans, and managed to trade it all around the Mediterranean region while, later on, the Crusaders brought the raisins in Europe. The cultivation of raisin contributed decisively in the development and support of the Greek economy and society. During the 4^th century BC, the Greek philosopher Aristotle makes reference to its cultivation in the area of northern Peloponnese while similar testimonies concerning the cultivation and trading of raisins took place in the centuries followed. The cultivation of raisins developed rapidly when Greece became an independent state in 1821, after the liberation from the Ottoman occupation. The rapid increase of the production during the 19th century can be mainly attributed to calamity of phylloxera, which destroyed the French vineyards. The Corinthian Raisin was the main export product of the newly established Greek state in 1830 until the second half of the 19th century while it constituted 75% of total exports, thus marking it the national product that was cultivated almost exclusively in the Greek region. The significant increase of the demand triggered an increase of the sales price, which resulted in a rise of affluence thanks to the exports of raisins and the producers enjoyed high incomes while the regions of Aeghio, Patra and Korinthos thrived. The state revenues were based mainly on the taxes on raisin and the public works were stopped or progressed depending on the raisins crop. During the second half of the 19th century, the time when the Greek state was under restructuring, raisin exports represented 75% of all Greek exports. The raisins played a key factor in Greece’s urban transformation as well as they served as the incentive to have some of Greece’s most ambitious urban projects, including the Corinth Canal and the Railway Network, designed and finally realized. The Corinth Raisin is a native species of vine in the Peloponnese since antiquity, an amazing product of high nutritional and gastronomical value offering a series of important benefits to the human body. It is a good source antioxidants and polyphenol ingredients and its also has particular concentration in magnesium, zinc and potassium, which is good for blood pressure regulation. The Corinth Raisin also has a very high proportion of herbal and dietary fibers that can serve as a substrate for beneficial bacteria in the large intestine by providing prebiotic properties, and thus helping in the proper bowel function and preventing the biosynthesis of cholesterol. The great advantage of the Corinth Raisin, however, is that it is being consumer with its bark, which is full of anthocyanins and other antioxidants.

The vineyards of Papaioannou family are located in the ancient region of Nemea and more specifically in a picturesque place 300 meters above sea level called Xirocambos, where they cultivate their vineyards exclusively with organic methods. The cultivation of their vineyards is always based on the exceptional quality of the grapes they gather, and that is why the acre output in kilos is maintained at a low level. The collecting of grapes, or in other words the “vine harvest”, takes place during the last 10 days of August. However, there is always a small divergence depending on each year’s weather conditions, because they need to let the grapes ripen to the point at which they reach their best quality. The grapes are collected into baskets and are transferred straight away to the place where our sunshades are located and immediately placed to dry. Right after the vine harvest comes the grape drying where they place the grapes on handmade sunshades called “Skies” or “Iskiades”. These are wooden structures with parallel stainless steel wires all along their width, while on their ceiling rows of rustproof metallic sheets are placed, in order to create shadow for the grapes to be dried. On the Skies, they carefully hang the grapes one by one, so the grape berries are not damaged and we thus lose some of their juices, causing a potential decrease in the quality of our final product. After they hang their grapes, the drying process begins, without exposing the grapes to the sun’s ultraviolet rays and of course without letting the grapes touch the ground. By this way, the vital sugars of the raisins are not destroyed since they do not come into direct contact with UV radiation from the sun. After 30 to 60 days with constant daily checking of the drying process, they begin to take the almost-dried grapes down from the sunshades and they carefully place them by hand in a threshing floor nearby. Afterwards, they leave them under the sun for one to two days, so the drying process can be completed. When the raisins are fully dried, they grate the grapes with special tools, trying to separate the stem from the berries and we separate them. They collect the Black Corinthian Raisins (Currants) and perform the initial processing on a machine called “Makina” where both very large and very small berries are shed, plus scraps are removed with light air pressure. Finally, the Black Corinth Raisins (Currants) are temporarily stored until their final processing and standardization.